1. Introduction

1.01 Welcome to the University of Manchester and the School of Biological Sciences

1.02 The information in this handbook is accurate for the 2025-26 academic year.

1.03 Welcome statement from the Head of the School of Biological Sciences

Dear Students,

Welcome to the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Manchester. I am delighted you have chosen to begin or continue your academic journey with us, and I want to personally welcome each of you to our community.

The School of Biological Sciences is a vibrant and diverse part of the University, home to world-leading research and teaching across a wide range of disciplines including molecular and cell biology, biochemistry, biomedical sciences, biotechnology, bioinformatics, and evolutionary biology. Whether you are joining us as an undergraduate or a postgraduate student, you are now part of a supportive and ambitious academic environment that is committed to helping you succeed.

As Head of School and a Professor of Computational Biology, I am continually inspired by the curiosity, talent, and determination of our students. You will be taught and mentored by academics who are not only leaders in their fields but also deeply committed to your education and development. We encourage you to take full advantage of the opportunities available, both in and beyond the classroom, and to engage with the wide range of activities, societies, and support services designed to enrich your time here.

Our School prides itself on a strong sense of community, collaboration, and innovation. I hope you will feel welcomed, challenged, and inspired throughout your time with us. Please do not hesitate to reach out to staff or fellow students if you need guidance. We are all here to help you thrive.

I wish you every success in the year ahead and look forward to seeing the many ways you will grow, contribute, and achieve during your time in the School.

Warmest regards
Professor Simon Hubbard
Head of the School of Biological Sciences
The University of Manchester

1.04 Key contacts

Student Support Hub (Stopford Building; Email: sbs.hub@manchester.ac.uk, phone: +44 (0)161 275 1487) opening times:

• 09:00 -17:00 Monday to Friday during term-time
• 10:00 – 16:00 outside of term-time

The Student Support Hub is your first stop for queries relating to your programme or courses and general student support including career advice, specific needs and wellbeing support. The list below outlines support available at the Support Hub:

• Mitigating circumstances for exams and assessments
• General course information
• Specific course enquiries
• Wellbeing support
• Requesting a letter
• Requesting a document
• Help with study skills
• Information on campus facilities
• Registering as a student
• Graduation information
• General enquiries

You can also find lots of information on the student SharePoint: School of Biological Sciences Student Information – Home

Director of Education

Professor Nicky High

Email: nicky.high@manchester.ac.uk

Deputy Directors of Studies

Professor Lisa Swanton – Programmes and Curriculum

Professor Donald Ward – Assessment and Progression

Dr Helen Graham – Digital and Flexible Learning

Dr Ingo Schiessl – Admissions and Recruitment

Dr Maria Canal – Inclusive Education

Dr Katherine Hinchliffe – Student Experience

Senior Advisors

Email: senioradvisors.sbs@manchester.ac.uk

Head of School – Biological Sciences

Professor Simon Hubbard

Programme Directors

The role of the Programme Director is to oversee the content of your Degree Programme, approve your choice of optional course units during Welcome Week and assist your Academic Advisor in giving you advice on academic matters.

Degree Programme	Programme Director	Programme Director Email
Biochemistry	Prof Andrew Doig	andrew.doig@manchester.ac.uk
	Dr Gino Poulin	gino.poulin@manchester.ac.uk
Biology	Dr Thomas Nuhse	Thomas.Nuhse@manchester.ac.uk
Biology with Science & Society	Dr Robert Naylor	Robert.naylor@manchester.ac.uk
	Dr Ruth Grady	ruth.grady@manchester.ac.uk
Biomedical Sciences	Dr Rebecca Dearman (L1)	rebecca.dearman@manchester.ac.uk
	Dr Tristan Pocock (L2)	Tristan.pocock@manchester.ac.uk
	Dr Michelle Keown (L3)	michelle.e.keown@manchester.ac.uk
Biotechnology	Dr Dennis Linton	James.D.Linton@manchester.ac.uk
	Dr Samina Naseeb	Samina.naseeb@manchester.ac.uk
Genetics	Dr Kimberly Mace	kimberly.mace@manchester.ac.uk
Immunology	Dr Kathleen Nolan	kathleen.nolan@manchester.ac.uk
Medical Biochemistry	Dr Tom Millard	tom.millard@manchester.ac.uk
Medical Physiology	Prof Liz Sheader	elizabeth.a.sheader@manchester.ac.uk
Microbiology	Dr Jen Cavet	jennifer.s.cavet@manchester.ac.uk
Molecular Biology	Dr Susan Taylor	susan.h.taylor@manchester.ac.uk
MSci Programmes	Prof Lisa Swanton	lisa.swanton@manchester.ac.uk
	Dr Martin Pool	martin.r.pool@manchester.ac.uk
Neuroscience	Dr Nicholas Glossop	Nicholas.glossop@manchester.ac.uk
	Dr Harry Potter	Harry.potter@manchester.ac.uk
Pharmacology	Dr Stacey Lee	stacey.lee@manchester.ac.uk
Zoology	Dr Ben Chapman	ben.chapman-2@manchester.ac.uk

 

1.05 Key dates in the academic year

A summary of the key dates is given below and additional information can be found here: http://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/key-dates/

Examination Dates:

Semester 1: Thursday 15th January 2026- Friday 30th January 2026

Semester 2: Monday 18th May 2026 – Wednesday 10th June 2026

Resits: Monday 24^th August 2026 – Friday 4^th September 2026

Examination Result publication dates:

Semester 1: w/c Monday 2^nd March 2026

Semester 2: w/c Monday 20^th July 2026

August/September Resit examination period: w/c Monday 14^th September 2026

Release of the examination timetable

Semester 1 exams: Friday 12^th December 2025

Semester 2 exams: Friday 10^th April 2026

Resit exams: Friday 7^th August 2026

Please note that these are the dates on which you will be informed of the exact dates and times of your exams; your personalised exam timetables (which will inform you of your exact room and seat number) will be updated in the following two weeks.

1.06 Responsibilities of staff and students

The University of Manchester believes that education is a partnership between the learner and the teacher, conducted within a context that provides properly for pastoral care and learner needs. In the School of Biological Sciences, we have created a list of responsibilities for staff and students. You can find it on the Student SharePoint Site.

1.07 Canvas

Canvas is the University’s digital learning environment.  You will use Canvas to access online teaching material for your course units, in addition to interactive elements to assist your learning.  Some Canvas spaces enable you to interact with other students as well as academic staff.  Canvas can be used to submit work online and to receive feedback on this work once it has been marked.

1.08 My Manchester

My Manchester brings all your online university services together in one place. From My Manchester you can access the student self-service system, which allows you to view your timetable, select course units and access your grades for assessed work.

My Manchester also allows you to access University services including Canvas and your University library account. To access My Manchester fully, you will firstly need to register online at my.manchester.ac.uk 

1.09 Changes/Updates to your personal details recorded in the Student System

It is your responsibility to ensure that the Student System is kept up to date with changes to your recorded personal or programme details. Any change of personal details must be completed online via My Manchester. Incorrect information can lead to problems with your fees and funding, at examination times and with other official processes.

Please read guidance available on the University of Manchester Student Support webpage for details on Updating your bank details and changes to your personal information (for example, your address or name).

If you need any help, please contact the Student Support Hub.

1.10 The Student Charter 

Our Student Charter, developed jointly by the University and the Students' Union, is an important part of how we establish and maintain clear mutual expectations for the experience of all undergraduate and taught postgraduates. It sets out what we can expect from each other as partners in a learning community. 

The Charter provides an overview of the Manchester experience and refers to regulations, policies and procedures; it is not a detailed personal agreement or contract. 

1.11 The Digital Equity Charter 

Our Digital Equity Charter, co-created with the Students’ Union, sets out the University’s commitment to ensuring that all our students can effectively engage with their learning and development opportunities.    

This charter sets out the University’s commitment to ensuring all students have equitable access to development opportunities, hardware, software, connectivity and study space to effectively engage with their learning and establishes the expectations on students to engage with the opportunities available.  

1.12 Dignity at Work and Study

All members of the University community, whether staff or students, are required to treat each other in a friendly, courteous and dignified manner. This requirement also applies to visitors and those otherwise associated with the University.  The Dignity at Work and Study Policy and Procedures provide more information about University’s commitment to an environment in which there is no tolerance of discriminatory, bullying or harassing behaviour from any member of our community. The Advice and Response service provides support for anyone who experiences such behaviour.

1.13 Health and safety information 

While student life is exciting and fun, we know it can also be challenging. We take the health, wellbeing and safety of our students seriously and offer you the encouragement and support you need to stay happy and healthy. We’ve put together an online module to help you Starting University to think about some things you might encounter, and resources to help you handle them. Further information is available on our Health, Wellbeing and Safety webpages including registering with a GP, vaccinations, mental health support, wellbeing, and our SafeZone app.

White lab coats and safety spectacles are required for all practical classes and will be provided at the start of the academic year – it is your responsibility to ensure that you bring your lab coat and safety spectacles to each practical. A pocket calculator will also be necessary.

1.14 University learning resources 

My Learning Essentials: The Library provides a comprehensive programme of online skills resources, workshops and drop in support clinics throughout the year designed to help you to develop your academic and employability skills: http://www.manchester.ac.uk/my-learning-essentials. 

Feedback & Enquiries: For general enquiries, e-resources support and/or to feedback suggestions please contact the library in person, via phone or online:

Contact us (The University of Manchester Library)

1.15 Library 

The University of Manchester Library is one of only five National Research Libraries. With more than 4 million printed books and manuscripts, over 41,000 electronic journals and 500,000 electronic books, as well as several hundred databases, the library is one of the best-resourced academic libraries in the country. Library opening hours are available at: https://www.library.manchester.ac.uk/locations-and-opening-hours/ 

1.16 Computers 

The University has PC clusters available for use across the campus, in addition to Library laptop and iPad loans. 

1.17 Developing Digital Skills 

Throughout your time at University, you will be supported to develop the digital skills and confidence needed for your studies and career. A range of support and development opportunities are available to you, including being able to: 

• Self-assess your digital skills with the Jisc Discovery tool, by completing questionnaires on digital capability, AI and Employability and getting your personalised report 

• Enhance your digital and professional development through LinkedIn Learning 

• Gain recognition through an industry recognised certification 

• Become a Digital Capability Student Rep through the Students’ Union 

Our University is committed to digital equity, and you can learn more about this in the Student Digital Equity Charter which is co-owned with the University of Manchester Students’ Union. 

