Information for Current Undergraduate Students

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Assessments Grade Structure and Faculty Policy on the Award of Grades

The Centre follows the Faculty of Arts standard grading structure for the return of results in every subject for all students.

The range of marks corresponding to grades is as follows:

• H1 = 80-100%
• H2A = 75-79%
• H2B = 70-74%
• H3 = 65-69%
• P = 50-64%
• N = 0-49%

Students should be aware that there is a Faculty policy on marks for first, second and third year subjects. It may be necessary to scale marks in some subjects at the end of semester to comply with the Faculty requirements. Students should realise that any marks they receive in the interim for continuous assessment are raw scores only. University and School policy requires that failed assessments be double marked.

Assessment details posted on notice boards

Assessment details are posted on the 2nd floor of the Old Arts building, outside room 253, at the beginning of each semester. Each notice will include details of components of assessment and the weighting of each component; due dates for each piece of assessment, attendance or threshold requirements and student responsibilities. Other information will also be posted, so current students are advised to check the board regularly.

Assessment Extensions

Students may request extensions through their subject coordinator before the submission date. Penalties apply to all work submitted late without an approved extension. Late essays handed in up to two weeks after the due date will incur a reduction in mark of 2 percentage points per working day, up to a maximum of 20 percentage points. Assessment submitted more than two weeks late will not receive a mark, but a pass in the subject is nevertheless contingent upon its submission.

Assistance - Who to go to?

If you are experiencing problems with any aspect of your studies, please contact your subject coordinator and/or tutor during his/her consultation hours which will be displayed on their office doors or on the subject notice board. Alternatively, you can arrange a time that is convenient to you both by making telephone or email contact. The Arts Faculty web site also provides information for students. First year students, in particular, should look at the Faculty's FAQ's web site for guidance.

Attendance at Classes and Examinations

Attendance is expected for all classes. Class attendance may be taken into consideration in determining the final mark of students with borderline results. Ignorance of the special subject matter of the unit, or of special instructions in it, resulted by unexplained absence, will no be deemed a reason for extension or cause for special consideration.

It is the duty of students to ascertain the dates and times at which they are required to attend for examinations, including oral examinations. Students who do not sit the prescribed examination at the published time will receive a fail for that component of the assessment, unless a medical certificate is supplied. Students who are planning to be away from Melbourne should do so after the end of the University examination/assessment period. The centre will not normally make special arrangements for students to sit examinations at a time other than those published. The centre will not accept any special requests for examinations after the final week of semester.

Disability

The University of Melbourne provides services for students with a disability which adversely affects their studies. This may include conditions that affect the student's hearing, sight, mental health, learning ability or general health. Adjustments can be negotiated which assist such students to study and be assessed in a more equal environment. If you wish to know more about these services, please contact the Disability Liaison Unit (DLU), telephone 8344 7068.

Enrolment

Students should ensure that they are correctly enrolled, especially if they are from other faculties, or if they change their subjects. In accordance with Faculty policy, the Centre will not approve new enrolments after the first week of semester. Subject changes are made via the Student Information System (SIS). It is only open for subject changes during certain periods of the year. If you wish to change subjects during a period in which SIS is not open, please see your Faculty head-office.

Environment, Health & Safety

Students should refer to Section 2.4.3 of the University's Environment Heath and Safety Manual which contains student responsibilities for Environment Health and Safety.

Generic Skills

As a result of attendance at scheduled classes, participation in tutorials, timely completion or assigned readings and essays, and success in examinations, students should progressively acquire skills in the following areas:

• Research: through frequent and systematic use of the library and other information sources, the definition of areas of inquiry and familiarisation with research methods;
• Critical thinking and analysis: through required and recommended reading, essay writing and tutorial discussion, and by assessing the strength of arguments;
• Thinking in theoretical and analytical terms: through lectures, tutorial discussions, essay writing and engagement in the methodologies of the humanities and the social sciences;
• Understanding of social, political, historical and cultural contexts and international awareness/openness to the world: through the contextualisation of judgments and knowledge, developing a critical self-awareness, being open to new ideas and new aspects of jewish culture, and by formulating arguments;
• Communicating knowledge intelligibly and economically: through essay and academic writing, tutorial discussion and class presentations;
• Written communication: through essay and assignment preparation and writing;
• Public speaking and confidence in self-expression: through tutorial participation and class presentations;
• Attention to detail: through close reading and textual analysis, essay preparation and writing, and examination revision;
• Time management and planning: through managing and organising workloads for required and recommended reading, essay and assignment completion and revision for examinations.

Faculty of Arts

The Faculty of Arts is located in the Old Arts building, and is responsible for the administration of your degree. Contact the Faculty office if you want to make an appointment with a course adviser, request a points count, apply for Leave of Absence, to change your address or if you have any general enquiries including course administration and selection (including Bachelor of Arts and the Diploma of Modern Languages), subject and course withdrawal and credit applications. The faculty can be contacted by emailing arts-enquiries@ unimelb.edu.au or by telephone on 03 8344 5235.

Illness

If you are unable to attend classes or submit work by the due date due to illness or other special circumstances, please contact the subject coordinator immediately. A medical certificate is required in the case of illness. In other cases, documentary evidence may be required.

Language and Learning Skills Unit

The Language and Learning Skills Unit (LLSU) assists students with study and organisational issues, writing issues, assessment strategies, professional skills and research involvement and issues.

Learning Management System (LMS)

Some Hebrew subjects, from 2006, have now been launched online. Enrolled students can login to the Learning Management System (LMS) to access these subjects.

Plagiarism and Collusion

Summary: assessment must be the result of the student's individual work. A student may not work closely with a tutor or any other person on a piece of assessment.

