Guidance for MSc Students

The details below concern how we reach a mark for your current year of study.

We are looking at each course individually to see whether the coursework is sufficient to demonstrate meeting the learning outcomes of the course. This is to help us create a non-detrimental marking approach.  This means that each course for Semester 2 will fall under two scenarios of marking.

Scenario One

This is for courses where the coursework is sufficient to demonstrate meeting the learning outcomes for the course (most 50% coursework/ 50% exam courses fall under this category). There are several courses where there is still coursework to be done, which fall under this scenario.  We are asking you to complete your coursework in order that the provisional course mark you have is as high as possible, as well as to help you with your learning. The marks for this type of coursework will be included in your year baseline.

Provisional Course Mark: For these courses, the coursework mark will constitute a provisional course mark. After the completion of the examination in this course, the overall mark for this course will be calculated as normal. If this mark exceeds the provisional course mark, then this will be the final mark recorded for the course and used for degree classification. If it does not, then the provisional course mark will be the final mark used for degree classification.

Example: Consider a course with 50% coursework and 50% exam. Assume that the student achieved 35/50 in the coursework component. Then the provisional course mark is 70%. If the student achieves 45/50 in the exam, then they will have an overall mark of 80% (since this exceeds the provisional course mark). If, however, the student achieves 30/50 in the exam, then the overall mark is 65%, i.e. lower than the provisional course mark, hence the provisional course mark (70%) is the final result for this course and will be used for degree classification.

Scenario Two

This is for courses where the coursework mark is not sufficient to demonstrate meeting the learning outcomes for the course (courses with 80:20 and 95:5 exam-coursework split). In these courses, the exams will be completed as normal and the final mark is calculated as normal given the designated split. If this mark exceeds or equals the year baseline (detailed below) then the final mark for the course is counted towards degree classification. If, however, the final mark is less than the year baseline, then the result for the course will stay unaffected, but it will not be counted when calculating the degree classification.

Example: Given the year baseline of 71% (detailed below) if a student achieves an overall mark of 65% in a course with an 80:20 exam-coursework-split, then this grade will not be counted for degree classification. If a student achieves 75% in this course, then this grade will be counted for degree classification.

Year baseline: The School of Mathematics will establish a year baseline based on the courses taken in first semester and the provisional course marks of second semester courses. They are weighted by the number of credits.

Example: The following courses will be considered when calculating the year baseline.

The year baseline is given by:

    Year Baseline = ( (10 x 80) + (10 x 55) + (20 x 75) + (10 x 70) ) / (10 + 10 + 20 + 10 ) = 71. 

This was calculated using Courses A, B, C and D, since E did not have coursework that would demonstrate the learning outcomes.

Scenario 1

• Bayesian Data Analysis
• Biomedical Data Science
• Credit Scoring
• Finance Risk and Uncertainty
• Integer and Combinatorial
• Machine Learning in Python
• Operational Research Energy Industry
• Optimization Methods in Finance
• Probability and Statistics
• Research Linked Topics
• Research Skills for CAM
• Stats Research Skills
• Topics in Applied OR

Scenario 2

• Financial Risk Theory
• Generalised Regression Models
• Large Scale Optimization for Data Science
• Nonparametric Regression Models
• Numerical Partial Differential Equations
• Numerical Probability and Monte Carlo
• Risk and Logistics
• Risk Neutral Asset Pricing
• Stochastic Analysis in Finance
• Stochastic Control
• Stochastic Control and Dynamic Asset Allocation
• Stochastic Modelling
• Time Series
• Topics in Applied Optimization

This section is intended to provide information in relation to coursework for the School of Mathematics. 

Completing Remaining Coursework:

It is very important that you complete your remaining coursework. This is so that your provisional course mark and year baseline marks (see section above) represents the work that you have done and is optimised.

We have emphasised this in our communications and it is in Colm Harmon’s email: “To be specific, we will ensure your final academic year average is the same as, or higher than, the average you would have attained through assessment that has already been undertaken or, (as is the case with some continuous assessment), is currently in progress.” 

We have moved deadlines for coursework in order to give you more time to complete these and, if you believe that you require a further extension, you should contact either your Course Secretary (you’ll find their contact details on the LEARN page for your course) or the Student Support Team to discuss this. You may also wish to apply for Special circumstances, please see the Special Circumstances section below.