1.18 Social Space 

There are lots of spaces to explore around the campus where you can eat, drink, study and socialise.  There are cosy campus spaces, including one on the third floor of the Stopford Building, which provide hot water and microwave stations for students to use.  If you are a commuter student, there is a student space designed just for you in the Booth Street East Building.  The space has comfortable seating, study pods, kitchen facilities, lockers, prayer spaces and shower facilities. 

In the Stopford Building, you can find the Student Common Room on the first floor which can be used for study, as well as a group space for discussion and socialising.  The Stopford Support Hub and Library on the third floor also has facilities for quiet study as well as group work, and student activities are also organised in the Hub and advertised to students. 

1.19 Other facilities/resources

Food/Drink on Campus

There are a variety of places to eat and drink on campus. An up-to-date list can be found below.

Further places to eat on campus

1.20 University General Regulations 

The University has produced General Regulations, which are rules that students and staff must abide by.  Academic-related regulations, including degree regulations, policies on assessment and feedback, and attendance monitoring can be found on our Regulations webpages. 

2. About your programme

2.01 Programme overview of standard 3-year degree programmes

We offer a number of different degree programmes overseen by a dedicated Programme Director. Standard degree programmes are 3 years, and there are several 4-year pathways available. Programmes are built on a modular unit structure, and you will take a number of core (mandatory) and optional units each year. The course units available for each degree programme can be viewed online Course unit information| MyManchester.

Before choosing your teaching units, it is important to understand that the University has a system of credit rating of all course units, which is intended to give you an indication of the proportion of your time that the work of a unit is expected to take. A full year’s workload expected of you is 120 credits; this equates to 30 weeks work at 40 hours per week, hence a total of 1200 hours per academic year. Therefore, you can expect to spend ~100 hours on a typical 10-credit unit. This time includes all the work for that unit, such as reading, e-learning activities, assessments and revision, as well as direct contact hours.

It is extremely important and your responsibility to ensure that you take the correct number of units to meet the 120 credit requirement in each year of your studies, see Manual of Academic Procedures, and you should aim to take no more than 60 credits per semester; a maximum of 70 credits and minimum of 50 credits in one semester may be allowed, but only with the written consent of your Programme Director.

2.02 Aims and learning outcomes of the programme

The School’s general aims are to offer undergraduate students a broad and thorough education in biological sciences within an institutional culture of high-quality research and scholarship. The School aims to:

• deliver a range of broad and specialist degrees, informed by current research, which will equip students for careers within and outside science;
•  meet student requirements for diversity of provision and opportunity of transfer between disciplines within biological sciences by providing a structure of flexibility and choice within the undergraduate programmes;
•  provide students with subject-specific knowledge and practical skills linked to generic transferable skills which are integrated within the curriculum;
•  ensure students develop skills in independent learning;
•  provide a variety of teaching methods and assessment strategies, student choice and constructive feedback that will enable all students to succeed;
•  provide students with effective induction information, and ongoing academic and pastoral support and advice in order to enhance students’ learning experience and empower them to take ownership of their education and successfully progress to further study or employment;
•  focus skilled academic and professional services staff on student achievement, wellbeing and career readiness;
•  operate a management structure which monitors the delivery and quality of teaching provision in order to ensure high standards across our wide range of programmes;
•  endeavour to ensure wider access to all who may benefit from higher education;
• endeavour to ensure that students’ progress through programmes and acquire qualifications, knowledge and skills appropriate to their academic abilities, leading to positive exit paths;
•  endeavour to ensure that students enhance their employability by developing professional skills and competencies within the curriculum; provide inclusive learning spaces and welcome activities to contribute to an environment where students can thrive and achieve their aspirations;
• provide inclusive curricula and course materials that reflect diverse experiences, validate student identities and provide a space for positive challenge, debate and engagement;
• create learning spaces that encourage collaboration and informal interactions;
• provide inclusive teaching and learning practices to ensure that all students feel valued, included and a sense of belonging within the educational community.

2.03 Summary of the programme structure

The programmes are built on a unit (modular) structure. You will take:

• 9 Lecture-based units over the year
• An Experimental Design Module (EDM, practical unit) in the first semester (except Biology with Science and Society)
• A Research Skills Module (RSM) in the second semester
• An extended essay
•  A tutorial unit over the year

In Semester 1, you will undertake an Experimental Design Module (EDM). This module has been designed to place an emphasis on the design and interpretation of experiments and will allow you to advance from Year 1 practical’s by making experimental choices appropriate to the practical. There are three EDM strands:

(Molecular & Cell Biology, Organismal Biology, Human Sciences) and the strand you take will be dictated by your Degree Programme.

In Semester 2, you will do a Research Skills Module (RSM), the nature of which will depend on your Degree Programme. For most Degree Programmes there is a specific RSM. If you are a Biochemistry, Biology, Biomedical Sciences, Biotechnology, Medical Biochemistry student you may choose a RSM according to your interest. Note that some RSMs may have EDM or lecture unit pre-/co-requisites and may be limited in the number of students that can be accommodated. Entry for RSMs for which numbers are restricted will be based on your overall first year mark.

•  Students must ensure their student ID is entered correctly as unrecognised IDs will count as nil submissions
•  Where students fail to submit a choice by the deadline, they will be allocated an appropriate RSM based on availability
• Where multiple surveys are returned, we can only take the last submission recorded. Where an RSM is oversubscribed allocation will be based on Year 1 average, and if students are unsuccessful in obtaining a place on their first choice we will endeavour to allocate 2nd (or 3rd choice where applicable)
•  You must take into account any pre-co requisites for your RSM preferences as failure to register for any mandatory requirements may result in re-allocation.

Most RSMs will consist of a block of practical’s over 4 weeks at the rate of three 6-hour sessions per week and will usually occur in weeks 1-4 or 5-8. Where appropriate, field courses, including Urban Biodiversity constitute the RSM and will occur in part of or all the Easter or Summer vacation.

You must ensure that you take 120 credits for each year of study – this is most important and your responsibility. You should take no more than 60 credits per semester (maximum exception of 70 credits allowed, and only with written Programme Director consent) and no less than 50 credits as specified in the University’s Manual of Academic Procedures.

For each programme there are core units that define your Degree Programme plus a range of optional units (Section Course unit profiles). You may choose your optional lecture-only units from those provided by the School of Biological Sciences (coded BIOL) and some units from outside the School. No more than 20 credits of your lecture-based units should be taken from units without a BIOL code (this will differ for programmes such as Biology with Science and Society, and Cognitive Neuroscience & Psychology – in all cases please refer to your Programme Structure).

You should carefully read the unit descriptions before deciding upon your optional units and also take account of potential timetable clashes between your chosen options (see Section Units that clash (Level 1) (Level 2) (Level 3)). Guidance on your choice of units should be sought from your Academic advisor or Programme Director. It is recommended that you do 4/5 lecture units in each semester in Year 2. Failure to balance your lecture units in this way could significantly increase your workload in one semester relative to the other. In Year 3, it is recommended that you take 4 lecture units in semester 1 and 2 lecture units in semester 2 to balance your workload. Note that units taken from outside the School may have coursework components that are unlike those offered by units from within the School.

All teaching including lectures, tutorials and practical’s will be delivered on campus. Most lecture units will comprise two face-to-face teaching sessions per week. These sessions will be captured by podcast and will be available for catch-up purposes and revision after the lecture has finished. There are a few units offered outside the School that are yearlong and are examined in May/June.

The University has a system of credit rating of all course units. It is intended to give you an indication of the proportion of your time that all the work of a unit is expected to occupy and is based on a full year’s work being 120 credits. This figure assumes 30 weeks’ work at 40 hours per week. Therefore, you can expect to spend ~100 hours on a typical 10-credit unit. This time includes, for example, reading, eLearning materials, writing and revision, as well as direct contact hours.

Tutorials are held in small groups of 10-12 students. These occur at times convenient to your Academic Tutor and the students in the group, which may be 8.00-9.00 or 17:00-18:00.

 Please be aware that the School reserves the right to withdraw or alter units should there be changes in academic staff or insufficient registrations. See our student support website for further information and guidance on using the course unit selection system. If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact: sbs.programmes@manchester.ac.uk

Degrees “with industrial/professional experience” placement

Onsbs.programmes@manchester.ac.uk this pathway you attend the standard BSc degree programme but ‘intercalate’ your studies after the second year with a placement of at least 9 months in an industrial or academic research environment. The placement is assessed via a project report and an oral viva examination at the start of your final year. Placement experience will help with later career decisions and significantly strengthen your success on future job or PhD applications.

Additional intended learning outcomes of the ‘with industrial/professional experience’ placement pathway are:

•  gained experience in professional work environments including the required interpersonal and professional skills;
•  high quality practical skills and specific knowledge relating to science in applied settings developed interpersonal skills within a workplace environment.

Students on this degree pathway will take the same units in Years 1 and 2 as the students on standard BSc degree programmes (although your programme director may suggest certain optional units that better prepare you for a placement). You will apply for your placement during Year 2, and the placement office will support you with information events and lists of available placements. However, be aware that placements are obtained competitively and cannot be guaranteed, often requiring a formal application including your curriculum vitae, reference letters (e.g. from your advisor) and potentially involving an interview. Following the placement year, you will continue with your university studies by completing the third year of your BSc degree programme. At the start of this Final Year, you will submit (and be viva’ed on) a written Placement year report worth approximately 9% of the overall degree mark.

Eligibility & progression: to remain eligible for a placement when progressing into Year 2, you must, in addition to the standard Year 1 progression criteria, fulfil the following criteria:

•  obtain an overall year average of at least 60%
•  pass all compulsory (ie non-compensatable) units with mark of at least 40%

Please note that the requirement to pass core units at first attempt cannot be avoided by changing to a programme where they are not core. If you do not meet these criteria, your course will be automatically changed to a standard degree.

Students who terminate their placement early and do not complete a minimum of 9 months, will not be eligible to graduate ‘with Industrial/Professional Experience’. They will be transferred to the respective three-year BSc degree programme, and must apply for an interruption to cover for the disallowed placement year.

