'No detriment' approach

All students’ assessments and work – including dissertations – will be read and marked, even if delayed by the impact of the boycott. For most students, assessment continues as normal.

Our aim is for all student assessments to be marked but we are unable to give clear timeframes for this. Due to the nature of the industrial action, it could be when the current industrial action mandate runs out on the 30^th September, or before if a resolution is reached, or once a colleague opts to come out of the marking and assessment boycott. 

You will be notified by email as soon as missing marks are returned for your programme so please continue to check your University email account over the summer period. As soon as your profile of marks has been considered by an exam board and your award is confirmed, we will issue you with a digital copy of your Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR) via the Digitary CORE portal so that you will have official confirmation of your final award immediately. If your degree classification has changed since your initial interim award, we will issue you with a digital copy of your certificate via Digitary and send you a new certificate in the post, to the home address we hold in S3P. Please ensure we have a current home address for you by checking and updating your details on S3P.

You are required to attend all assessments, even if you know it will not be marked immediately. All marks will be returned even if there is a delay. A mark of zero will only be used where an assessment has not been submitted or an examination has not been attended, or a mark of zero has been genuinely awarded for the work.

The ‘no detriment’ approach will use, where possible, a temporary calculation of your weighted average for the year, based on the marks that we have available for you up to the date of the Exam Board for your programme.  

This will enable us to calculate a temporary mark at the Exam Board for any individual student with missing marks as a result of the marking and assessment boycott. Exam Board members will use your actual marks, while taking into account other available information (such as PECs/Student Support Plans/personal circumstances etc.), to make a decision on progression to the next year of your programme or to make an award.  

Any student with missing marks will have their remaining marks entered when they are available and, at that point, the average mark may be recalculated. 

Many degree programmes will not be affected by the marking and assessment boycott and for these programmes the ‘no detriment’ approach will not be needed. 

There are a number of our programmes, particularly those with external accreditation, that have compulsory components and require students to demonstrate competency in all aspects of the programme. Students on these programmes must therefore pass all elements of their assessments. For these individual students, we may have to wait until all assessments have been marked. As a result, we may have to make an interim decision to allow you to progress with resits, if relevant, in the next year or an interim award may be made. Where the ‘No detriment approach can not be applied for your programme, Schools will inform you of this after the Exam Boards have concluded.

There may be a small number of students who do not have enough available credits to accurately consider a weighted average (because of deferred, failed or missed assessments or individual personal circumstances) and again, the ‘no detriment’ approach may not be able to be applied. Schools will be working directly with these students on an individual basis in the usual manner to support them to continue with their studies with the least disruption.

If you are a final year student affected by missing marks as a result of industrial action, you may be awarded an interim degree and your degree classification will be recalculated when all marks have been received. At that point, if your overall average mark has increased based on your marks, you will be considered for the higher classification award in accordance with the standard University regulations. 

For individuals affected, the classification will be issued on a ‘no detriment’ basis, meaning that once all late marks have been received, these would only be used to increase (and not decrease) the degree classification. Degree certificates/transcripts would still be issued promptly for students with temporary awards, but they would be replaced if a higher award was later issued. If your classification has decreased once all marks are received and all modules have been passed, the higher classification will remain in place regardless.

If the ‘no detriment’ approach is applied to your marks, you may find that the following codes are used on your transcript against a module:

‘Deemed to have passed’ – When the Board of Examiners review your profile of marks for the year and there are missing marks due to the marking and assessment boycott, where possible they will use this code to allow you to progress to the next stage of your programme. In this scenario when the missing mark becomes available and the mark is a failing mark you will not be required to resit that module.

‘Decision delayed’ – When the Board of Examiners review your profile of marks for the year and there are missing marks due to the marking and assessment boycott this code will be used if a programme has core competencies or accreditation requirements. When the missing mark becomes available if it is a failing mark, you will be required to resit the module at the next normal occasion, to demonstrate you have achieved the competency.

In both of the above cases, no mark for the affected module will be included on the transcript and the symbol ‘#’ will be used until the missing mark becomes available at which point the transcript will be reissued.  A mark of zero will only be used where an assessment has not been submitted or an examination has not been attended, or a mark of zero has been genuinely awarded for the work.

To see what this might look like on a transcript, please take a look at the examples we have prepared for a continuing student and a final year student.

Where possible a classified degree will be awarded using the marks available to the Boards of Examiners and, once all the marks are returned, the full profile of marks will be reviewed and may result in a higher classification of degree being awarded. 

Final year students whose modules have been affected by the marking and assessment boycott may receive a transcript which states the final stage decision as an ‘Interim unclassified award’ rather than a classified degree.  This will be replaced on the transcript once all marks are available showing the corrected or higher classification at which point the degree certificate will be issued. 