• School of Mathematics Student Support Team: studentsupport@maths.ed.ac.uk

How to Submit Coursework Remotely:

The LEARN webpage for your course will have all the details you need to know what form or format you should submit your current coursework assessment. There are ‘how to’ guides to help you with creating a PDF and uploading coursework and examinations at https://teaching.maths.ed.ac.uk/main/covid-19/coursework-submission. If you are unsure, please contact your Course Organiser and Course Secretary.  

Issues Working Remotely:

We understand that there may be circumstances where you have difficulty completing assessment remotely due to having limited access to a laptop, PC or broadband. If there are sudden problems and you are unable to submit coursework assignments online (e.g. technological issues), please contact your Course Secretary (you’ll find their contact details on the LEARN page for your course) and discuss it with them. You should explain what happened and we will work out what can be done and advise you further.

This section is intended to provide information in relation to examinations for the School of Mathematics. 

Context:

As the Vice-Principal for Students, Colm Harmon, put it in his email “We feel very strongly that it is essential that assessment should continue, albeit some of it in an adapted form.”

The continuity that remote teaching and online examinations deliver is something that is important to a lot of students, particularly with the fact that students will be able to graduate from University. As such, we are trying to create as much continuity as we can. 

We acknowledge that there are deeply held and well-reasoned arguments on a range of possible options to do with examinations - from no examination or assessment to a full examination season with resits and other options. We have listened and communicated these views to others in the University taking decisions and have tried to implement a procedure for this examination diet that allows you to attempt examinations on a non-detrimental basis (please see the assessment section for further details on this). 

Delivery of Examinations:

Our general approach will be to deliver online examinations as close to the style and format of on-campus examinations as possible. We will provide further information on the format of examinations as fast possible, as this work is currently ongoing. 

Remote Examination Format and Structure:

You should expect the examination to look broadly like the on-campus examination you were expecting to take. In particular, you should expect to receive questions where you will need to write out answers on paper explaining your reasoning. This should be done using a black pen rather than pencil, and on white paper where possible to produce a high contrast. 

The solutions should then be scanned and submitted on the LEARN page for the course. There are ‘how to’ guides to help you with creating a PDF at https://teaching.maths.ed.ac.uk/main/covid-19/coursework-submission. More information will be coming out about examinations and the opportunity to make a test submission will be released soon. 

Issues Completing Examinations Remotely:

We understand that there may be circumstances where you have difficulty completing examinations remotely due to having limited access to a laptop, PC or broadband. If there are sudden problems and you are unable to submit coursework assignments online (e.g. technological issues), please contact your Course Secretary (you’ll find their contact details on the LEARN page for your course) and discuss it with them. You should explain what happened and we will work out what can be done and advise you further. 

Scheduling of Exams: 

Your current timetable is no longer accurate. As the examinations will now be online and there is a change to the duration, the University Exams Team are currently undertaking a rescheduling activity. This will begin week commencing 13th April and will be completed as soon as is possible after this date.  The timeframe will be dictated by the number of changes they need to incorporate.  It is likely that the notice period for exam times will be minimal.

There is still uncertainty as to how the University Exams Team will use student calendars to reflect the changes, they are currently considering the practicalities.  They plan to remove all exams from student calendars, week beginning 6^th April. Students will receive an email directly from the Exams Team with details. The exams website will also be updated in due course. 

Duration of Exams:

We are also maintaining the normal duration of the examinations. Exams offered on this basis (normally 2-3 hours), will have an additional one hour for students to submit their work. 

We are doing this to provide some continuity. The nature of our discipline, where computation and proof are critical, means that if we were to have long examinations then we would need to change substantially the format of the examination. Most students do not have experience of sitting such examinations – and how to succeed in them - and most of the staff in the School do not have experience in setting such examinations. 

We felt it would considerably increase worry and stress, for both students and staff, if we were to change the type of examinations we offer. With the normal time, the examinations we give will be essentially the same as you would have received had you been taking them physically in Edinburgh. 

Students who are offered extended time as a reasonable adjustment will receive an additional one hour. This means that, where the exam is being offered as a two-hour exam, with an additional hour for submitting your work, you will receive three hours to complete the exam, and an additional hour to submit your work (i.e. a total of 4 hours instead of 3). 

Results:

The University will be making announcements soon about the exact schedule for release of examination marks. 

Resits and Alternative Assessments:

We do not intend to offer resits, as we believe the use of a year baseline is the best and least stressful solution. This is also why we are using as much information from other assessments as possible to establish an individual year baseline for everyone. 