Degrees “with modern language” placement

Description: This degree pathway is organised as the “with industrial/professional experience” pathway, with two key differences: (1) in all three academic years, you replace 20 credits per year of your optional degree units with language courses (listed on the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures website; 40 credits in the case of with-Japanese or Mandarin); (2) language placements are restricted to universities in countries that match your chosen language and with whom the School of Biological Sciences has a student exchange agreement. Language placements are for 9 months (in Europe) or 10 months (in Japan and China). On completing the four-year joint degrees with a language, students will have:

•  acquired a sound working knowledge of the target language including its use in the context of the biological sciences;
•  acquired an appreciation of the culture and institutions of an appropriate country;
• gained experience of research work in an overseas institution.

Timetabling may be challenging so you must check carefully that your core units do not clash (tell the staff in the Student Support Hub immediately if they do). You may only choose optional units that do not clash with your language schedule.

To begin discussions about potential placements, you will be contacted by the Language Placement Coordinator (Patrick Gallois) at the beginning of Year 2, who remains an important point of contact in addition to the Placement Office. It will be your responsibility to visit the websites of candidate universities and identify and contact the local student exchange coordinator (the Placement Office can provide details) as well as potential project supervisors during Semester 1 of Year 2. You are guaranteed a placement under the exchange agreement, but you may have to approach various supervisors before you are accepted into a research group. Following the placement year, you will continue with your university studies by completing the third year of your BSc degree programme. At the start of this Final Year, you will submit (and be viva’ed on) a written Placement year report worth approximately 9% of the overall degree mark.

Eligibility & progression: To remain eligible for a “with modern language” placement, when progressing into Year 2 you must, in addition to the standard Year 1 progression criteria, fulfil the following criteria:

•  obtain an overall year average of at least 60%
•  pass all compulsory (i.e. non-compensatable) units with mark of at least 40%

Any language unit you take cannot be compensated, and a minimum mark of 40% must be achieved for you to remain on the Modern Language pathway. If you are removed from the Modern Language programme due to failure of a language unit at first attempt, but the mark is in the compensation range (30-39%), compensation can then be applied following the standard compensation rules.

Degrees “with Entrepreneurship” placement

Description: You will choose a standard BSc degree programme where you will take units worth 100 credits in each of the three years. The remaining 20 credits per year are entrepreneurship units that replace optional units on your standard degree and are chosen from a list on the Alliance Manchester Business School’s Masood (Manchester) Entrepreneurship Centre (MEC):

Masood Entrepreneurship Centre | The University of Manchester

Timetabling may be challenging so you must check carefully that your core units do not clash (otherwise inform the staff in the Student Support Hub without delay). You may only choose optional units that do not clash with your business units. Following year 2, you will intercalate by performing an industry placement (120 credits). On completing the four-year “with Entrepreneurship” programme, you will have:

•  acquired knowledge of business skills including research & development, financial planning, exploring the market potential of products and processes and creating business plans;
•  acquired skills in applying entrepreneurial knowledge to turn scientific discoveries and research into applications.

During Year 2, you will be helped by the Placement Office to apply for placements in industry settings. However, placements are obtained competitively, and a place cannot be guaranteed; it will require a formal application including your curriculum vitae, reference letters (e.g. from your advisor) and potentially involving an interview. Following the placement year, you will continue with your university studies by completing the third year of your BSc degree programme. At the start of this Final Year, you will submit (and be viva’ed on) a written Placement year report worth approximately 9% of the overall degree mark.

Eligibility & progression: To remain eligible for a “with Entrepreneurship” placement, when progressing into Year 2 you must, in addition to the standard Year 1 progression criteria, fulfil the following criteria:

•  obtain an overall year average of at least 60%
•  pass all compulsory (i.e. non-compensatable) units with mark of at least 40%

If you fail to meet these requirements, you will be changed to the corresponding 3-year BSc degree.

Degree programmes with “integrated master” (MSci)

Description: You will choose a standard BSc degree programme and attend the first two years normally. In year 3, you will take the degree-specific five lecture units including their exams and attend the standard tutorial sessions which will prepare you for problem and essay papers in the final exams. You will not engage in any ‘final year project’ units that would normally form part of your degree programme. Instead, you will be assigned to one of your chosen MSci projects in a Manchester research group at start of semester 5, and participate in the following units:

• BIOL33000 MSci Research Project Proposal (10 credits) – writing a literature review and outline of your future MSci project (overseen by your future project supervisor)
• BIOL33012 MSci Experimental Skills Module (20 credits) – a two-week group practical in the subject area of your degree programme

Up to two of the following (as determined by your Programme Director):

• BIOL33011 MSci Bioinformatics Tools and Resources (10 credits)
• BIOL33021 Computational Approaches to Biology (10 credits)
• BIOL33031 Reproducible Data Science (10 credits)

During Year 4, you will complete a seven-month research project which includes the marked completion of an oral presentation, poster presentation and project report. On completing the four-year MSci programmes, students will have:

• gained experience in the planning and design of cutting-edge research;
• developed high quality experimental, data analysis and data management skills;
• acquired skills in the different forms of science communication.

Eligibility & progression: to remain eligible for the MSci programme, when progressing into Year 2 you must, in addition to the standard Year 1 progression criteria, fulfil the following criteria:

•  obtain an overall year average of at least 60%
•  pass all compulsory (i.e. non-compensatable) units with mark of at least 40%

In addition, the number of places on the MSci degree pathway in Year 3 is limited to 70 students from all BSc degree programmes, and student admission will be determined by rank of performance at the end of Year 2. If you fail to meet the progression criteria or fall below the admission threshold, your course will automatically be changed to the standard 3-year BSc programme.

It is possible to apply to transfer onto the MSci pathway at any point until a deadline in the late spring of Year 2 provided that all MSci progression criteria (including one’s performance exceeding the admission threshold) have been met. The only exception is where students registered for a Placement programme and receive an offer of a Placement that had been applied for, at which point transfer to MSci is no longer possible. (For deadlines and procedures see the Year 2 handbook).

On completing the four-year joint degrees with a language, students will have:  acquired a sound working knowledge of the target language including aspects specific to biological sciences;

• acquired an appreciation of the culture and institutions of an appropriate country;
• gained experience of research work in an overseas institution.

On completing the four-year MSci programmes, students will have:

• gained experience in the planning and design of research addressing a timely research question;
• developed high quality practical skills and the ability to analyse multiple lines of experimental evidence;
• acquired skills in the presentation of research findings.

On completing the four-year with Entrepreneurship programmes, students will have:

•  acquired knowledge of business skills through research & development of business opportunities, financial planning, exploring the market potential of products and processes and creating business plans
• gained experience of transferring their theoretical and practical skills developed within the University to the workplace;
• acquired skills in applying entrepreneurial knowledge to a range of applications including the sciences.

2.04 Modes of study

The programmes covered in this handbook are full-time in-person programmes.

2.05 Programme specification

All our programme specifications are kept internally within the School.

2.06 Outlines of units

Outlines of all our units can be found here: Course unit information | MyManchester

2.07 Information on the way in which a student can progress through the programme

 The pass mark for each unit examination is 40%, and ideally you should pass all the units for which you are registered. However, the examination board recognises that not all students will achieve this, and some students may pass most of their units, getting good marks in some but just failing others. The compensation rules below are therefore used, whereby strong marks can compensate for some fail marks.  The maximum amount of credits which can be compensated across the entire academic year is 40 credits. However, this is at the discretion of the examination board and there is never a guarantee that the board will permit compensation to be granted.

To obtain a compensated pass in the Year 2 Course Units as a whole you must:

•  have satisfactory attendance at tutorials and practical classes
•  gain a mark of at least 40% in the Tutorial unit BIOL20000, BIOL21392 Science Communication unit, the EDM unit appropriate to your Degree Programme, and in all designated compulsory units for your Degree Programme (see below)
•  achieve marks of at least 40% in each of the units totalling 80 credits (including the tutorial,  the BIOL21392 Science Communication unit, the EDM unit and compulsory units) and at least 30% in each of the remaining 40 credits

NB – Failure of the Tutorial unit BIOL20000 will lead to the loss of the ability to have compensation applied to any unit and all unit assessments with marks less than 40% will have to be re-sat.

NB – For ALL programmes, the relevant EDM unit (BIOL21041, BIOL21051 or BIOL21061), and the Science Communication unit (BIOL21392) are non-compensatable, which means that a mark of 40% must be achieved to pass the unit and any mark below 40 will need to be re-sat. Failing any of these units, will not, however result in the loss of any possible compensation for other units as with the failure of the Tutorial unit.

In addition, for some Degree Programmes, at least one core non-compensatable unit has been designated in which you must attain a mark of at least 40%. Failure of these units will not result in overall loss of compensation. Please also note that referrals of these units cannot be avoided by changing to a programme where they are not compensatable. Students are expected to complete the year on their current degree programme.

It is not possible for ANY failed non-compensatable unit credits to be carried forward to the next year of your study, and failure of the resit of any of these units will result in your exclusion from the programme.

For most Degree Programmes, at least one core non-compensatable unit has been designated in which you must attain a mark of at least 40%. However, failure of these units will not result in overall loss of compensation. Please also note that referrals of these units cannot be avoided by changing to a programme where they are compensatable. Students are expected to complete the year on their current degree programme. Also failed non-compensatable unit credits cannot be carried forward to the next year. A list of these units follows:

Level 2 Non-compensatable units

BSc Biochemistry

BIOL21111 Proteins

BSc Immunology

BIOL21242 Immunology
BIOL20952 Immunology RSM

BSc Medical Biochemistry

BIOL21351 Molecules and Cells in Human Disease

BSc Medical Physiology

BIOL20942 Physiology RSM

BSc Microbiology

BIOL21181 Fundamentals of Bacteriology
BIOL21192 Principles of Infectious Diseases

BSc Molecular Biology

BIOL21101 Genome Maintenance & Regulation

BSc Pharmacology

BIOL21302 Clinical Drug Development

BSc Zoology

BIOL20552 Tropical Ecology & Conservation (RSM Field Course) *
BIOL20872 Urban Biodiversity & Conservation RSM*
BIOL21082 Biodiversity (RSM Field Course)*
* Students will take only one of these units

Some field courses do not take place until after the date that we are required to hold the Examiners’ meeting. Therefore, marks for these field course units will be excluded and the compensation rules will be applied only to the units that have been taken. However, you should note that:

• If you obtain a fail mark in a field course and no compensation is available after applying the compensation rules across ALL your units, you will be required to complete a substantial assignment in lieu of a referral of a field course.
• the field course marks WILL be included in the calculation of your mean year mark that will contribute towards your final degree mark.

The University gives the Board of Examiners the right to refuse a referral to a student whose Work and Attendance has been unsatisfactory and who has received an official warning letter.

