Section 9: Consequences of Failure

Published for 2024-25

The Consequences of Failure regulations cover the provisions for students who do not meet the Progression and Award Requirements, where there are no Extenuating Circumstances material to that failure. Students who are ill or have other valid Extenuating Circumstances should refer to Section 8: Deferred Assessment for details of the support available.

9.1 Failure at the First Attempt	9.4 Repeating a Module
9.2 Failure at the Second Attempt	9.5 Non-Modular Programmes
9.3 Resitting a Module

9.1 Failure at the First Attempt

1.	A student who does not meet the Progression and Award Requirements at the first attempt should be reassessed in the failed module(s) unless they:

	a)	Are eligible for the award of the intended qualification, or
	b)	Are eligible for Condonement (Section 6 .2), or
	c)	Have failed an Additional/ Extra-Mural Study Abroad or Placement Year (see paragraph 7 below), or
	d)	Have been awarded a qualification, or
	e)	Have failed to meet specific, essential Professional, Statutory or Regulatory Body requirements as approved by UCL Education Committee or its nominee and recorded in the Portico Progression and Award Rules Tool, or
	f)	Have been excluded from UCL on the grounds of academic insufficiency, or
	g)	Have been excluded from UCL as a result of academic or personal misconduct.

2.	Where a student fails up to and including 60 taught credits in any one academic session reassessment must take the form of a Resit.
3.	Where a student fails more than 60 taught credits in any one academic session, reassessment should take the form of a Repeat. Where a Repeat is considered to be impossible, the Board of Examiners may offer the student the opportunity to take the failed assessments as Resits.
4.	Where a student requires Deferred Assessment and Reassessment, the volume of credits for the Deferred Assessment should not be taken into consideration in determining whether a student is required to Resit or Repeat.
5.	Where a student fails a Dissertation/ Research Project, reassessment should take the form of a Resit unless the Board of Examiners agrees that, in its academic judgement, the extent of failure is such that additional supervision is needed to retrieve that failure. Such students may be required to Repeat the Dissertation/ Research Project with tuition and fees.
6.	A student who fails an Additional/ Extra-Mural Study Abroad or Placement Year must not be reassessed but may be permitted to transfer to an equivalent programme without a Study Abroad or Placement requirement.
7.	A student must not be reassessed in a Passed or Condoned module.
8.	A student must not be permitted to make corrections to a piece of work after the submission deadline or examination date. If work is to be submitted for publication, a student must only be permitted to make corrections once the Board of Examiners has made a decision about Progression and Award.
9.	Reassessment must be completed within the next two academic sessions (e.g. if the student first enrols on the module in 2024-25 they must complete the assessment by the end of 2026-27). Where a module is substituted, students have two academic sessions from when they first enrol on the substituted module.
10.	This period of two academic sessions may be extended at the discretion of UCL Education Services on behalf of the Vice-Provost (Education & Student Experience). Applications must be made via the Faculty Tutor.

9.2 Failure at the Second Attempt

1.	A student who does not meet the Progression and Award Requirements at the second attempt must leave the programme, and must not be permitted to re-enrol on a failed programme or module.
2.	A student may be eligible for one of the following, depending on their programme of study:

	a)	The award of a qualification with a different field of study, or
	b)	Transfer to an alternative programme, or
	c)	An Interim Qualification (Section 10).

9.3 Resitting a Module

1.	A Resit is a second attempt at an assessment without any additional tuition and with marks capped at the Pass Mark (see Section 3.6).
	Timing of Resits
2.	Resits should be scheduled as follows:
	Taught modules first assessed in Term 1 or Term 2: Late Summer Assessment Period. Taught modules first assessed in Term 3: Late Summer Assessment Period or within three months of the first attempt. Taught modules first assessed in the summer vacation/ Term 4: Within three months of the first attempt. Masters Dissertations/ Research Projects: September-start programmes: By 31 January of the following academic session. Masters Dissertations/ Research Projects: January-start programmes: By 30 April of the following academic session.
3.	Departments/ Divisions running Resits and Deferrals outside of the Late Summer Assessment Period must:

