COVID-19 – changes to assessments and examinations
1. For all SCQF level 7 and 8 modules which DO NOT have restrictions set by external Professional, Regulatory and Statutory Bodies (PSRBs) - i.e. programmes that are not professionally accredited:
 
a) Students on SCQF Level 7 and 8 modules undertaken this trimester will automatically receive a pass grade for the module and students will achieve academic credit, but no overall mark for the module; 
 
b) All outstanding assessment, including examinations, will be cancelled for SCQF level 7 and 8 modules delivered this trimester; 
 
c) Programme Assessment Boards will make progression decisions based on performance in Trimester 1, for example, students who have failed any Trimester 1 modules will be required to resit them during the normal resit diet (timing subject to review). 
 
2. For SCQF level 7 and 8 modules where external restrictions have been set by Professional, Regulatory and Statutory Bodies (PSRBs) - i.e. professionally accredited programmes

a) A small number of Edinburgh Napier degree programmes have additional standards set by external Professional, Statutory and Regulatory Bodies. We are in the process of checking with individual PSRBs whether we can apply the above changes to these programmes and now have an almost complete set of responses from them.

b) For the following PSRBs we can already confirm that they have agreed the above changes (in (1) above) can also be applied to the level 7 and 8 assessments on programmes accredited by the following:

    • EI The Energy Institute* 
    • IET The Institution of Engineering and Technology*
    • BPS British Psychological Society
    • BCS The Chartered Institute for IT
    • NCSC National Cybersecurity Centre
    • CIAT Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologists 
    • RICS Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors
    • CIOB Chartered Institute of Building
    • RSB Royal Society of Biology
    • JBM Joint Board of Moderators which covers the following programmes:
      • MEng Civil Engineering
      • MEng Civil & Transportation Engineering
      • BEng Civil Engineering
      • BEng Civil Engineering (Graduate Apprenticeship)
      • BEng Civil & Transportation Engineering
      • BSc Civil Engineering (no current 1st or 2nd year students)
 
c) For the following PSRBs they have confirmed that we cannot apply the above changes to level 7 and 8 and students will be required to complete their assessments and examinations.
 

  • Royal College of Veterinary Nursing programmes are currently expecting all years to continue with examinations. We are still in discussion with them and students will be updated by their Programme Leader as soon as we have confirmation from RCVS.
  • Law Society - requires students in all years to complete assessments and examinations. One remaining assessment in criminal law all others complete.
  • Accountancy - requires students in all years to complete assessments and examinations. There are no outstanding assessments for these students to complete and these should be marked and returned to students as normal. 
  • All programmes in the School of Health & Social Care - students will be informed directly of requirements.
 
Please note
For CIMPSA Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Activity we await further information and will update you accordingly.
 
* For these awarding bodies they require confirmation at a later date that all learning outcomes have been met. This may require students to be assessed on any outstanding learning outcomes once teaching has returned to normal but we will be cognisant of student workload if that is the case.

 
3. Examination Arrangements for the majority of SCQF level 9, 10 and 11 modules 

a) Examinations will take place at the start-time published in the examination timetable, and the University is planning for this to be coordinated centrally through an online portal. We will update you once this is ready to go.

b) The examination papers will be made available online at the published start time and students will be given 7 days to complete them as open book assessments and to upload their answers. This provides flexibility for students working in different time-zones and also helps to alleviate risks with systems failure

c) Examinations will be marked as ‘open book’ assessments.

d) Some modules across all SCQF levels have additional standards placed upon them set by Professional Statutory and Regulatory Bodies, these require modules to be assessed by time-limited online examinations. These include:

  • Law Society - requires students in all years to complete examinations, these will be conducted online and will be time-limited (2x normal duration rather than the 7 days for other programmes) and assessed as open book examinations
  • Accountancy - requires students in all years to complete examinations. These will be conducted online and will be time-limited (2x normal duration rather than the 7 days for other programmes) and assessed as open book.
If you have any further questions, please contact you Programme Leader directly.

Examination instructions

You will be sent details of how to access the examinations in good time, along with instructions on how to complete these and return them digitally. If you do not have access to computers at the time of your exam you must contact us immediately so that we can do what we can to support you. Email coronavirusqueries@napier.ac.uk.
 
Please be assured that we have contingencies in place so that you will not be disadvantaged in your degree outcome as a result of these events.
 
We have well-developed contingencies and regulations to ensure that your degree results will not be disadvantaged by these exceptional circumstances. All trimester 2 module results will be carefully scrutinised by external examiners and by our normal Programme Assessment Board processes to ensure that this is the case.