If after the application of the above compensation rules you are found to have failed overall, then you will be required to take referral (resit) examinations in the August/September resit examination period. If you have passed 40 or more credits at the first attempt the Board of Examiners will specify which unit assessments you are required to refer in order to gain at least a compensated pass in the August/September examinations.

Second Year

Second year assessments and examinations contribute 30% towards your final degree mark or 19% for MSci students. For students directly entering Year 2, assessments and examinations contribute 33% towards the final degree mark.

Allocation to projects in the final year and eligibility for post-graduate study in the School will also be based on second year performance.

Note: the Board of Examiners may choose to exclude you from further study if you are absent without explanation from all exams in a given examination period or if you fail on first attempt more than 80 credits worth of assessments.

2.08 Consequences of unsatisfactory progress

Please see section 2.13

2.09 Programme Specific Regulations

Not relevant to programme.

2.10 Professional and statutory body requirements

All four-year ‘with industrial/professional experience’ and ‘with language’ degrees have been accredited by the Society of Biology.  Degree accreditation by the Society recognises academic excellence in the biosciences, and highlights degrees that educate the research and development leaders and innovators of the future (more information is available here). The accreditation criteria require evidence that graduates from the programme meet defined sets of learning outcomes, including gaining a substantial period of research experience. Our School has been successful in demonstrating that these programmes meet these criteria.  In recognition of your time spent on industrial/professional, or with language placement, as a graduate of an accredited programme, you can apply for membership of the Society of Biology at Member (MSB) level after just one year of practice, rather than the usual three years. This will allow you to attain the qualifications of Chartered Biologist or Chartered Scientist two years sooner than graduates from other Degree Programmes. Further information is available from the Society of Biology .

2.11 Fieldwork and placements or study abroad

Field courses

Field courses will be available to students of the Biology, Biology with Science and Society, and Zoology Degree Programmes. All field courses, whether residential or non- residential, are ~2 weeks in duration. They take place during the Easter or summer vacation at locations suitable for marine or terrestrial field work within the UK and overseas.

If you are studying Zoology, you will enrol on a 10-credit field course as part of your compulsory units in both your first and second year. Other degree programmes offer a field course as part of the practical unit requirement in Year 1 or the Research Skills Module (RSM) in Year 2 Course unit information | MyManchester. The following field courses are available:

Year 2

BIOL20552 Tropical Ecology & Conservation

BIOL20872 Urban Biodiversity & Conservation  BIOL20182 Island Biodiversity

There are a number of requirements to attend field courses:

• For those taking field courses, it is compulsory to attend the Field Course Talk in Semester 1, where you will be given essential information beyond what is provided here. For further advice and information, please contact Dr Ben Chapman.
• It is very important that you are fully committed to attending and paying the fee for your field course so that we can effectively plan the trips; we start booking flights and accommodation at the end of Semester 1. We therefore require a £300-500 non-refundable deposit to secure your place on residential field courses, to be paid at the time of If you have any concerns about paying for a field course, please contact the Student Support Hub for advice.
• You will be asked to sign a declaration form to confirm that you will meet all the requirements for attending your field course. In addition to payment, all students need to fill in all compulsory documentation pre and post their field courses by the given deadlines: My Placement.  All students undertaking residential and non-residential field courses must complete a Travel Health Self-Assessment. Depending on the location of your field course and the information included in your Travel Health Self-Assessment, you may need to attend an appointment with Occupational Health or your own GP. The field course administrative team will provide links and guidance.
•  Residential Field Courses outside of Europe: Your medical fitness to travel must be confirmed by our Occupational Health team, who will issue your ‘Fitness to Travel’ certificate which you will need to submit to the Field Course Administration Team and which is required to be fully covered by the University’s Travel Insurance policy (including any claim relating to your pre-existing condition). For this, you require not only the self-assessment, but you also have to fill out the Health Screening Questionnaire and may need to attend an appointment with Occupational Health who will also determine whether you require vaccinations. You will therefore be required to submit a copy of your vaccination history; please be fully up-to-date with your NHS vaccination schedule.
•  UK students travelling in Europe will need a valid UK Global Health Insurance Card which can be arranged online.
•  For your own safety and comfort, it is strongly advised to bring suitable footwear and clothing.

2.12 Additional costs

All students must normally be able to complete their programme of study without having to pay additional study costs over and above the tuition fee for that programme. Any unavoidable additional compulsory costs totalling more than 1% of the annual home undergraduate fee per annum must be made clear at the point of application and in the programme handbooks, with details of what these costs are.

Optional costs must be made clear at the point of application and in the programme handbooks. Where costs are unknown or uncertain, information about how these will be calculated must be set out.

2.13 Degree classification algorithm

The Taught Degree Regulations for students can be found on the University website here

During your degree programme, you will complete 360 credits across 3 years (480 across 4 years for MSci). Each course unit you complete carries a weighting in credits and an average is calculated at the end of each year of the marks you have achieved, and these year averages are then in turn used to calculate your final degree mark out of 100. Course units are counted in to your degree mark based on their weighting in credits, so a 20-credit course unit would be counted in to the year average twice, whilst a 10-credit course unit would be counted in to the average once.

Your year average is calculated as an average of all your marks across the full academic year. Please note that in cases where students have approved mitigating circumstances for some of their marks, the final mark may be calculated differently, at the discretion of the exam board, for example a 10-credit unit where the student has under-performed may be excluded from the final calculation.

Note that units graded as Pass/Fail only (i.e. the Tutorial Units) are not included in the year average mark calculation, but the credits are still awarded for these units for progression purposes.

At the final examination board, your final degree mark is calculated by weighting the years of your degree programme to calculate a final overall degree mark, which would then be used to determine your classification. The weightings of each year depend on whether you are registered on a 3-year or 4-year degree programme; the weightings are shown in the table below:

UG Programme type	Year 1 %	Year 2 %	Placement Year %	Year 3 %	Year 4 %
BSc (Hons) (standard 3 year degree)	10%	30%	N/A	60%	N/A
Integrated Masters (MSci)	6%	19%	N/A	37.5%	37.5%
With Industrial Experience	10%	30%	10% *	60%	N/A
With Entrepreneurship	10%	30%	10%*	60%	N/A
With Modern Language	10%	30%	10% *	60%	N/A

*For programmes where a placement year is completed (Industrial Experience, Modern Language, Entrepreneurship), your placement year (assessed by your placement report), is counted in to your final degree mark as an additional 10%, giving you a total degree mark out of 110. This is then re-weighted to a mark our of 100 and this stands as your final degree mark.

All degree marks are rounded to 1 decimal place. Year averages are rounded to 3 decimal places.

Please see below some example degree mark calculations:

3 Year BSc:

Year 1 Mark: 67.332

Year 2 Mark: 71.226

Year 3 Mark: 80.331

The calculation would be:

(67.332 x 0.1) + (71.226 x 0.3) + (80.331 x 0.6) = 76.3

3 Year BSc with Placement Year (Industrial Experience, Modern Language, Entrepreneurship):

Year 1 Mark: 67.332

Year 2 Mark: 71.226

Placement Year Mark: 68

Year 3 Mark: 80.331

The calculation would be:

(67.332 x 0.1) + (71.226 x 0.3) + (68 x 0.1) + (80.331 x 0.6) = 83.0996 / 110 x 100 = 75.5

4 Year Integrated Masters (MSci):

Year 1 Mark: 67.332

Year 2 Mark: 71.226

Year 3 Mark: 80.331

Year 4 Mark: 75

The calculation would be:

(67.332 x 0.06) + (71.226 x 0.19) + (80.331 x 0.375) + (75 x 0.375) = 75.8

Degree Classification

For Undergraduate Programmes, students must achieve an overall degree average of at least 40% to be eligible for a BSc award. If you achieve an average below 40%, you will not be awarded a BSc award, but may be eligible for a lower exit award of an Ordinary Degree, Diploma in Higher Education or a Certificate in Higher Education.

In the third year of your degree programme, you must achieve at least 80 credits with marks of 40% or higher to be eligible for a BSc degree award of a 2.2 or higher (60 credits for an award of a Third). Where this requirement has been met; for credits below 40%, ‘Special Compensation’ can be applied which still permits you to gain credit for these units, however they will still be counted in to your overall degree average.

Degree Classifications are awarded as follows:

Bachelors Degree classification weighted to 120 credits	Classification thresholds: weighted average (0 to 100 mark range)	Boundary zone weighted average
First class	70.0	68.0 to 69.9
Upper Second class	60.0	58.0 to 59.9
Lower Second class	50.0	48.0 to 49.9
Third class	40.0	37.0 to 39.9

 

Please note that unlike the BSc degrees, it is not possible to attain a 3^rd class for an MSci degree. Consequently, MSci students who obtain a final mark of less than 50% will fail the MSci degree. However, you will be able to graduate with BSc (Hons) degree based on your performance during your first three years.

Classification Review:

For final degree marks which fall within the boundary zone; 2 marks of the higher classification (68 – 69.9% for a First or 58 – 59.9% for a 2.1 etc.), the examination board will consider whether there is a case for the student to be awarded the higher classification and in some cases students will be awarded the higher classification where their final degree mark falls in the boundary zone.

PLEASE NOTE: There is no guarantee if your final degree mark falls in the boundary zone that you will be awarded the higher degree classification. This will only be awarded automatically if you have achieved a degree mark above the degree classification boundary (e.g. 70 for a First).

If your mark falls in the boundary zone; you will only be awarded the higher degree classification if two thirds or more of the credits you have completed during the final your degree programme (80 credits or more) are marks at the higher degree classification, you will be automatically promoted to the higher degree classification (so 80 credits with marks of 70 and above would be needed to be promoted to a First)

There is no classification review available for the classification of a Third; any degree mark below 40 cannot be awarded a BSc degree under any circumstances.

Integrated Masters (MSci) only: Further to the classification review outlined above, if your final degree mark falls in the boundary zone and you are still not eligible to be promoted to the higher classification, you will be given the opportunity to complete a Viva Voce examination with the external examiner who will then make a recommendation to the exam board as to whether they feel the student should be awarded the higher classification or not, and the board will then make a final decision. This is available only in the fourth year of the MSci programme, and is not available on any of the 3-year BSc programmes.