	a)	Ensure that students have an adequate amount of time in which to revise or complete the work, and
	b)	Manage the assessment including the operation of unseen written examinations (students cannot be timetabled into the main UCL LSA Examination Timetable), and
	c)	Ensure that there are no timetabling clashes, especially for students external to the Teaching Department/ Division, and
	d)	Ensure that marks are entered by the deadlines published by Student and Registry Services each year so that students can formally progress to any subsequent years of study, and
	e)	Ensure that the award of a student’s degree is not delayed unreasonably, and
	f)	Ensure that all students registered on the module are aware of the reassessment dates as early as possible.

4.	Progressing students should not enrol on the next year of study until the Resit has been completed.

Exceptionally, a student may be permitted to Provisionally Progress and Resit the module in tandem with the next year of study in a maximum of 30 credits. See Section 6.3: Provisional Progression for further details.

	Resit Marks
5.	Resitting students must only be reassessed in the failed module component(s).
6.	Where a student passes a Resit, the module mark(s) must be capped at the Pass Mark (Section 3.6).
7.	Where a student fails a Resit, the higher mark from the two attempts will be recorded for the affected Component(s).
	Requirements and Entitlements
8.	Resitting students should not attend any additional lectures, seminars or other teaching activities. They may be offered, but are not automatically entitled to, additional tutorials or supervision.
9.	There must be no fee for Resitting an assessment.
10.	Resitting students should have access to UCL’s facilities such as the library and other learning resources, although there may be limited availability of some resources during UCL vacation periods.
11.	Resitting students must be entitled to the Reasonable Adjustments provisions for students with disabilities and other long-term medical or mental health conditions.
12.	Students should undertake a Resit before they commence a Study Abroad Year or Placement Year.
	Format of the Resit
13.	Resitting students must be reassessed under the syllabus in place at the first attempt.
14.	Resitting students should be reassessed by the same Method used at the first attempt (e.g. essay, exam, practical etc.). Where a Resit by the same Method of assessment is difficult or impossible, a Board of Examiners may, with the approval of UCL Education Committee or its nominee, set a different Method of reassessment. The alternative Method must:

	a)	Allow students to demonstrate achievement of the learning outcomes to the same extent as the original assessment, and
	b)	Be approved by the External Examiner, preferably at the point of Programme and/ or Module Approval.

15.	The Board of Examiners must determine whether Resitting students will be reassessed in the same Task (e.g. the same essay question) or whether a new Task will be set (e.g. a new essay question or new exam paper). Any new assessment Task must:

	a)	Allow students to demonstrate achievement of the learning outcomes to the same extent as the original Task, and
	b)	Be approved by the External Examiner, preferably at the same time as the original Task/ paper.

16.	Resitting students cannot substitute a failed module with an alternative module because the Resit includes no teaching.

9.4 Repeating a Module

1.	A Repeat is a second attempt at an assessment in the following academic session with tuition and fees and with marks capped at the Pass Mark (see Section 3.6).
	Timing of a Repeat
2.	A student who is required to Repeat must re-enrol on the failed modules in the following academic session.
3.	Progressing students should not enrol on the next year of study until the Repeat has been completed.

Exceptionally, a student may be permitted to Provisionally Progress and Repeat the module in tandem with the next year of study in a maximum of 30 credits. See Section 6.3: Provisional Progression for further details.

