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Information for undergraduate students in Arts and Social Sciences, Divinity, Education, Engineering, Law and Science

I have failed a course at Level 3 or 4. What should I do?

You must satisfactorily complete a course (ie achieve an overall CAS mark of 9 or above) to obtain the associated credit points. If you achieve a CAS mark of 8 or less, or do not take the assessment, whatever the reason for this, you will not gain the credit points. The majority of students who fail, or fail to complete, an assessment will need to resit and pass that course to qualify for their degree.

All degrees awarded by the University of Aberdeen must comply with credit point requirements set out in the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework, or SCQF. [See http://www.scqf.org.uk/ for more information.] These requirements are:

Please click the link(s) below that applies to you for more information. If you still have questions, please contact the Registry Officer for your degree.

CANDIDATES FOR NON-HONOURS DEGREES (eg Designated Degrees)

• I have failed a Level 3 or Level 4 course or have not taken the assessment due to medical or other personal circumstances

CANDIDATES FOR HONOURS DEGREES

• I have failed a Level 3 course or have not taken the assessment due to medical or other personal circumstances
• I have failed a Level 4 course with a CAS mark of 6, 7 or 8
• I have failed a Level 4 course with a CAS mark of 0-5, or NP
• I was unable to complete a Level 4 assessment due to medical or other personal circumstances

CANDIDATES FOR NON-HONOURS DEGREES

I have failed a Level 3 or Level 4 course or have not taken the assessment due to medical or other personal circumstances

You will normally be required:

i. to resit the course OR

ii. to register for and pass an alternative course

Remember, for the award of a Designated Degree, you must achieve 90 credits from prescribed courses at Level 3 or above and must achieve a total of 360 credits.

If you hope to transfer to an Honours degree programme at a later stage, please note the information on CAS Marks and Honours Classification above.

Please note that you are not automatically entered for resits. You must submit an application to resit a particular course and pay the associated fee. Click here for further information.

If you have not taken the assessment for a course due to medical or other personal circumstances and MC or GC has been entered on your record, you will not be charged the resit application fee.

CANDIDATES FOR HONOURS DEGREES

I have failed a Level 3 Honours course or have not taken the assessment due to medical or other personal circumstances

You will normally be required to resit the course at the next available opportunity.

If you register for, and pass, an alternative course, the mark obtained will not replace the fail mark or MC/GC.

Remember, or the award of of an Honours degree you must obtain a total of 480 credits, with 180 credits from Level 3 and Level 4 together and with 90 credits at level 4.

Please note that you are not automatically entered for resits. You must submit an application to resit a particular course and pay the associated fee. Click here for further information.

If you have not taken the assessment for a course due to medical or other personal circumstances and MC or GC has been entered on your record, you will not be charged the resit application fee.

I have failed a Level 4 course with a CAS mark of 6, 7 or 8

Your School should request that you be awarded compensatory credit points at Level 1. For example, if you have failed a 15 credit point Level 4 course with a mark of 6, 7 or 8 you will have 15 Level 1 credit points added to your record. Please note: you cannot be awarded more than 30 Level 1 credit points IN TOTAL to compensate for 'marginal fails' at Level 4. If you are an Engineering student, please be aware you cannot be awarded more than 20 level 1 credit points in TOTAL.

You can count these compensatory credit points towards graduation ONLY IF you also pass Level 4 courses worth at least 90 credits.

If you do not pass 90 credits at Level 4, compensatory Level 1 credit points cannot help you, and you will have to resit the course at the next available opportunity (normally in August). Check with your School or the Registry Officer for your degree if you are unsure.

I have failed a Level 4 course with a CAS of 0-5, or NP

You will need to resit it, UNLESS:

a) you already have more than 360 credit points from Levels 1, 2 and 3: e.g., if you have 375 credit points from Levels 1, 2 and 3 you can use 15 of them to offset a fail mark on a 15 credit point Level 4 course; OR

b) you register for, and pass, an extra course of equivalent credit point value. This need not be a Level 4 course.

Remember, you must obtain a minimum of 90 credit points at Level 4, so you may not be able to use options a) or b) above. If required, the first opportunity for Level 4 resit will be the following January for courses taught and assessed in the first half-session, or the following May for courses taught and assessed in the second half-session

I was unable to complete a Level 4 assessment due to medical or other personal circumstances

You must still complete the assessment for this course. The mark obtained will count towards Honours classification.

a) You can take the resit at the next available opportunity. OR

b) You can request that the School consider providing you with an alternative time and/or format of assessment that will provide a course mark for Honours classification. The Senate, acting on the advice of your Head of School, must approve the timing and format of any alternative assessment.

If you find yourself in this position, contact your Head of School as soon as you can. If necessary, your Adviser should be able to help you do this. You will need to decide which option is most appropriate, and make appropriate resit arrangements. If may be necessary for you to submit a resit application form. Check with your School or the Registry Officer for your degree if you are unsure.

REGISTRY OFFICERS

Contact details for your Registry Officer are listed below. Alternatively, you can ask to meet with the Duty Registry Officer at Infohub.