3. Assessment and academic standards

3.01    Assessment

Criteria for marking answers on theory examination papers can be found here: Marking Schemes

Examination feedback

Students have a right to receive feedback on their examination performance from Unit Coordinators. This may be done in a number of ways:

Unit Coordinator may publish a general feedback document outlining how questions were answered, addressing general strengths and weaknesses of students and giving a general indication of how well the questions were answered.

For handwritten (paper) exams, script viewing sessions will be organised following the release of examination results where students will be able to view handwritten feedback provided by markers in their exam scripts. Students will be notified in advance when the session is due to take place and will be able to request specifically which scripts they want to view in advance. Students will be able to view all exam scripts in the same session.

HOWEVER, PLEASE NOTE

that for MCQ Examinations, there is no opportunity to view the answer sheets, exam paper or solutions. However, following the release of semester 2 results, students will have the opportunity to receive a feedback email for each unit they are resitting which will inform them of which topics they lost marks on to help them better prepare for the resit examinations. Students who are eligible to receive this feedback will be contacted following the release of semester 2 results.

that a student DOES NOT have the right to challenge any academic judgements on the quality of the answer. This means there is NO opportunity for papers to be re-marked.

Guidelines on feedback to students during the teaching period

Feedback is a broad term, which can be interpreted in different ways. The purpose of this section is to define the activities associated with feedback mechanisms, as they relate to lecture-based BIOL units so that you are aware of the feedback available for any unit which you decide to take.

Lecturers are expected to provide general guidance to students on appropriate reading material and other learning resources for the unit in advance of the start of the unit.

We encourage you to ask questions through any appropriate medium. If you ask questions, for example by email, please make sure you include your own interpretation of the answer, including the literature sources that you used, and ask whether your interpretation or understanding are correct. For example:

Wrong format: “Can you tell me the primary role of voltage-gated sodium channels?”

Correct format: “It is my understanding that voltage-gated sodium channels are primarily responsible for the depolarising phase of the action potential. I used Kandel’s Principles of Neuroscience to obtain this information. Is this correct?”

NB: The School does not publish marking schemes or answers to examination questions – you are expected to deduce these yourself using textbooks, peers, and PASS sessions.

In addition to providing the mandatory level of feedback, Unit Coordinators may provide more detailed feedback on your work. You should consult the feedback entry within the unit description in this handbook for further details on the additional feedback provided.

Please note that the comments on examination papers are intended primarily to allow the first marker to communicate the rationale for their marking to the moderator and external examiner. These comments are not written with the [primary] aim of providing feedback to the student, although the student may find that the comments do provide them with beneficial insights into their performance.

Deadlines, penalties and document limits

Deadlines: Items of coursework, such as essays and write-ups,  have strict deadlines. Submission dates and times are in UK local time, and it is the responsibility of students to ensure that they check the relevant time zone. Any work that has been submitted at least 1 minute past the deadline or later is classed as late, except in cases where an extension has already been agreed via DASS, the extensions process or mitigating circumstances.

All submission deadlines for summative coursework assessments are at 2pm. You may see in Canvas that your submission deadline is showing as 14:01 rather than 14:00. Your submission deadline is still 2pm, however the system will display this as 14:01 to ensure that any work submitted up to 14:00:59 is not incorrectly flagged as late and incorrectly penalised. Please keep in mind that all, submission times are 14:00 and whilst deadlines will show as 14:01 in Canvas, any submission from 14:01:00 onwards will be penalised.

Late submission will be subject to a penalty consisting in a reduction of 10 marks per each 24 hours or part thereof past the deadline until a mark of zero is reached. At 10 days late submission, the work is considered as not submitted and the school reserves the right to not mark the work or provide feedback. Students who submit referral assignments after the deadline will be automatically subject to a mark of zero. The full university guidance on late submission can be found here.

Page/word limit: Coursework will normally have a specified content limit. This will normally be a maximum page number or word count (usually with a 10% margin). It is your responsibility to ensure that you understand exactly what the limits are and how they are to be achieved. Exceeding the specified page limit will result in a deduction of 20 marks per page or part thereof.

Format: A typical School of Biological Sciences instruction for coursework including essays, reports and write-ups is worded along the lines of: “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 to be read and understood with ease.” You should conform to the format that has been specified. If the work needs to be converted to a PDF for submission you must check very carefully

that the conversion is accurate and conforms to the guidelines well in advance of the submission deadline. A penalty of 20 marks (out of 100) will be applied to all SBS coursework or exams that are incorrectly formatted (i.e. does not follow the specified guidelines on line spacing, margins, figure position, sections etc). Existing penalties for lateness (10 marks per day or part thereof) and length (20 marks per page or part thereof) will continue to be applied as noted above. Where an assignment is incorrectly formatted and up to one page over length, then a single 20-mark penalty will be applied.

3.02 Dissertation

Information about this can be found in the final year handbook.

3.03 Examinations and coursework

Examinations

The Year 2 lecture unit exams consist of written examinations. These examinations will all be on-campus, invigilated exams under closed book conditions.

Written exams will be sat during the examination period at the end of the semester in which the unit is taught (i.e. January or May/June). Units that run across both semesters will normally be examined in the May/June exam period. Units taken from other Schools may be examined at a different time.

Attendance at all appropriate examinations is compulsory.

To prepare for examinations, you are encouraged to use any quizzes and practice exercises posted on Canvas and to look at copies of past examination papers and any mock examples available. These can be obtained from the My Learning tab in your MyManchester portal, where you can search for papers by Faculty, School, exam name or code, year or semester. If the unit has no past papers the Unit Coordinator should make questions available that are representative of the kind that will be set in the examination available at least 6 weeks before the exam which will be representative of the kind that will be set in the examination.

The pass mark for unit examinations is 40%. You will normally be expected to pass all the units you have taken before you can proceed to the next academic year. However, compensation may be possible if you fail a unit by a small amount, when the examiners may allow you an overall “compensated pass”. Otherwise, all units failed must be re-taken during the August/September examination period. Compensation is at the discretion of the examination board and not a guarantee under any circumstances, so you should aim for a minimum mark of 40% in every unit to ensure your progression on the programme. There are also several circumstances where compensation is not possible (see ‘Pass marks and compensation rules’ for more information).

You may not normally start the next academic year of your degree programme until you have passed the examinations in your current academic year, so failure again in August/September may lead to you being excluded from further courses and examinations in the School of Biological Sciences.

NB: Calculators capable of storing and retrieving text (or having a full alphabet keyboard) are not permitted in University examinations. Please refer to the “Guidance on the use of calculators in examinations” for further information.

Multiple choice examinations

The majority of the examinations for first year units and a few examinations for second year units will be wholly or partly comprised of Multiple-Choice Questions (MCQs). You are advised:

•  to follow carefully all written instructions for completing the examination and ensure you provide all your answers on the MCQ answer sheet provided by the invigilator.
•  to make yourself familiar with the various rubrics that we use by looking at past examination papers, mock examination papers and exemplar questions provided by the unit delivery team.
•  to read the rubric to questions carefully. For example, one rubric may ask you to choose the ONE MOST SUITABLE option, and another may ask you to identify the ONE INCORRECT option.
•  to read the questions carefully; a good MCQ is intended to make you recall and apply the material you have been taught in lectures
•  that all MCQs in the School, unless otherwise stated, are marked by a technique that includes a negative correction for wrong answers. The correction that is subtracted for each wrong answer is 1/(n-1), where n is the number of answer options. This is intended to ensure that you will gain no benefit from guessing at random. All questions will include an option which will allow you to decline to answer the question, thereby scoring zero, rather than randomly guessing an answer and risking a negative score. Despite this negative marking, unless the number of options is few (three or fewer), it is to your advantage to make informed guesses,  i.e. if you know some of the options can be excluded, you should make a guess at the other options. On average you will gain more marks when you get these informed guesses right than you will lose when you get them wrong.

Most of the work submitted in tutorials is assessed. You must obtain a pass mark on this work to be able to progress to Year 3. If you obtain a mean mark of <40% for your tutorial work, OR if your attendance is unsatisfactory, you will fail BIOL20000 and will be required to write an extended essay during the summer vacation.

The compensation rules for examinations will only be applied if you pass the tutorial assessments AND fulfil the attendance requirement for tutorials units.

3.04 Laboratory work and practical reports

Most of the practicals will require you to do some background reading before the session, so please come prepared.

Practical work is assessed either as written work that you submit during or at the end of a unit, your ability to perform a task during a practical session, and/or as an online assessment or examination at the end of the unit. Details of assessment will be given to you at the start of each unit. Short answer questions and essay-type questions are NOT negatively marked. You will not lose marks for incorrect material (but will not gain any either) so it is worth writing something, even if you are not sure it is correct.

If you fail to submit an assessment by the due date and time, it will not normally be possible for it to be marked. If ill-health prevents you attending a practical session or meeting a submission deadline, see Guidelines on ill health.

NB: In many practical classes you will work as one of a pair or larger group of students. Be careful that you feel confident with all the procedures yourself and do not leave it to others to do tasks for you: remember, in the exam you will be on your own. Furthermore, although you will most likely obtain results as part of a group, it is essential that any practical work that you submit for assessment is written in your own words, unless you have been specifically instructed to submit a group report (see Plagiarism, collusion and other forms of academic malpractice).

In Semester 2, you will do a Research Skills Module (RSM), the nature of which will depend on your Degree Programme. For most Degree Programmes there is a specific RSM. If you are a Biochemistry, Biology, Biomedical Sciences, Biotechnology, Medical Biochemistry student you may choose a RSM according to your interest. Note that some RSMs may have EDM or lecture unit pre-/co-requisites and may be limited in the number of students that can be accommodated. Entry for RSMs for which numbers are restricted will be based on your overall Year 1 mark.

•  Students must ensure their student ID is entered correctly as unrecognised IDs will count as nil submissions
•  Where students fail to submit a choice by the deadline, they will be allocated an appropriate RSM based on availability
• Where multiple surveys are returned we can only take the last submission recorded Where an RSM is oversubscribed allocation will be based on level 1 year average, and if students are unsuccessful in obtaining a place on their first choice we will endeavour to allocate 2nd (or 3rd choice where applicable)
•  You must take into account any pre-/corequisites for your RSM preferences as failure to register for any mandatory requirements may result in re-allocation

Most RSMs will consist of a block of practical’s over 4 weeks at the rate of three 6-hour sessions per week and will usually occur in weeks 1-4 or 5-8. Where appropriate, field courses, including Urban Biodiversity constitute the RSM and will occur in part of or all of the Easter or Summer vacation.

3.05 Examination Boards and release of marks

At designated points in the academic year, after each assessment period, all marks and assessments are considered by the Board of Examiners. Members of the Exam Board normally include the Programme Director, Unit Leads, lecturers, including markers and moderators, External Examiners,representatives from the clinical practice areas (where relevant) and representatives from the Assessment and Progression team.  No mark or grade is finalised until it has been considered by the board of examiners

You normally receive marks and grades before they have been ratified by the examination board; therefore all individual marks should be considered provisional until your final degree mark has been confirmed by the examination board and released to you. Please be aware that provisional marks could change after consideration by the Exam Board. Any change of marks is rare but if it does occur,  students  will be informed immediately. If the mark has been changed from a pass grade to a fail grade, and if you are eligible for a resit, an appropriate date for resubmission of the assessment will be given.

It is the purpose of the Exam Board to review student mark profiles anonymously and make decisions on the progression of students through the programme (such as resits or compensation). It is also the role of the Exam Board to identify students who cannot progress and will be exited from the programme, with an exit award where applicable.

3.06 Programme specific assessment requirements

August/September referrals

If you pass a minimum of 40 credits at 40% or above but have failed to meet the expected standard in up to 80 of the remaining credits, you will be able to have one more attempt at the assessment. This is known as a ‘referred assessment‘ and these assessments will normally take place during the August/September examination period. (for coursework-based referrals, these are usually completed in the 3 weeks before the resit examinations start).  This will all happen in good time for the examination board to make decisions on your progression for next year’s enrolment. Please note that:

• No more than 80 credits can be referred, e. if a student fails more than 80 credits, they will not be able to attend the re-sit exams. and will be excluded from the programme.
• It will be the mark that you obtain in the referral examination that will determine whether you obtain a pass in a unit (we do NOT take the better of marks obtained on the first or second attempt). The mark will be derived solely from the referral examination and will not include any coursework components carried over from the first sitting, unless the exam is being taken as a first attempt.
• Referral examinations are completed for credit only; any passed referral mark will be capped at 30% for the purposes of progression and will be recorded on academic transcripts as If your original mark for the unit was between 30 and 39, it will instead be capped at this mark, e.g. 35R. This is the mark that will then factor into your year mark and overall degree mark.
• Should you still not pass the examination on this referral (when the compensation rules will again be applied) the following decisions by the Board of Examiners may be taken: You may be:
  1. permitted to carry forward up to 20 failed credits to the next year of your degree programme , and complete them in the following academic year in addition to the 120 credits that you are taking at that level. The decisionon whether carrying credits will be permitted is at the discretion of the Board of Examiners and will be based on your academic standing and any mitigating circumstances. Whole units must be repeated in attendance; all lectures will need to be attended again, and all coursework assessments (inclduong those passed in the previous year) will need to be completed again. Marks are capped to the lowest compensatable mark. Failed non-compensatable units, cannot be carried over to subsequent levels See section 2.07.
  2. permitted to repeat the year on your current degree programme. This option is at the discretion of the Board of Examiners and can only be granted after the Board of Examiners meets in September to discuss the results of the referral examinations. It will normally only be available where you can demonstrate that your current academic performance was significantly impacted during the previous academic year, is likely to improve in the following year and will be dependent on availability of places for the following year. Due to limits on student numbers, this can only be offered in certain circumstances and it is not possible to simply request to repeat the y You may only do this if it is offered to you by the Board of Examiners.
  3. permitted to take a year where you would have to ‘Resit Without Attendance’ (RWA), which means that you would not attend any classes and would just take the referrals during the exam All outstanding assessments would need to be passed for you to progress to the next level of your programme. There are no tuition fees payable for an RWA year, however as a result access to university facilities and support services during this period may be limited.
  4. excluded from your degree programme

Dates for the August/September examination period are printed at the front of this handbook. Please consider this when making summer plans. Should you be ill and unable to take an examination in January or May/June, you will need to be available to complete  the deferral opportunity. It is NOT possible to take referral examinations at another location, online (where it is an on-campus examination), or to take them at a different time to the other students.

3.07 Prizes and awards

The examination board will award programme-level prizes to students and students who have won a prize will be notified of this ahead of the graduation ceremony, and would be presented with the prize after the ceremony has finished.

3.08 Statement about the use of Turnitin

The University uses electronic systems for the purposes of detecting plagiarism and other forms of academic malpractice and for marking.  Such systems include TurnitinUK, the plagiarism detection service used by the University. All work will be submitted through Canvas but is all checked for plagiarism against the Turnitin database.

As part of the formative and/or summative assessment process, you may be asked to submit electronic versions of your work to TurnitinUK and/or other electronic systems used by the University (this requirement may be in addition to a requirement to submit a paper copy of your work).  If you are asked to do this, you must do so within the required timescales.

The School also reserves the right to submit work handed in by you for formative or summative assessment to TurnitinUK and/or other electronic systems used by the University.

Please note that when work is submitted to the relevant electronic systems, it may be copied and then stored in a database to allow appropriate checks to be made.

3.09 Plagiarism and academic malpractice

These topics form an important part of the first stage of the Writing and Referencing skills modules in Year 1but general guidelines and advice are given hereunder.

 Academic Malpractice is a serious offence – it is treated as seriously as cheating in exams. As a student, you are expected to cooperate in the learning process throughout your programme of study by completing assignments of various kinds that are the product of your own study or research. Coursework, reports and essays submitted for assessment must be your own work, unless an assignment is a joint group projects as clearly instructed by the Unit Coordinator. Please, be aware that there are regular cases where students, knowingly or unknowingly, commit plagiarism or some other form of academic malpractice during their assignments, which is regarded a serious offence and will be penalised affecting the mark of your submission, and you may even fail the unit (with or without loss of credits).

It is your own responsibility to ensure that you understand what constitutes academic malpractice; COMMITTING ACADEMIC MALPRACTICE UNINTENTIONALLY IS NO DEFENCE!

Training on how to avoid malpractice will also form an important part of the first stage of the Writing and Referencing skills modules in Year 1, you will be given exercises and guidance on plagiarism/academic malpractice in tutorials; if you are still unsure about any aspect of this, you should ask your Academic Advisor for advice. Some brief guidance is provided in the following:

Academic malpractice includes plagiarism, collusion, fabrication or falsification of results and anything else intended by those committing it to achieve credit that they do not properly deserve. This also includes submitting work which you have previously submitted for credit – this is self-plagiarism.

You should be aware that all teaching materials and examination papers are subject to copyright by the University of Manchester. If these are shared externally, then you will be subject to academic malpractice procedures, and possible legal action.

All students are required to confirm that they have read and agree to the University’s declaration on Academic Malpractice as part of the online registration process.

A number of measures are taken to detect academic malpractice:

As part of the formative and/or summative assessment process, you may be asked to submit electronic versions of your work to TurnitinUK and/or other electronic systems for the purposes of detecting plagiarism and other forms of academic malpractice,If you are asked to do this, you must do so within the required timescales.

The School reserves the right to submit your work to TurnitinUK and/or other electronic systems, even if you have originally not been asked to do so.

Please note that when work is submitted to the relevant electronic systems, it is copied and then stored in a database to allow appropriate checks to be made and to detect self-plagiarism.

You will be given an opportunity within the tutorials to submit a draft essay through this system, and it is very much in your best interests to do this so that you understand how it works.

If you are suspected of having committed academic malpractice, a disciplinary hearing may be involved and penalties will be applied.

Please see below links to information and resources about academic integrity and academic malpractice

• Regulation XVII (Conduct & Discipline of Students)
• Academic malpractice procedure
• Plagiarism and Academic Malpractice – Guidance for Students
• University of Manchester Library My Learning Essentials, including workshops and online resources such as ‘Getting started with referencing’ and ‘Avoiding plagiarism’
• The University of Manchester referencing guide
• An Introduction to Referencing and Avoiding Plagiarism (Student Guidance Service)

Student Support Website – Good Study Skills and Avoiding academic malpractice

3.10 Referencing and Proofreading statement

University Proofreading Statement

If a student chooses to approach another person to proofread their written work or seeks to use the services of a proofreading service or agency, they must take account of the following principles:

• it is the responsibility of students to ensure that all work submitted is their own, and that it represents their own abilities and understanding. Any proofreading of work that is undertaken by a third party must not compromise the student’s own authorship of the work;
• proofreading undertaken by a third party must not take the form of editing of text, such as the adding or rewriting of phrases or passages within a piece of student’s work;
• proofreading undertaken by a third party must not change the content or meaning of the work in any way

3.11 Artificial Intelligence (AI) statement

We urge students to be cautious when using a chatbot or AI tool within their learning. Chatbots and AI tools can be useful, but there are a number of risks associated with using them. Please ensure that you are aware of what is permissible use of AI for each assignment. You can utilise AI to generate ideas, key themes, and plan your assessment but not to write your assessment. Do not use AI to generate text, or partial text for use in your assessment unless the assignment brief explicitly states that this is permitted, otherwise use will be deemed academic malpractice. This is academic malpractice because the words and ideas generated are not your own and not an accurate reflection of your learning. Further to this, the words and ideas generated by the chatbot or AI tool may make use of other, human authors’ ideas without referencing them, which is plagiarism. Where a chatbot or other form of AI has been used, make sure you acknowledge that use. Information on how to cite can be found here: https://manchester-uk.libanswers.com/teaching-and-learning/faq/264824. Some units, for example those on AI and technology, permit the use of AI. However, they require you to sign a code of conduct which must be adhered to. Make sure you understand and follow these codes. If you are unclear on what is permissible, speak to the unit lead or for general information, please read our AI guidelines.

3.12 External Examiners

External Examiners are individuals from another institution or organisation who monitor the assessment processes of the University to ensure fairness and academic standards. They ensure that assessment and examination procedures have been fairly and properly implemented and that decisions have been made after appropriate deliberation. They also ensure that standards of awards and levels of student performance are at least comparable with those in equivalent higher education institutions.