	Repeat Marks
4.	Repeating students must be reassessed in all the components of the failed module(s).
5.	Where a student Passes a Repeat, the module mark(s) must be capped at the Pass Mark (Section 3.6).
6.	Where a student fails a Repeat, the marks from the Repeat attempt will be recorded.
	Requirements and Entitlements
7.	Repeating students must re-enrol on the affected module(s), attend all teaching activities and be entitled to the standard tuition and supervision provisions on the module(s).
8.	The fees for Repeating students must be charged pro-rata to the credit value of the module(s) concerned.
9.	Repeating students must have full access to UCL’s facilities such as the library and other learning resources.
10.	Repeating students must be entitled to the Reasonable Adjustments provisions for students with disabilities and other long-term medical or mental health conditions.
11.	Repeating students must meet UCL’s minimum attendance requirements to be eligible for their Repeat attempt.
	Format of the Repeat
12.	The components and/ or syllabus of the affected module(s) may be different if the programme or module has changed between years of study. Repeating students must be reassessed in the components and syllabus of the new year.
	Substitution of Modules
13.	Subject to approval by the Departmental Tutor, a Repeating student may apply to substitute up to 30 credits of modules with one or more alternative modules in any one academic session, up to a maximum of 60 credits across the whole programme.
14.	If a programme has changed between years of study, or a module will not be running, the Departmental Tutor may permit a student to substitute more than 30 credits per year, or more than 60 credits across the programme, with one or more alternative modules.
15.	The substitute module(s) must satisfy the programme requirements in terms of credit-weighting and academic level. Students must not take modules from a subsequent year of study in advance.
16.	The substitute module(s) must be treated as a second attempt and marks must be capped at the Pass Mark (Section 3.6).
17.	All approved substitutions must be notified to Student Records by the Department.

9.5 Non-Modular Programmes

9.5.1 BA (Hons) English

1.	A student who fails to meet the Progression and Award Requirements is subject to the standard UCL Consequences of Failure regulations detailed above, with the following implementation:

	a)	Where a student fails one examination in the first year of the programme, reassessment should take the form of a Resit.
	b)	Where a student fails two or more examinations in the first year of the programme, reassessment should take the form of a Repeat. Where a Repeat is considered to be impossible, the Board of Examiners may offer the student the opportunity to take the failed assessments as Resits.
	c)	The fees for Repeating Year 1 students must be charged pro-rata to the proportion of the teaching load represented by the repeat:

		i.	Two papers: 66% of the fee.
		ii.	Three papers: 100% of the fee.

9.5.2 BA (Hons) Fine Art

1.	A student who fails to meet the Progression and Award Requirements is subject to the standard UCL Consequences of Failure regulations detailed above, with the following exceptions:

A student who fails the final assessment of Studio Work at the end of Year 4 should Resit at the end of the following academic session. Exceptionally, the Board of Examiners may determine that the extent of failure is such that the student must Repeat the Studio Work, with tuition and fees, in the following academic session.

9.5.3 BFA (Hons) Fine Art

1.	A student who fails to meet the Progression and Award Requirements is subject to the standard UCL Consequences of Failure regulations detailed above, with the following exceptions:

A student who fails the final assessment of Studio Work at the end of Year 3 should Resit at the end of the following academic session. Exceptionally, the Board of Examiners may determine that the extent of failure is such that the student must Repeat the Studio Work, with tuition and fees, in the following academic session.

9.5.4 MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery)

1.	A student who fails to meet the Progression and Award Requirements is subject to the standard UCL Consequences of Failure regulations detailed above, with the following exceptions:

	a)	Pass results in individual components of the MBBS assessment are carried forward to in-year resit sittings. In years 4, 5 and 6, because of the clinical nature of these years, students who fail one or more components have the option of deferring their second attempt and repeating the full programme of study including all in-course requirements for the year, with tuition and fees, and retaking both components
	b)	Students must qualify within 9 years of commencing the programme or, for UK graduate entrants with exemption from the iBSc requirement, within 8 years of commencing the programme.

9.5.5 MA Fine Art

1.	A student who fails to meet the Progression and Award Requirements is subject to the standard UCL Consequences of Failure regulations detailed above, with the following exceptions:

A student who fails the final assessment of Studio Work at the end of Year 2 should Resit at the end of the following academic session. Exceptionally, the Board of Examiners may determine that the extent of failure is such that the student must Repeat the Studio Work, with tuition and fees, in the following academic session.

9.5.6 MFA Fine Art in the Slade School of Fine Art

1.	A student who fails to meet the Progression and Award Requirements is subject to the standard UCL Consequences of Failure regulations detailed above, with the following exceptions: