University of Southampton Calendar 2006/7

	University Calendar Academic Regulations 2006/7 School of Humanities	SEARCH

Regulations for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts by Full-time Study

Before admission to any course leading to the degree of Bachelor of Arts candidates must:
1. satisfy the general entrance requirements specified in the University's Regulations for Admission to Degree Programmes;
2. satisfy the requirements for the specific degree course; candidates may be admitted direct to the second or Final Year of a degree course with the prior approval of Faculty Board and in accordance with University Ordinance 7.2.
All candidates admitted to a course for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (or Bachelor Science where indicated below) shall be candidates for an honours degree and shall be registered for one of the following degree courses:

Applied English Language Studies
Archaeology
Archaeology and Geography
Archaeology and History Contemporary Europe
Contemporary Europe (English)
Economics and Philosophy
English
English and French
English and German
English and History
English and History of Art and Design
English and Music
English and Philosophy
English and Spanish
Film
Film and English
Film and French
Film and German
Film and History
Film and Philosophy
Film and Spanish
French
French (Linguistics and Language Studies)
French and German
French and German (Linguistics and Language Studies)
French and History
French and Music
French and Philosophy
French and Portuguese
French and Spanish
French and Spanish (Linguistics and Language Studies)
German
German (Linguistics and Language Studies)
German and History
German and Music
German and Philosophy
German and Spanish
German and Spanish (Linguistics and Language Studies)
History
History of Art and Design and French
History of Art and Design and German
History of Art and Design and Spanish
History and Sociology
Humanities (English Studies)
Humanities (English and Historical Studies)
Humanities (Historical Studies)
Language Learning
Management Science and French
Management Science and German
Management Science and Spanish
Media and Political Communication
Modern History and Politics
Modern History and Politics with Economics or Philosophy
Modern Languages
Music
Music and Management Science
Philosophy
Philosophy and History
Philosophy and Mathematics
Philosophy and Politics
Philosophy and Sociology
Politics and French Studies
Politics and German Studies
Politics and Spanish (or Portuguese) and Latin American Studies
Political Communication and Media Management
Spanish
Spanish (Linguistics and Language Studies)
Spanish and History
Spanish and Latin American Studies
Spanish and Portuguese
Full-time degrees normally consist of three years study (or four years, including a year's residence abroad, for single and combined honours Modern Language degrees). All degrees (with the exception of BA Contemporary Europe and degrees combining two or more Modern Languages where agreement must be reached with the discipline) are normally also available on a part-time basis.
Degree courses are based on a common unit structure as follows:
1. The subjects available in the School are divided into units; candidates are normally required to take the equivalent of at least eight units in each year to form a coherent pattern of study. Each unit is normally worth 15 credit points (for further details of the Credit Accumulation and Transfer Scheme (CATS) Regulations; see Section IV).
2. A unit is a self-contained part of a programme of study. Each unit will have its own aims and objectives, syllabus and assessment requirements. Units will normally be assessed during and/or at the end of the semester in which the student takes the unit.
3. Schools may specify for each degree course certain units which candidates for that degree course are required to take in each year. Apart from the specified units (if any) the choice of units shall be subject in all cases to programme approval.
To qualify to proceed from one year of the degree course to the next, candidates must reach a standard in the examinations deemed satisfactory by the Board of the School, including practical examinations and course assessments where these are prescribed. A satisfactory standard must similarly be obtained in the final year of the course to qualify for the award of Bachelor of Arts.
Candidates who successfully complete Year 1 but do not wish to proceed further with their course may be awarded a Certificate of Higher Education (CertHE). Candidates who successfully complete Year 1 and Year 2 but do not wish to proceed further with their course may be awarded a Diploma of Higher Education (DipHE). (See Section IV for Credit Accumulation and Transfer Scheme (CATS) Regulations.)
If candidates have not attended the required lectures, seminars, classes or laboratory practicals, and have not completed the prescribed work for a degree course to the satisfaction of the Head of Programmes concerned, the Examining Board will have the discretion to mark or not to mark the scripts.
Students may proceed to the second year of the programme provided that they either 40% in each unit or they obtain an average of 40% across all units and fall below 40% in no more than the equivalent of 30 credits. Marks awarded for individual units may represent a rounding up of marks for individual components of the unit, but in calculating the 40% average no rounding up is permissible. Students who are not eligible to proceed to Year 2 will be offered the opportunity to be re-examined/re-assessed in all units in which they have failed to achieve a mark of 40% (see Failures - section 7). Failure to become eligible to proceed following re-examination/re-assessment will normally result in termination of programme. A student who achieves the pass mark for each unit but does not wish to, or is not entitled to, proceed to the second year may be awarded a Certificate of Higher Education (CertHE).
For student entrants in 2003/2004 and after the pass mark for Year 2 and Year 3 units is 40%. For student entrants before 2003/2004 the pass mark for Year 2 and Year 3 units is 35%. For student entrants before 1999/2000: in each year students must pass in more than half of those units whose marks contribute towards the final degree. For all student entrants in 1999/2000 or after: to qualify for an Honours degree, a student must not fail more than two units in either of Years 2 and 3 and not more than 3 units overall. For student entrants before 2003/2004 to qualify for a Pass degree, a student must not fail more than 3 units in either year and not more than 5 units overall. Student entrants from 2003/2004 or after will not be eligible for a Pass degree. The Final Year dissertation (if any) must be passed. For all entrants before 1998/99: examinations/assessments held in Years 2 and 3 contribute towards the final degree results according to a weighting set by the Department and agreed by the School Board. For all students who entered in 1998/99 or after: examinations/assessments in Years 2 and 3 contribute towards the final degree result according to a weighting of 1:2 of pre-final year as against final year work. Students who fail to achieve this 'pass threshold' will be offered the opportunity to be re-examined/re-assessed in the minimum number of units necessary to reach the threshold (see 'Failures' below). In each case the Discipline or Combined Honours Examination Board will have final responsibility for deciding which of the failed units will be re-examined/re-assessed. Failure to achieve the threshold on re-examination/re-assessment will normally result in termination. Students who reach the pass threshold but fail one or more units will carry forward these fail marks towards their final degree result.