The External Examiners for each programme are as follows:

Programme	External Examiner	Institution
Biochemistry	TBC	TBC
Biology	Dr David Booth	University of Dundee
Biology with Science & Society	Dr David Booth	University of Dundee
Biomedical Sciences	Prof. Rachel Ashworth	University of Worcester
Biotechnology	Dr Christopher Randall	University of Leeds
Genetics	Prof. Guy Tear	King’s College London
Immunology	Dr Rachael Rigby	Lancaster University
Medical Biochemistry	TBC	TBC
Medical Physiology	Dr Taufiq Rahman	University of Cambridge
Microbiology	Dr Christopher Randall	University of Leeds
Molecular Biology	Dr Paul Lavender	Kings College London
Neuroscience	Assoc. Prof. Tracy Farr	University of Edinburgh
Pharmacology	Dr Taufiq Rahman	University of Cambridge
Zoology	Dr James Gilbert	University of Hull

Please note that it is inappropriate for students to make direct contact with External Examiners under any circumstances, in particular with regards to a student’s individual performance in assessments. Other appropriate mechanisms are available for students, including the University’s appeals or complaints procedures and the UMSU Advice Centre. In cases where a student does contact an External Examiner directly,

External Examiners have been requested not to respond to direct queries. Instead, External Examiners should report the matter to the School contact who will then contact the student to remind them of the other methods available for students.

3.13 Academic appeals

An appeal is your way of asking the University to review a recent decision taken by an Examination Board or equivalent body.

You should contact your School in the first instance as it may be able to help you better understand the result or decision you want to appeal against.

If you think there are adequate grounds for an appeal against a decision of the examination board, in the first instance, please refer to the University’s Appeals Procedure (Academic Appeals – Regulation XIX). Please read the documentation carefully.

If you wish to pursue an appeal, your first step would be to submit a Stage 1 appeal, which will be sent directly to the school for consideration. You will then receive an outcome from the School, and can then proceed to Stage 2 if your Stage 1 appeal is unsuccessful. A Stage 2 appeal would instead be reviewed by the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health Appeals, Complaints and Discipline team.

Please submit your Stage 1 appeal through this online form. The form will tell you what information you need to provide. You cannot submit a Stage 2 appeal until the School has already considered a Stage 1 appeal.

Please Note:

• Your Stage 1 appeal must be submitted within 20 working daysof the date you were informed of the decision you wish to appeal against, e.g. when your results are released. Any appeal received outside of this timeframe will be automatically rejected.
• An appeal can only be submitted once your marks have been ratified by an examination board, which would include a semester 1 progression board.
• Evidence (e.g. medical evidence) must be provided to support the appeal. Any appeal that does not provide evidence will not be considered.
• We will not consider any appeals which challenge academic judgment or are in relation to generally being unhappy with a mark that you have been awarded.
• If you appeal on the grounds of mitigating circumstances, your appeal must evidence why you did not submit an application for mitigating circumstances to the School prior to the examination board.

If you have any generic appeal-related queries, please direct these to sbs.appealsandconduct@manchester.ac.uk. Please note we will not accept appeals submitted to this address, they must be submitted through the form linked above.

The Students’ Union Advice Service also provides useful information on the appeals process and can provide advice and guidance.

4. Student Voice

4.01 Representation at programme, School and Faculty level

Every year, Student Representatives will be recruited to represent each degree programme. Student Reps are the link between the study body and the University on all things course related. They listen to your thoughts and ideas about your programme and feed this back to your School. Student Reps represent their cohorts at every level of the decision-making process within the University. Student Representatives help to drive positive change within the University to make sure you are getting the best experience you can whilst at Manchester.

If you are interested in becoming a Student Representative, please speak to your Programme Director or respond to the email from the SBS Hub which you will receive shortly after your start your programme. Student Reps are also invited to attend Programme Committee meetings and School Board meetings to represent their student cohorts.

 

 

4.02 Role of the Student Voice Committee

Not relevant to programme.

 

4.03 Role of the Programme committee

The purpose of the committee is to provide a forum to facilitate communications and discussions and will

• Review proposals made by the SBS Teaching Board
• Be responsible for overseeing the operation and management of UG programmes of study
• Consider all aspects of the student experience of the UG programmes that they undertake and to ensure issues are acted upon appropriately and reflected in the SEAP
• Consider External Examiner reports and actions to be taken as a consequence
• Be responsible for the content, structure, delivery of the UG programmes and ensure quality standards are maintained e.g. web audits, CMA requirements, accreditation requirements
• Oversee student representation and analysis of student feedback, implementing actions to address areas of concern and to incorporate these into the SEAP
• Approve curriculum changes and programme amendments as recommended by the SBS TLSE Executive Committee

The committee will have decision making authority on matters within its remit and will report to the SBS TLSE Executive Committee.

4.04 Mechanisms for collecting and reporting back on feedback from students

As a University, we’re committed to elevating the student voice and bringing the senior leadership team (SLT) together with our students to discuss and raise awareness of key issues and opportunities at Manchester.  We have introduced a number of ways in which students can provide feedback and input, which you can learn more about through the Your Voice Matters pages.

4.05 Use of University unit surveys and other questionnaires

University surveys provide one of the easiest ways to share your opinions and feedback on your experiences as a student. Throughout the academic year, all students have the opportunity to take part in at least one University-recognised survey.

Your feedback from these surveys is used across the University to implement real and positive changes to the student experience, from course specific changes to updating facilities and the support we provide you.

4.06 Student Complaints

If you have any concerns about your course or a service, we'd always recommend that you try to resolve the issue informally in the first instance. However, if this is not possible or you aren't happy with the outcome you can pursue a formal complaint via the university complaint procedure.

5. Attendance requirements, interruptions and mitigating circumstances

5.01 Attendance

Your attendance on your programme is monitored for welfare purposes. Typically, one of the first signs a student might be struggling, either personally or academically, is that they start missing their teaching sessions. Therefore, we monitor your attendance so we can see when a student’s engagement drops and proactively reach out to the student to make sure they are okay. However, there are some academic consequences if you do not attend certain sessions, without a credible reason.

Your attendance will be monitored in all timetabled sessions, except drop-ins. Some sessions are compulsory and some are optional. If you miss compulsory sessions without a credible reason you will receive emails from the Student Support team and your tutor, and you may fail a unit on attendance. If you miss optional sessions, whilst you won’t be penalised for this, you will still receive emails after missing a certain amount of these sessions to check on your well-being.

We monitor attendance through a system called SEAtS (Student Engagement and Attendance system). This is a new system for September 2024. You will need to download the SEAtS app on your phone or use the web version on your laptop. You can find further details about how to download SEAtS and how to use the system here – School of Biological Sciences Student Information – Home (sharepoint.com)

Your timetable will mainly consist of lectures, tutorials and practical sessions.

Lectures

Your attendance in lectures is not compulsory. However, we strongly encourage you to attend all your timetabled lectures since it is well known that there is a good correlation between lecture attendance and academic performance. Whilst these are optional, your attendance will still be logged for well-being purposes. Therefore, you will still be asked to scan a QR code and log your attendance via SEAtS in your lectures. If your attendance in lectures drops below 50% you will receive an email from the Student Support and Wellbeing team to make sure you are doing okay.

Tutorials

Attendance at all tutorials — whether tutor-led or student-led — is mandatory.

We understand that students may occasionally face difficulties (e.g. illness) that prevent attendance. In such cases, you must submit an absence request via the SEAtS app. Instructions are available here: How to submit an absence request

An absence request will usually be accepted if the following conditions are met:

• It is for an acceptable reason, such as illness.
• It is submitted before or on the day of the scheduled tutorial via the SEAtS app.
  • Note: The app will automatically accept late requests, but these will be reviewed. If there is no compelling reason for lateness (e.g. hospitalisation), approval will be removed.
  • If you submit a late request, contact sbs.attendance@manchester.ac.uk as soon as possible with a clear explanation.
  • It is your first or second absence request for tutorials.

If any of these conditions are not met, or if you do not submit a request, your absence will be recorded as unauthorised.

What Happens if You Miss Tutorials

· If you have two or more unauthorised absences, you will fail the tutorial unit.

• This means:
  • Removal from any 4-year programme (if applicable)
  • Loss of exam compensation
  • You will need to complete the tutorial re-sit assessment in order to progress.

Multiple Absences

• Third absence request:
  • Although SEAtS will show the third absence request as accepted, this will later be reviewed.
  • You will be contacted by the Student Support and Wellbeing team, and your Academic Advisor will be informed.
• Four or more absence requests (authorised or not):
  • You will fail the tutorial unit.
  • The Student Support and Wellbeing team will contact you. You may:
    • Submit a mitigating circumstances application.
    • If accepted, you will not fail based on attendance, but you must meet with a Senior Advisor to discuss further support.
  • If you do not submit a mitigating circumstances form and meet with a Senior Advisor, you will fail the tutorial unit.

This policy is summarised in the table below:

Tutorial Attendance requirements
Unauthorised absences
1 unauthorised absence	Another unauthorised absence will result in failing the tutorial unit.
2 unauthorised absences	If you do not make a successful mitigating circumstances application, you will fail the tutorial unit.
Multiple absences
3 absences (any kind, but only 1 unauthorised)	You will need to meet with your Academic Advisor to explain your absences. Another absence may result in failure of the unit.
4 absences (any kind, but only 1 unauthorised)	You will need to submit a successful mitigating circumstances application AND meet with a Senior Advisor. If you do not do both of these things, you will fail the tutorial unit.

Practical session

Practical sessions are compulsory. You must attend all your timetabled practical sessions. If you miss 2 or more practical sessions without an authorised reason, this will impact on the final unit mark. Therefore, if you do need to miss a practical, due to illness or personal reasons, you must submit an absence form via the SEAtS app.

 If you miss 2 or more practical sessions without an authorised reason, this will impact on the final unit mark. Therefore, if you do need to miss a practical, due to illness or personal reasons, you must submit an absence form via the SEAtS app on the day that the practical is scheduled.

If you miss 2 or more practical sessions you will need to submit mitigating circumstances. You can find further information about mitigating circumstances on the Sharepoint site – School of Biological Sciences Student Information – Home (sharepoint.com)

Logging an absence 

We understand there may be reasons why you need to miss a compulsory timetabled session. This could be due to illness, mental health, bereavement, medical appointments, as well as other unforeseen circumstances. If you have a reason to miss a tutorial or practical session you must notify the Student Support team by submitting an absence form via the SEAtS app.  You can find instructions of how to log an absence form on SEAtS here – School of Biological Sciences Student Information – Home (sharepoint.com)

Please note that you can self-certify for absence up to 7 days for the following reasons: medical/health appointments, DASS plan related absence, family and personal emergency, illness/unwell, train strikes, and unexpected caring responsibilities. The SEAtS system will automatically log these absences. However, this does not automatically authorise absence. The Student Support team will check these reasons and can revoke any automatic approvals generated by the SEAtS system.

