If you have decided not to take reassessments; have not passed the right courses; or have not achieved enough credits to start the next year of your degree; we will assume that you will repeat the year as a full-time student and will automatically arrange this for you.
Repeating the year will help you make up any missing courses, or increase your credit total, so that you can proceed to the next year of your degree in the future. You can choose to repeat the year as a full-time or part-time student or simply repeat a term, again on either a full-time or part-time basis.
*Honours students only*
Please note that students are not normally permitted to repeat any part of their studies that will contribute to their Honours Classification (meaning third year, fourth year or fifth year depending on the degree programme). However, if you have experienced medical or personal difficulties that you feel have genuinely affected your studies, you may apply to have part of your Honours curriculum discounted. Further information can be found on our Academic Discounting page.
If you do not want to repeat the year some other options are explored below:
Transferring to another degree programme:
If you have the right courses you may be able to enter the next year of a different degree.. To find out what options you have please contact your Registry Officer, you can find their email address on our contacts page.
Taking a break from study:
You could take a break from study and apply to take your reassessments as an ‘external candidate’ over the coming year without being a registered student.
When you apply for reassessments, you will be given Associate Student Status so that you can still access your online resources.
You can then apply for readmission to resume your studies, or repeat the year or half-session if required, the following September or January.
Some reasons you may not be able / want to take reassessments as an external candidate:
- If you have received a C7 for a course, you cannot take a reassessment for it. If it is a prescribed course, you will need to register for the course again. If the course is an elective, you could choose to register for another course to make up the missing credits.
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If you haven’t studied a course in the last 2 years or you have already sat the exam/ resubmitted 3 times you will need to make a case to be allowed another reassessment attempt. You should send an email to your Registry Officer, giving your reasons for the request, which will be reviewed by the Convener of the Students’ Progress Committee. You can find the Registry Officer email address on our contacts page.
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You may not be able to accumulate enough credit points by taking reassessments alone and instead may wish to consider repeating the year as a part-time student (see below).
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Some courses do not allow reassessment attempts, you can check this using the Course Catalogue.
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You are not guaranteed permission to readmit to study, you may have to meet certain requirements in order to come back.
If you want to discuss this please contact your Registry Officer, you can find their email address on our contacts page.
Change to study part-time (please note part-time study is not permitted for Student Visa holders):
If you are unable to pass the required courses by taking reassessments, or you want to remain in study, you may consider repeating the year as a part-time student on your current degree or transferring to our Individual Subject Study (ISS) programme. While part-time you can study a maximum of 45 credits per term or 75 credits in total over the year.
Neither part-time nor ISS students are guaranteed funding and neither are eligible for Council Tax exemptions.
Please note, part-time, study is not permitted for Student Visa holders.
Repeating the year, or part of the year, as a part-time student on your degree allows you to register only for the courses you are missing rather than having to take a full-time workload. Tuition fees are often reduced for part-time programmes, meaning this is a good option for students who cannot secure funding for a repeat year.
The Individual Subject Study Programme (ISS) is a flexible learning programme on which students pay tuition fees per 15 credit points, as a part-time student. This is a good (cost effective) option for students who are able to take some reassessments, but also need to retake a few of their missing courses in full or for students who have already repeated the year so cannot repeat again. If you need to register for less than 30 credits in total this should be the most cost effective part-time route. You can apply to transfer back into your degree once you have passed your outstanding courses.
Please contact undergraduate@abdn.ac.uk if you want to change to part-time study.