Credits and modules

VIP ‘modules’ are available at 10, 15 and 20 credits. However, the modules are not the same thing as a project: students working on the same project may be registered in different modules according to their level of study and number of credits.  

Academic supervisors will keep track of the student’s level and credits and carefully allocate tasks so that their workload and the level of difficulty is appropriate for them.

Modules 

VIP modules follow the format VP3456.

Characters 1 and 2 are always ‘VP’, which indicates that the module is a VIP.

Character 3 is the level of study (1, 2, 3, 4, or 5).

Characters 4 and 5 are the project number, based on the following codes:

  • 01 – Biodiversity Literacy
  • 02 – Creating Accessible Online Mathematics and Statistics Resources
  • 03 – Dolphin Acoustics at the Interface of Biology and Computer Science
  • 04 – Explaining Climate Impacts: Using Filmmaking to Explain Climate Change
  • 05 – Film, Media and Scotland's Future
  • 06 – History, Mathematics, and the Public
  • 07 – Housing in St Andrews
  • 08 – Looking after Eden
  • 09 – Mathematical Software
  • 10 – Monuments: Conflict and Movement
  • 11 – Mutual Aid Clinic
  • 12 – The Beautiful Game
  • 13 – Using Artificial Intelligence for Decision Making
  • 14 – Bacteriophage Discovery

Character 6 indicates the semester and number of credits, based on the following codes:

  • 2 – Semester 1, 10 credits
  • 3 – Semester 1, 15 credits
  • 4 – Semester 1, 20 credits
  • 7 – Semester 2, 10 credits
  • 8 – Semester 2, 15 credits
  • 9 – Semester 2, 20 credits

For example, VP2012 would be a second-year module for Biodiversity Literacy at 10 credits in semester 1.

Credit load imbalance and overcrediting 

It is important to ensure that a VIP does not cause a heavy imbalance in credit loads across semesters. For example, some Schools only have 30-credit modules at Honours. In this case, allocating 30 credits to VIP and splitting them 10/20 across semesters is better than a 15/15 split. The reason is that with a 10/20 credit split, the total credit load each semester could be 70/50 which is manageable. With a 15/15 credit split, the credit load each semester would be 75/45 or 45/75 which is more uneven and a less desirable imbalance. 

Students are permitted to overcredit (that is, to enrol in more than 120 credits). However, overcrediting may cause work overload and risks student performance.