TO: Deans of School

TO: Deans of School Associate Deans (Learning and Teaching) Heads of Department Chairs of CART Chairs of Boards of Examiners School Administrators Mr M Wysocki, Academic Affairs Officer of the Students’ Union Mr K Almudallal, Secretary-Treasurer of the Students’ Union Mr D Smith, Finance and Advice Service Manager of the Students’ Union Administrative Staff within AQU Mr J Ross, SAINT Ms L Allen, The Hub Dr J Sture, Graduate School Ms R Colley, Dean of Students Professor N Lindsey, Director of Learning and Teaching Ms C Moran, Academic Partnerships Office Ms A Hughes, Complaints and Appeals Manager Professor G Layer, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic)

FROM: Alison J Carass, Assistant Registrar, Academic Quality Unit

DATE: 22nd June 2011

ORDINARY DEGREES

I write to notify you of changes to the University Regulations relating to Ordinary Degrees which will come into effect from the 2011/12 academic session.

At its meeting in March 2011, the Senate agreed that the number of credits required for the award of an Ordinary Degree should be increased from 260 to 300. This was to bring it within the QAA Framework for Higher Education Qualifications and in line with HE sector norms.

Thus all students entering the first year of an Honours Degree programme in 2011/12 who go onto transfer to an Ordinary Degree programme either at the end of Stage One or Stage Two of the Honours Degree, will be required to complete an Ordinary Degree programme comprising 300 credits.

The relevant sections of the Regulations Governing Undergraduate Awards have been revised as follows: 1. That the study requirements for an Ordinary Degree at the University of Bradford state that: 1.1 In addition to meeting the requirements for Stage 1, students must study units amounting to 100 credits in Stage 2, with at least 80 credits at Level 2, with the option of 20 credits at Level 1 or 3. Students must also study units amounting to 100 credits in Stage 3, with at least 80 credits at Level 3, with the option of 20 credits at Level 2 or M OR Level 1 for a language module. 2. That all students continue to register for the Honours degree in the first instance and may transfer to an Ordinary degree (if an Ordinary route is offered) at the end of Stage 1 or Stage 2 as follows:

2.2 Students may progress from Stage 1 of the course of study for the Honours Degree of Bachelor to Stage 2 of the course of study for the Ordinary Degree of Bachelor if they achieve at least 40.0% in individual Stage 1 units amounting to 80 credits and at least 35.0% in individual Stage 1 units amounting to another 20 credits.

2.3 Students may progress from Stage 2 of the course of study for the Ordinary Degree of Bachelor to Stage 3 of the course of study for the Ordinary Degree of Bachelor if they achieve at least 40.0% in individual Stage 2 units amounting to 80 Credits and at least 35.0% in individual Stage 2 units amounting to the other 20 Credits.

2.4 Students may progress from Stage 2 of the course of study for the Honours Degree of Bachelor to Stage 3 of the course of study for the Ordinary Degree of Bachelor if they achieve at least 40.0% in individual Stage 2 units amounting to 80 credits and at least 35.0% in individual Stage 2 units amounting to another 20 credits.

3. Supplementary Assessment

3.1 Students on an Ordinary Degree programme who do not achieve at least 50 credits at 40.0% at the initial attempt will forfeit the automatic right to Supplementary Assessment without attendance in the Supplementary Assessment period. A Board of Examiners may require such students to repeat the Stage with attendance or to undertake individual modules with attendance during the forthcoming academic year.

4. Award

4.1 To be eligible for the award of the Ordinary Degree of Bachelor, students must comply with the requirements set out in 4.2 and 4.5 (of the Undergraduate Regulations), must achieve the requirements set out in 9.4.1 (of the Undergraduate Regulations) and attain at least 40.0% in individual Stage 3 units amounting to 80 Credits and at least 35.0% in individual Stage 3 units amounting to the other 20 Credits in Stage 3 of the course of study.

4. Students successfully achieving the Ordinary Degree will be permitted to ‘top- up’ to Honours by completing the 60 credits outstanding, in accordance with section 12 of the current regulations. 5. The Ordinary Degree will continue to be offered as a ‘fall-back’ award to those Honours Degree students who fail to attain that award, if they meet the criteria. In accordance with current regulations, such students will not be permitted to top-up to Honours.

6. All other regulations remain the same.

If you currently offer Ordinary Degree programmes, I would be grateful if you could review them to ensure that they comply with the new regulations and revise the relevant Programme Specification(s) accordingly. The revised courses and programme specification(s) will need to be formally approved by the CART to ensure the continued academic coherence and appropriateness of the programme This can be done on Chairs Action with a deadline of no later than 31st July 2011. Schools may also wish to take this opportunity to consider whether they would like to offer an Ordinary Degree route, if they do not already do so, or review whether existing Ordinary Degree provision continues to be appropriate for their students.

Please liaise with the Academic Quality Officer for your School regarding the process for the revision and approval of the revised Ordinary Degrees.

A copy of this memo can be found on the AQU website at: http://www.brad.ac.uk/admin/acsec/

Thank you for your co-operation in this matter and if you require any further information or have any queries please do not hesitate to contact me.