Coursework

Deadlines, penalties and document limits

Items of coursework, such as essays and write-ups, will normally have strict deadlines. It is YOUR responsibility to ensure that you know both when the deadline for each submission is, and how the work has to be submitted (e.g. on paper to a particular office; electronically to a particular person or site). As your programme is preparing you for the world of graduate employment, where deadlines are often very strict indeed, you should treat School deadlines like train departure times (just a few seconds after the time has passed, it is very likely you will have missed the train!).

Any work that has been submitted after a deadline has passed is classed as late except in cases where an extension has already been agreed via mitigating circumstances procedures and DASS extensions. A student who submits work at 1 second past a deadline or later will therefore be subject to a penalty for late submission; a reduction of 10 marks per 24 hours past the deadline. If the work is submitted more than 10 calendar days late then it is considered as a non-submission and a mark of zero applied. Students who submit referral assignments after the deadline will be automatically subject to a mark of zero. The full policy can be found here Exceeding the specified page limit will result in a deduction of 20 marks per page or part thereof.

Coursework will normally have a specified content limit.  This will normally be a number of pages, but in some cases may be a number of words – it is YOUR responsibility to ensure that you understand exactly what the limits are and how they are to be achieved. Again, in post-graduate work you will usually find that documents, such as applications for grants, reports etc., have stringent word or page limit requirements – with line spacing, font, margins etc. specified. The standard School of Biological Sciences instructions for coursework including essays, reports and write-ups follow, but it is YOUR responsibility to ensure that you are aware of any alternative requirements for a particular piece of work:

The [submission] must not exceed [x] pages of text excluding the list of references. Text must be in Arial, 10 point, one and a half line spacing, with margins of at least 2.5 cm all around the text. ALL supporting material, such as figures, tables, text boxes etc. must be included in the page limit, and you are advised to ensure that any such items are sufficiently large enough to be read and understood with ease.

If you prefer to prepare your work in a different font, font size or format you are advised to check frequently that the material will convert to the above for submission, as penalties will normally be imposed for exceeding the limits (e.g. a percentage of marks lost for each page over the limit or part thereof). If the work needs to be converted to a PDF for submission you should check very carefully that the conversion is accurate and conforms to the guidelines well in advance of the submission deadline.