Undergraduate Student Guide 2012-2013 - Selwyn College ...

3.3.4 Examination Failure
It is emphasized that the number of students affected by the contents of this section is usually no more
than one or two a year. In some years none are affected. It is, however, necessary to make clear the
procedures in the event of academic failure.
All undergraduates are required to sit an exam at the end of each year. These are usually Tripos or
Prelim examinations. Where no such exam is set, or where a Director of Studies judges it more
appropriate, a College exam will be set. In order to proceed with your studies at Selwyn the next year,
you must achieve the minimum of a Third Class, i.e. to have performed to Honours standard. Failure is,
therefore, defined as not being included in the class list for Honours in a classed exam, not being
approved by the examiners in an unclassed Prelim, or obtaining a mark below Honours standard in any
other sort of exam. Where the College enters a student for part of a Prelim but not for all papers, the
marks on those papers sat will be the ones considered. In the technical language of the University, there
is a category between outright failure and Honours. This is ‘Granted an Allowance towards the Ordinary
Degree’. To be given such an allowance is regarded by Selwyn, as by other Colleges, as failure.
The University’s regulations governing the award of degrees do not permit resits.
Where failure is the demonstrable outcome of ill-health or other incapacitating circumstances, the
University is ready to take this into account (see 3.3.6 Safety nets). In the very few cases where an
undergraduate fails a University or College exam without a successful application to the University, he
or she loses the right to continue with his or her course. In all such cases of failure, the undergraduate
has a right to appeal against the decision to send him or her out of residence.
Such appeals are heard at a special meeting of senior members of the College Council in early July.
The Council has the right to permit any undergraduate to return into residence notwithstanding his or
her failure, and to attach any conditions it feels fit to that decision (for example, by requiring a further
College exam immediately before the Michaelmas Term next following, or by requiring that specific
academic work be successfully undertaken during the Long Vacation).
An undergraduate making an appeal to the College Council has the right to appear and to speak in
person, as well as to be represented by his or her Tutor. The undergraduate’s Director of Studies and any
Fellow of the College who has taught him or her may also be present. At the hearing, the Senior Tutor is
required to produce a document which includes the student’s supervision reports, precise examination
marks and other relevant information, before concluding with a recommendation. The document will
have been shown to the undergraduate in advance. After members of Council have had the opportunity
to direct questions both to the undergraduate and to those senior members who are in attendance, the
undergraduate, his or her Tutor, the Director of Studies, any Fellow who has taught the undergraduate,
and the Senior Tutor will be required to withdraw for the Council to deliberate and decide. The decision
of the appeal body is final.
The Council does not have the power to set aside the University’s Tripos regulations. If it decides that
the student should be allowed to return into residence, but the latter is not, as far as the University is
concerned, in standing to proceed to an honours degree in the subject in question, it becomes necessary
either for the student’s Tutor to make a retrospective case to the Applications Committee of the
University Council for the grant of an ‘Allowance’, or for the student to be allowed by the College
Council to change to a subject for which he or she is in standing.
3.3.5 Proceeding to the final year of four-year courses
In Natural Sciences, Engineering, and Mathematics, it is possible to take a degree over four years without
a change of Tripos. The rules about who may progress to a fourth year are set by the relevant Faculty
and vary from subject to subject. In some cases the College reserves the right to require a higher standard
than that set by the relevant Faculty.
In Natural Sciences, the standard needed at Part II for progression to Part III varies from subject to
subject. Students should consult their DoS to find out the relevant details.
22 Selwyn College Undergraduate Student Guide 2013-14