Plagiarism: The Centre has a very strict policy on plagiarism and collusion. According to the policy, "work submitted for assessment purposes must be the independent work of the student concerned (or where joint work is permitted, of the students concerned)". The policy identifies several forms of plagiarism: "Any of the following, without full acknowledgement of the debt to the original source, counts as plagiarism":

• direct duplication, by copying (or allowing to be copied) another's work, whether from a book, article, web site, another student's assignment, etc.;
• producing assignments in conjunction with other people [e.g. another student , a tutor] which should be your own independent work;
• paraphrasing of another's work closely, with minor changes but with the essential meaning, form and/or progression of ideas maintained;
• piecing together sections of the work of others into a new whole;
• submitting one's own work which has already been submitted for assessment purposes in another subject.

Collusion with tutors, friends and family: Many language student have access to tutors (either privately or through their residential colleges) or Hebrew-speaking friends and family. Whilst students may avail themselves of ongoing advice and support from tutors or persons with a knowledge of the language, students must not collude with others on assessment. Students thus have to be very careful about the extend to which they discuss their assessment with others.

• Examples of unauthorised collusion include:
  
  • A tutor or other person manually correcting a draft of the student's assessment;
  • The tutor or other person dictating passages to be included in the assessment;
  • The tutor or other person working through the assessment together and verbally correcting mistakes.
• Permissible forms of feedback from tutors or others include:
  
  • Asking the tutor or other person for general advice on grammar or expression (e.g. "How can I say, 'in my opinion'?", "What's another word for 'to say'?", "How would I conjugate this verb?");
  • Having a tutor or other person look at a draft of assessment and make only general comments about what areas can be improved (e.g. "There are some problems in this draft with verb-subject agreement"; "Sometimes you have used prepositions that are incorrectly inflected"

Consequences of plagiarism and collusion: Where a student is found to have colluded or plagiarised, the student may:

• be required to undertake further assessment;
• receive a mark of zero for the assessment;
• fail the subject;
• be referred to a discipline committee; or
• several of the above.

If the course coordinator reasonably suspects that a student has colluded with another person, the coordinator may require the student to sit an oral exam on the topic of the assessment in order to determine whether collusion has taken place.
For more information, see the University Policy on Academic Honesty and Plagiarism.

Presentation and Submission of Essays

Your lecturer will discuss the particular expectations for each assessed work. Essays should be within 10% of the required word length. Unless you lecturer makes alternative arrangements with you, essays should be submitted with a departmental assessment cover sheet attached (cover sheets are available above the essay box outside the Centre's office - room 249, 2nd floor, Old Arts building). You will be required to sign a declaration that you have not plagiarised or colluded. See Submission of Work section (below).

Return of Assessment

Marked essays throughout the semester will be returned to you in a designated class unless you subject coordinator makes other arrangements, If you would like your final essay returned to you through mail attach it to an A4 sized, stamped and self-addressed envelope. Please also provide appropriate postage. Final essays will not be returned unless a stamped envelope is attached at the time of submission. Otherwise essays are available for collection from the Centre's office on the 2nd floor of the Old Arts building after the publication of the results. This also applies to the written exam at the end of semester.

Special Consideration

Special consideration may be given to a student whose performance has been adversely affected to a substantial degree by illness or other cause. The Examination Board will take the circumstances into account and make a judgment as they see fit. Applications must be made on-line via the Student Information System.

Applications must be lodged within three days of the final examination or final component of assessment. If you are experiencing difficulties and are not sure whether to apply for special consideration, discuss the matter with your tutor or subject coordinator. Students seeking extension (or delayed testing) for assessment due during the semester do not need to apply for Special Consideration. Instead they should apply for an extension.

Students' Responsibilities

Students have a responsibility to contribute to their own learning. It is expected that they must:

• Familiarise themselves with departmental guidelines for assessment. All details regarding assessment will be displayed before the end of the second week of each semester on notice boards;
• Be aware of the requirements and due dates for each of the components of assessment, including examinations times. To obtain credit for a subject, students must complete ALL assessment requirements and perform satisfactorily in each part of the course. Students who fail to submit the requires exercises, essays and seminar papers by the due date can expect to be penalised;
• Ensure that they take into account the total study time commitment for each subject of their enrolment;
• Regularly attend a minimum of 80% of all classes, including conversation or social classes and any formal lectures.

Submission of work

Assigned assessment must be submitted by the date and time set by the subject coordinator, and should be given to the tutor or placed in the essay box located outside room 249 on the 2nd floor of the Old Arts building unless directed by the subject coordinator. The essay box will be cleared at 5:00pm on the due date. Late submission without an extension will attract penalties. Students must complete and sign the essay cover sheet [PDF] and attach it to the essay. Cover sheets are available from outside the centre's office on the 2nd floor. The Centre does not normally accept assignments sent by mail, fax or email unless through prior arrangement. It is the responsibility of the student to keep a copy of their submitted assignment.

Study Recommendations

Time management plays a key role in relation to successful university study. Students need to keep in mind that as well as scheduled contact hours for lectures, tutorials and seminars, a considerable additional time commitment is needed to complete the academic requirements of each subject. A subject-specific time commitment to study will be provided by your lecturer or tutor at the beginning of semester to help you schedule your workload and successfully manage your time during semester. If you find it hard to set time aside for study, you may wish to consult your lecturer, tutor, supervisor, or you may also contact the Language and Learning Skills Unit.

Timetable

Follow this link to access the Timetable.

Transition

The Arts Faculty holds seminars on study skills and transition for first year Arts students. Detailed information can be found at the Arts Transition web site.

Undergraduate Handbook

For up-to-date policy and subject information follow this link to the Undergraduate Handbook.