If you select ‘other’ on the absence form or need to be absent for over 7 days these absences will not be automatically approved and approval will be needed from a member of staff before it can be logged as an authorised absence.

If you need longer than 7 days off you cannot self-certify for this and we will need evidence to support your absence.

You need to log the absence form on the day you will be absent for. You cannot log absences in retrospect, unless you have a credible reason to do so.

If you do not log an absence form your absence in any compulsory sessions will be unauthorised. This could lead to failing a unit on attendance

5.02 Student Engagement

Attendance is expected at all timetabled postgraduate sessions, as active engagement is essential for academic progress. Students are responsible for attending regularly and engaging fully with the course material.

5.03 Consequences of paid employment

Whilst working part-time can be beneficial, it’s important to find the right balance between work and university life.  It is usually recommended that you work no more than 15 hours a week during a semester, as it may start to affect your studies.  The consequences of paid employment will not normally be regarded as grounds for mitigation (see Section 5.06).

If you’re an international student, most visas allow you to work up to 20 hours per week during term-time, and full-time outside of term. However, some visas can vary, so it’s important to check your specific visa to confirm this.

5.04 Procedure for reporting ill health

If you are going to be absent from a timetabled session you need to submit an absence form via SEAtS. You can find instructions on how to do this here . You must submit this absence form in order to get your absence authorised. Please note: absences will only be authorised for reasons outside of your control, such as illness. Some units, such as the tutorial unit or the practical units, have specific attendance requirements. It is important you familiarise yourself with them at the start of the academic year. You can find details of these requirements on the relevant Canvas pages.

5.05 How to change, interrupt or withdraw from a programme

If you come across difficulties during your studies which mean that completing the semester, year or remainder of your degree is not possible, you might want to consider a temporary interruption or withdrawal from your course. Please visit the Student Support webpages for further guidance on interruptions and withdrawals.

Interruptions

It is the expectation of the University that postgraduate taught students pursue their studies on a continuous basis for the stipulated duration of their programme. However, it is recognised that students may encounter personal difficulties or situations which may seriously disrupt or delay their studies. In some cases, an interruption or extension to your programme of study may be the most sensible option.

Students who wish to interrupt the programme or extend to write up the dissertation should initially discuss their plans and reasons with the Programme Director.

Students must also provide documentary evidence when appropriate, for example, doctor’s letter, sick note, etc.

An application must be submitted to the Programme Director in the first instance. The form will then be submitted for consideration to the School Interruptions Panel who will make the final decision.

The forms required for formal application are available from the Student Support Team, please email sbs.wellbeing@manchester.ac.uk if you wish to request an interruption form.

Withdrawals

Students who are considering withdrawing from the programme should discuss this either with the Programme Director and, if in their dissertation year, with their research supervisor, and make the application by formal letter.

Any student wishing to withdraw from their programme of study will need to complete a withdrawal form. Please email sbs.wellbeing@manchester.ac.uk if you wish to request a withdrawal form. The Student Support and Wellbeing team can provide further advice on how withdrawing may impact fees, accommodation and a student visa.

 

 

5.06 Mitigating circumstances

If personal circumstances affect your exams/assessments or your attendance at teaching activities, you can make a request for mitigating circumstances. This includes extension requests on assessment deadlines. Each request will be assessed and, where necessary, action will be taken to mitigate for any impact on your performance. Mitigating circumstances might include a significant short-term illness or injury, a long-term or recurring medical or mental health condition, the death or illness of a close family member, acute stress from personal or financial issues, absence for public service (e.g. jury service), or technical issues during an online exam or assessment. If you are going through any of these circumstances, remember that there is support available and always somebody to talk to. As well as applying for mitigating circumstances, be sure to seek additional support if you need it. Our mitigating circumstances policy gives further examples of what are and are not considered mitigating circumstances.

• You should include any evidence that supports your request, such as:
• Extracts from your medical notes (you can request these from your GP practice)
• Copy of prescription or photo of name label on prescribed medication
• Photo of labelled positive COVID-19 test result
• Appointment cards from medical unit or hospital admissions letter
• Confirmation text of medical appointment
• Communications from a school or care facility confirming that they are closed or the person you care for is unable to attend
• An obituary or letter from a family member, in the case of bereavement
• Police, security or insurance report
• Press or media report
• Internal confirmation of existing engagement with our counselling / Advice and Response service

If you are registered with DASS, and you are submitting mitigating circumstances due to your DASS registered condition, you do not have to provide evidence with your application. Please note some third-party providers can take several weeks to provide you with supporting evidence, so it is important to organise this as soon as possible.  If your evidence will not be available until after the deadline, you must ensure your application is submitted on time and notify sbs.mitcircs@manchester.ac.uk when they can expect to receive the evidence. If due to an emergency you have attended a hospital Accident and Emergency (A&E) Department, you must obtain written confirmation of attendance either from the hospital or subsequently from your GP confirming your attendance and stating the nature of the emergency. If the information is of a highly confidential nature, you may submit your evidence in a sealed envelope to the SBS Student Hub, marked for the attention of the Chair of the Mitigating Circumstances Committee.

5.07 Policy on Supporting Health, Fitness and Return to Study

The University is committed to supporting students and recognises the impact that a student’s health, wellbeing, behaviour and conduct can have on their academic progression and wider university experience. Issues with any of these may affect a student’s fitness to study.  The University’s Policy on Supporting Health, Fitness and Return to Study provides further information.

6. Support for students

6.01 Student Support microsite

The University’s Student Support site is a central place for you to access support services, resources to support your day-to-day wellbeing and find answers to common queries.  The site provides essential advice, information and guidance for students.

Student parents and carers can find specific student study support information for them at: https://www.studentsupport.manchester.ac.uk/tailored-support/parents-network/

6.02 The role of the Programme Director, Academic Advisor and Student Support Hubs

Your Programme Director

Programme Directors lead the academic development of the programme and Chair Programme Committee meetings. They also attend relevant Teaching and Learning Committees, and Examination Boards.  They act as one of your key contacts and will liaise with student representatives.  Programme Director also monitor the delivery of the programme and will act proactively on feedback to address any emerging issues to ensure a positive student experience.

Your Academic Advisor

Academic Advisors are members of academic staff associated with your degree programme and/or School, who are here to support you throughout your time at university. All new students are invited to attend a meeting with their Academic Advisor as part of Welcome and Induction activity. Following that, your Advisor will make contact with you at least twice a semester during each year of study, so look out for their emails and respond to any invitations to meet, or to share with them how you’re getting on.

Through a combination of scheduled meetings and ad hoc communications your Advisor will get to know you, in order to help you to make the most of your academic potential and your time at university. Manchester is a big place – your Advisor is a point of contact for you and can signpost you to resources and opportunities you may not otherwise have been aware of.

Student Support Hubs

The Student Support Hubs are here to provide you with help and guidance. Whether you need career advice, wellbeing support or help with course information, the Hubs team will be able to point you in the right direction. There are nine Student Support Hubs located across campus. You’ll be able to access the same University support services from every Hub, no matter where you’re usually based or what subject you’re studying. If you have a query about your particular study programme, you can visit your ‘home’ Hub, which will be located within your School.

 

6.03 Students’ Union and SU Advice Service

The University of Manchester Students’ Union is one of the largest student unions in the country, with approximately 40,000 University of Manchester student members. The organisation is democratically run, with eight sabbatical officers (elected annually) directing our work. However the overall responsibility for the Students’ Union is overseen by our Board of Trustees, who have ultimate responsibility for the organisation. The Students’ Union Advice Service can provide information on academic, finance, student life and housing issues.

6.04 Counselling and Mental Health Service

The Counselling and Mental Health Service is available to all students. The service provides confidential counselling by a team of professional counsellors for students who want help with personal problems affecting their studies or well-being. It is a free service. You can contact the Counselling Service via their website to make an appointment or to access self-help resources and workshops.

6.05 Disability Advisory and Support Service

The Disability Advisory and Support Service (DASS), aims to assist students who are affected by substantial and long-term conditions. If you choose to register with DASS the team can assess and identify your individual support needs whilst studying at the University.

With your consent, the Disability Advisory and Support Service will inform the School of your condition and suggest ways in which the School and academic staff can support you throughout your duration of your studies as part of your individual support plan.  If you choose not to disclose the details of your disability/support needs to the School, please note that this will affect the level of support that the School is able to provide.

6.06 Student Occupational Health Service

The University of Manchester Occupational Health Service provides confidential services to protect the health of staff and students, assessing and advising on fitness for work, training and study, so as to ensure that health issues are effectively managed.

6.07 PASS (Peer Assisted Study Scheme)

Peer Support aims to encourage students to work together and support each other within their learning community. Improving the student experience and empowering students to become leaders within their learning community are some of our primary objectives.

Every first-year undergraduate student is assigned to a PASS or Peer Mentoring group. These groups are run by higher-year student volunteers from the same course of study. All our student volunteers undergo a recruitment and training process before they begin their roles and regularly participate in skills-enhancing debriefs and workshops.

6.08 Careers Service

The Careers Service offers support and advice throughout your time at The University of Manchester, to help you make the most of your time here and best prepare you for your future.

6.09 University College

The University College for Interdisciplinary Learning (UCIL) offers course units that provide you a chance to explore a topic beyond the scope of your main degree, providing new perspectives and skills that complement your academic journey.

6.10 Stellify

The Stellify Award is a unique University of Manchester award supporting your personal development and graduate outcomes alongside your studies.

The Stellify Award gives you the chance to make a difference in a way that feels authentic to you, your passions and interests. Through volunteering, leadership roles and ethical grand challenges, you’ll not only take action to help causes you truly care about, but will also be prepared for life after university and will enter the world of work feeling confident in your abilities.

6.11 International Society

The International Society has more than 6,000 members from more than 130 different countries, making it a great place to meet friends and make contacts during your stay. Its members, many of whom have themselves experienced living away from their native country, aim to ensure students have a rewarding experience in the UK.

The society arranges weekend trips around the UK, offers over 40 different classes each week and organises over 100 different social events throughout the year, helping you to make the most of your time in the UK.

 

6.12 University Centre for Academic English

The University Centre for Academic English courses are designed to help students learn and improve in all areas of English Language.

One of the main advantages of studying English in the University Centre for Academic English is that courses are specially designed to take students from A2 level of the Common European Framework for Languages right through to the levels needed for undergraduate or postgraduate study, or research.