Students will be invited to attend graduation ceremonies as normal but certificates will only be issued once all marks are available and the actual classification has been determined by a Board of Examiners.

You can appeal an academic decision made by a Board of Examiners, including an interim degree classification, under the University’s Academic Queries and Appeal Procedure by submitting an academic query (Level 1) to your school office . 

Before appealing an interim decision or classification, please bear in mind that all student profiles affected by the marking and assessment boycott will be reviewed once all missing marks are returned which can result in a higher award and you may wish to wait until the final outcome is known before submitting an appeal.

If you decide to proceed with an appeal, please ensure you read the ‘Grounds for Appeal’ carefully.  You should submit your appeal in writing directly to your school under Level 1 of the procedure.

Reports about the service and/or treatment you have received from an Academic Unit/Service or staff member are dealt with under a separate process - the Student Complaints and Resolution Procedure.

Where a case of academic misconduct is identified, such as plagiarism, the University’s standard investigation procedures will take precedence over the ‘no detriment’ approach and any ‘deemed to have passed’ decision where there was a missing mark due to the marking and assessment boycott (MAB).

Any cases of academic misconduct, which includes plagiarism or work submitted that is not your own, such as the inappropriate use of artificial intelligence (AI), will be fully investigated in line with usual assessment irregularity procedures, where appropriate sanctions may be applied. In the most serious cases, this could result in the revocation of a degree that was awarded under the University’s ‘no detriment’ approach.

In response to the on-going marking and assessment boycott (MAB), the Home Office has introduced measures to help minimise the impact this will have on international students whose exams and graduation may be impacted by the boycott.

Given the risk that some international students may be unable to apply for the Graduate route following delays to their graduation, the Home Office have announced the following measures to help mitigate these concerns:

1. UKVI will consider exercising discretion and will hold Graduate route applications made before the applicant’s results have been received, provided that the results are received within 8 weeks of the application being made.
2. Students who do not know when they will receive their results due to the boycott will be able to apply to extend their permission whilst they wait for their results. They will be exceptionally exempt from meeting the academic progression requirements. Sponsors should include a note on the Conformation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS) that the extension is due to the marking boycott.

Please contact a Visa Advisor if you have particular concerns via visa@ncl.ac.uk.

If you have sufficient marks available from previous modules, the Boards of Examiners may apply the ‘No detriment’ approach to ensure that you can obtain the credits you need to meet the requirements of your home institution.

We will also be writing to your home institution to explain the situation in relation to the marking and assessment boycott and how we are supporting students who may be impacted. 

For information about the marking and assessment boycott for Doctoral and MPhil students, please read the Mitigations for Industrial Action update on the PGR Noticeboard.

You can also find further information for Doctoral and MPhil students, including guidance for those students who have submitted their thesis for examination or have a Project Approval or Annual Progress Review deadline coming up, on the Industrial Action FAQs.

At Newcastle, wherever possible, no student will be denied entry to a Master’s programme for which they are holding an offer, on the grounds of missing marks due to industrial action where existing marks indicate the student is likely to meet the terms of an offer. Decisions about individual circumstances will be considered on a case-by-case basis - if this is something you are worried about, please contact pgadmissions@ncl.ac.uk.

If you hold an offer for postgraduate study at another university, please contact your school to request a document to support your application. When contacting your school it would be helpful if you can provide as much information as possible about the specific information needed by the institution to which you are applying so an appropriate response can be prepared. 

If you hold an offer of employment, or for an internship that requires you to achieve a certain degree classification, please contact your school to request a supporting document. Again, it would be helpful if you could indicate the information that is required by your potential employer so that the response can be tailored appropriately. 

As a graduate you can continue to make use of professional, impartial support from the Careers Service now and for another three years. All you need to do is register as a graduate on MyCareer from where you can book one-to-one appointments, submit a query and search for vacancies and events.

We understand that you will have questions regarding the marking and assessment boycott and how it will affect you. 

As many colleagues will not be participating in the marking and assessment boycott, and those who are doing so are not required to declare in advance, it is very difficult for us to predict the impact at an individual level before assessment deadlines have been reached. However, your school will be monitoring the impact as the assessment period progresses and will be able to provide further advice and support in due course.  In the meantime, you may find some of your questions are answered in our FAQs and we will continue to post updates and developments on the industrial action webpage.

We realise the uncertainty of this situation is upsetting and frustrating. Where you are worried that this is having an impact on your health and wellbeing, or that of someone you know, please do reach out – we have a range of support available.

For help with academic skills, such as dissertation writing and exam preparation, there is also support available from the Academic Skills Kit.