Once you’ve completed your assessments, the examiners begin the process of marking your work. This is a process with several stages, making sure that your work is assessed fairly and transparently.
Stages of marking your work
- Initial marking is done anonymously, where practical. All exams are marked anonymously, all computer-aided assessment software has anonymity enforced, and where anonymity is not practical, the verification step that follows is more intense.
- Verification is the step in which your lecturers check each other’s work, to ensure a standard approach.
- For major project modules, all assessed work is verified by a ‘double-blind’ marking procedure - that is, graded independently by two different markers, who then come together to agree on a final mark and provide feedback. (If they can’t agree, your Head of School will appoint a third independent marker, who will steer the process to a fair and consistent result.)
- For modules where your mark depends on a single piece of work, or where anonymity has been impractical, all assessments will also be graded under the double-blind marking procedure.
- For other modules, 10% of all assessments (from a minimum of 6 pieces and a maximum of 20) will be randomly selected for verification. The sample will cover a range of marks to provide a comprehensive assessment. For these modules, a second staff member will review the selected assessments to ensure that the marks are fair and appropriate. If the second marker disagrees, a third marker is brought in to finalise the marking process for the module.
- If we can’t agree a final mark for a particular assessment, using this verification process, the assessment will be referred to your course’s Subject External Examiner for their opinion, which will influence the Module Assessment Board’s decision.
- Feedback will be available to you once marks are verified. There’s still a chance the numerical score will change at this stage, depending on the Module Assessment Board’s decisions, but this is rare.
- Module Assessment Boards then consider all the marks given for each module’s assessments, confirming the marks awarded, applying any moderation, and reporting your results to you and to the Board of Examiners.
- The Board of Examiners is the final stage of the assessment process. Once the Board of Examiners approves the marks your assessments have received, your marks can be considered confirmed.
Some medical accrediting bodies also require a standardisation stage, to ensure our marking is fair and consistent with other universities offering comparable courses. If your course is accredited by the General Dental Council (GDC), General Medical Council (GMC) or General Pharmaceutical Council (GPC), your module coordinator will have let you know early in your studies.
Read more about what your results mean
For a full explanation of how your marks are calculated, and what your marks mean at each stage above, visit our Understanding your results page
Feedback
Feedback on your assessments, including examinations, is crucial for your learning. Following an assessment, you should receive your feedback within twenty working days of the submission deadline or the examination date.
(If there’s an unexpected delay in providing feedback, your Module Coordinator will let you know why, and when you can expect your feedback.)
Your feedback will:
- give you insight into how well your work met the assessment criteria and learning outcomes.
- highlight the major strengths of your work and suggest ways to improve your mark.
- include information on your original mark and any penalties applied, if relevant. At this stage, your mark or grade is provisional, and may be subject to change or moderation until it is finalised by the Module Assessment Board.
You’ll be advised on how to collect your work with feedback. Remember, there’s a time limit for collecting your work, which will be long enough to give you a fair chance to collect it – but after this period, it will be confidentially destroyed.
Sometimes your written feedback will be supplemented by oral feedback, which may be provided to you individually or to you as part of a group.
If you submit work after the published deadline, and after any automatic externation period, without valid extenuating circumstances, you forfeit your right to receive feedback on that work.
In relation to academic support, feedback on assignments was always timely, thorough and insightful. I was always clearly informed of what I did well, how I could improve my assignments and where I could receive further support should I require it. This was incredibly useful for ensuring that I challenged myself to reach the next grade boundary and reassured me that I would never be alone or utterly lost throughout my academic journey.
Appeals
If you feel aggrieved over a formal academic assessment and/or its results, you can make an appeal within ten days of the assessment mark being decided. To do that, you should contact your Head of School, the Chair of the Module Assessment Board, or the Chair of the Board of Examiners to clarify your position.
You have two possible reasons to make an appeal:
- you have evidence that the University or End Point Assessment Organisation has made an administration error, or has not followed its own procedures, when arriving at the decision being appealed; or
- you were prevented from completing a process/procedure for reasons related to your personal circumstances, that you were unable to disclose, for a sound and acceptable reason related to the circumstances themselves, before the deadline for appealing has expired.
You can’t make an appeal solely based on questioning the examiner’s academic judgement; if your appeal request is based on these grounds alone, it will be dismissed.
More information about the process and any further details can be found in the Appeals Policy.
Your graduation
You did it! We’re thrilled that you’ve completed your studies, and that you’re planning your Graduation celebrations. Congratulations!
Attending Graduation ceremonies.
If you’ve successfully achieved the award you applied for, you are eligible to attend Graduation.
What ‘successfully achieved’ means is different depending on the kind of course you’ve studied:
- For an Ordinary degree, a Bachelor’s degree with Honours, or an Integrated Masters, you need to have accumulated and been awarded a minimum of 300 credits, with at least 60 of those credits being for Level 6 modules. (Some accredited courses are also subject to the requirements of their professional bodies.)
- For all other courses, including non-integrated Master’s level courses, you need to achieve the full award.
If you’ve decided to accept an Exit Award that’s lower than the award you registered for, it’s not possible to attend Graduation.
Graduation deadlines
If you want to attend the current year’s Graduation ceremony, you need to have things settled before the deadline. The deadline moves each year; it was 5 July in 2024, and is updated annually at port.ac.uk/student-life/graduation/eligibility-and-deferral.
You need to have received your undergraduate or postgraduate award by that date, to be eligible for that year’s Graduation ceremony. If you’re a research student, you also need to have submitted your final thesis by then.
Apprentices’ eligibility to attend Graduation
If you’re an apprenticeship student, and you want to attend Graduation, your eligibility depends on your End Point Assessment (EPA).
On integrated apprenticeships, your EPA is credit-bearing, which means you’ll make your attempt as part of your award.
On non-integrated apprenticeships, you’ll attempt your EPA after the Board makes your award. You’ll need to have attempted your End Point Assessment (EPA) by the graduation deadline.
Exams and assessments
Information to help you before, during and after your exams and coursework, from planning to getting your results, and what to do if you're ill
Before your assessments
Where to find your assessment information, how to prepare, and following the rules
After your assessments
How you’ll get and understand your results, how we decide your grades, and what you can do if you disagree.
About these pages
The advice here applies to you if you’re doing an undergraduate or postgraduate taught degree at the University of Portsmouth, whether you’re at the Portsmouth campus, the London campus, or on a distance learning programme. This includes degree apprenticeships.
It explains our policy document, Examination and Assessment Regulations, which details the standards and credit requirements for your degree.
These are the 2024-2025 regulations. We review and update our assessment regulations every year, and you’ll be working within the most recent regulations (unless you’ve been told otherwise). In some rare cases, we may have to make temporary changes to regulations, in order to ensure your assessments are handled with fairness and integrity; if this happens, we’ll inform you of any changes and the reasons for them.
If you’re studying a Degree Apprenticeship, you’ll have a compulsory End Point Assessment (EPA) as part of your assessment plan. If there are any differences between the university assessment regulations and your EPA, the EPA takes priority.