Academic Alerts

The University operates a system of academic alerts, as described in the University Student handbook, Academic alerts. For more information on Academic alerts see the University's policy on Academic alerts and the accompanying guidance for students.

The Academic alert system is designed to support you throughout your studies by identifying problems early and before they can seriously affect your grades. Alerts are sent when there's a concern about your academic progress. They're meant to help you get back on track and avoid failing a module.

Academic alerts will be issued by email and tell students what is wrong, what action they need to take and what support the University can offer. If the required action is not taken further alerts may be issued and, in some cases, this could lead to a grade of zero and a fail for the module.

Academic alerts will never appear on a student's permanent transcript.

 
Final Academic Alerts

A "FINAL" alert will result in a student receiving grade 0X for the module with no right to a resit examination. This can have serious consequences for their university study.

The University's Assessment and Feedback Policy contains several conditions, including that at least 75% of the assessed work in any module must be submitted for a student to gain credit for a module. For some modules the requirement may be greater than this.

In Honours modules in physics and astronomy, attendance at and engagement with all classes (lectures, tutorials, and any specified practical work) is strongly recommended and in some cases is a requirement.

To avoid receiving a grade of zero for the module or "FINAL" academic alert, the requirements for honours modules in the School are:

Class tests:

  • For all modules with a class test: Attend the class test.

Tutorials/Workshops

  • For PH3007, PH3061, PH3062, PH3081 and PH3082, students must attend at least 75% of the small-group tutorials/workshops organised for each module and must submit on time a serious attempt at any specified tutorial work for at least 75% of the stated occasions for each module.
  • For PH3012, students must attend at least 75% of the workshop sessions.

Practical Work

  • PH3101, PH4105: Attend at least 75% of the laboratory sessions.
  • AS3013, AS4025: Attend at least 75% of the sessions.
  • All Final year project modules:
    • Submit the pre-project review AND the final project report before one week after their respective deadlines and obtain at least 25% in their respective assessments.
    • Attend and actively participate in the project oral examination.

PH3014 Transferable Skills for Physicists

  • Achieve at least a grade 4.0 in the First Talk, Review Article, and the Conference Talk assignments.
  • Attend at least 75% of the tutorial sessions.

PH3080/PH3082 Programming for Physicists

  • Attend at least 75% of the PC classroom workshop sessions, monitored via Moodle quizzes.
  • Achieve at least a grade 4.0 in the class test and home-work assignment.

PH5024 Modern Topics in Condensed Matter Physics

  • Submit at least 75% of the tutorial/problem sheets.
  • Attend all the presentation sessions.
  • For all modules which are assessed wholly or partly by continuous assessment, a requirement of the module is to achieve a grade of at least 4.0 in the continuously assessed component.

We remind students that failure to complete an exam without good cause, or attaining less than grade 4.0 in a module, may result in the failure to gain academic credit for that module in that year.