After months of talks with uea|su, the University has recommended to let students graduate even if they’ve failed one module. 

Since the 2013/14 academic year, it has been the University’s policy that undergraduates must achieve a pass mark (40%) in all of their modules to get their degree. This rule doesn’t consider the grade the student gets for the entire year.

So if, for example, a student averaged 60% over the entire year, but failed one module with 38%, then they would not have been allowed to graduate.

If that same student was at Bath, Birmingham, Nottingham, Exeter, Sussex, or dozens of other universities, they would have graduated. Many universities now allow students to fail one module and still graduate, providing that they average over 40% in the year.

Over the last few months, I have been fighting for UEA students to have the same rights, and we can now officially announce that the University has agreed with our campaign.

 

The New Criteria

The changes in policy come with very specific criteria, and some of these vary from course to course. Each course has a different criteria which will be published in due course.

 

1. Final year students will be allowed to graduate even if they fail one module, providing:

• The module is no more than 30 credits
• The module is not considered ‘core’ (Schools will be releasing a list which will tell you which modules are core soon – make sure you check this)
• You’ve achieved an average ‘pass’ mark for the year (in most cases, this means averaging over 40% for the year)

 

1. Progressing (non-final year) students will be allowed to pass the year even if they fail one module, providing:

• The module is no more than 20 credits
• The module is not ‘core’ (again, schools will be releasing a list which will tell you which modules are core soon – make sure you check this)
• You’ve achieved an average ‘pass’ mark for the year (in most instances, this will be 40%)

 

It’s important to remember that if you fail a module, a note of this will remain permanently on your record.

 

This is a huge win for students, and a step to making sure that UEA gives its students the same rights that other universities do.

To get in touch with comments, suggestions and ideas, contact me on [email protected]