In the paragraph above, the term 'Year 3' refers to the Final year of taught courses; ie: the third year for most programmes but the fourth year for Modern Language programmes.

For BA Humanities and BA Political Communication and Media Management: degree classification is worked out on the basis of the 16 units taken in levels 2 and 3. Level 2 units are weighted against level 3 units in the ratio of 40 (level 2) to 60 (level 3).

The degree classification is calculated as follows:
1. taking the final marks from all 8 Level 2 unit results, including any zero scores, dividing the total by 8 and weighting 0.4;
2. taking the final marks from all 8 Level 3 unit results, including any zero scores, dividing the total by 8 and weighting at 0.6;
3. add the Level 2 0.4-weighted score to the Level 3 0.6-weighted score to determine degree classification.
An upgrade to the next highest classification is invoked for candidates who achieve six Level 3 unit results in the higher category provided that they have recorded no fails in Level 3. A mark of zero is awarded when a unit has been failed and either not retaken or has been failed at a second attempt. In these circumstances unit results of zero are included in the full results profile used for the calculation of degree classification at levels 2 and 3.

Failures (all years)

Re-examinations/re-assessments will normally be held in late August/early September following initial failure. Students who believe that an August/September re-examination/re-assessment allows them insufficient time to improve their performance (for example, students who have failed a large number of units) will be permitted to suspend their course for one year and be re-examined/re-assessed in the following session at the normal examination times for their unit(s).
Candidates resitting an examination in the academic year following initial failure will normally be required to take the papers set for that year irrespective of any change in syllabus; their registration will be suspended for a year and they will be required to take the examinations as an external candidate. However, in exceptional circumstances, the School Board may recommend that a candidate repeat a year of the undergraduate course following examination/assessment failure or for other cause.
In any re-examination/re-assessment that is passed the mark awarded will be the mark to proceed (for entrants before 2003/2004: Year 1, 40%; for Years 2 and 3, 35%; for entrants in 2003/2004, or after all years, 40%).
Where the Discipline or Combined Honours Examination Board concludes, on the basis of written evidence submitted before the examination or due date for assessed work, that a student who would otherwise have passed has failed due to circumstances outside his/her control, the Board may recommend that the student be re-examined/re-assessed as if for the first time or be set other work or, exceptionally, be deemed to have passed on the basis of previously submitted work. Departments making any such recommendation must specify the evidence on which they do so. Failure in re-examination or other set work will be treated in accordance with the regulations on failures set out above.
With the permission of the School Board candidates may transfer from one degree course to another not later than the end of the second semester of their course. In exceptional circumstances the Board may permit a transfer at a later stage.
1. Philosophy may be begun as a new subject in the combined honours degree in the second year.
2. First-year single honours candidates who have reached an appropriate standard in a first-year Alternative Subject in Music, Philosophy, Portuguese, or Spanish may apply for transfer to a second-year combined honours course with that subject as one of the two combined subjects^*.
3. Candidates reading single honours Spanish and Latin American Studies, including Portuguese, who wish to transfer to combined honours Portuguese and Spanish will transfer at the end of the first year.
4. Candidates following a combined honours course who pass in one subject only in the qualifying examination may, with the permission of the School Board and subject to the requirements of the department concerned, proceed to the second year of the single honours course in that subject.
Students who have passed the final examination/assessment in any degree course of the School may be admitted to the final examination/assessment in another degree course after not less than one year of attendance at prescribed courses of study for that other degree.

* Such transfers may also be allowed in cases where the relevant first-year course has not been taken but where an appropriate standard has been achieved, e.g. by study and/or residence in the country concerned.

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