This is a decision that has been taken across the University. There may be some exceptional cases where the year baseline cannot reliably be constructed (perhaps if you have null sits in Semester 1 courses). We will be in touch in due course with all students affected in this way. 

If are concerned because you need to take a resit of a course ‘exam only’ this year to progress, we are still working on this question to provide you with a definitive answer. We will update you once we have reached an answer.

It will be possible for you to do the dissertation remotely from wherever you are. You may wish to return to Edinburgh for this, but you do not have to. The MSc Programme Directors/Project Coordinators will be in touch with you about this in due course. This does mean that there may be fewer projects with external partners than before, and that might be disappointing for you.

Examinations and Special Circumstances

We consider that the examinations will be affected by Special Circumstances for everyone and the current situation will be taken into account by Boards of Examiners. This is also why we are using as much information from other assessments as possible to establish an individual year baseline mark for everyone.

If there were any further exceptional circumstances, which had nothing at all to do with the Covid-19 disruption, and that you believe would not be taken care of by the approach of no detriment outlined here, you can still submit special circumstances for those. You may still need to submit a Special Circumstances case for examinations in other Schools and you should seek guidance from them.

Coursework and Special Circumstances

In addition to the examples outlined in the Special circumstances policy, you may also wish to consider making an application if:

• You have Special Circumstances in relation to coursework you are currently working on but are currently unable to get the proof asked for in the Special Circumstances process.

• If your coursework grades have been affected by Special Circumstances, this will allow us to take this into account when calculating your baseline.
• If you are ill or are having to provide support to family members due to COVID-19.

Due to the exceptional pressures that medical services are currently under, the requirement for supporting medical evidence has been waived. You may, however, still approach others who know you for supporting evidence: for example, members of the Residence Life team, your personal tutor etc.

Applying for Special Circumstances

We encourage you to contact the Student Support Team or your Personal Tutor to discuss applying for Special Circumstances. General information regarding the Special Circumstances process is available here:

• Special Circumstances: https://www.ed.ac.uk/staff/supporting-students/academic-procedures/special-circumstances.

Please note: there is specific information with regards to Special Circumstances for examinations and Covid-19. The University-level advice is available here: https://www.ed.ac.uk/news/covid-19/current-students  

As mentioned above, exams offered on this basis (normally 2-3 hours), will have an additional one hour for students to submit their work. 

Students who are offered extended time as a reasonable adjustment will receive an additional one hour. This means that, where the exam is being offered as a two-hour exam, with an additional hour for submitting your work, you will receive three hours to complete the exam, and an additional hour to submit your work (i.e. a total of 4 hours instead of 3). 

Where final exams have been replaced with coursework assignments, students who are able to request extensions to deadlines as a reasonable adjustment will be able to do so for these assessments in the usual way. 

Students who normally receive an adjustment preventing them from being penalised in relation to spelling or grammar in their work will have this applied in the normal way. 

A very small number of students usually receive the assistance of a scribe when they undertake written exams; where Schools are offering an alternative form of assessment to a student (such as the online examinations the School of Mathematics is running) who would usually have the assistance of a scribe, they should contact the Student Disability Service for advice, disability.service@ed.ac.uk. 

If you are at all uncertain about what adjustments you will be offered for your remaining assessments, please contact your School. 

We regret that graduation ceremonies in summer 2020 will not be running. Further information is available via:

• Graduations Information: https://www.ed.ac.uk/student-administration/graduations
• University of Edinburgh Covid-19 Guidance: https://www.ed.ac.uk/news/covid-19/current-students

All Tier 4 students should continue to check the advice of the Student Immigration Service regularly, as they can give you up-to-date advice on any travel restrictions there may be with regards to your visa status. If you have any queries regarding visas, please contact the Student Immigration Service. International students may also wish to consider advice from their embassy.

To find out how you can continue to engage with teaching for your T4 visa, please refer to the University’s Covid-19 webpage. We recognise that not it may not be possible for all students to engage with their studies remotely in this way. If you think you will be unable to engage with your studies remotely, please contact Student Support at studentsupport@maths.ed.ac.uk.

• Student Immigration Service: https://www.ed.ac.uk/student-administration/immigration
• University of Edinburgh Covid-19 Guidance: https://www.ed.ac.uk/news/covid-19/current-students

Will I know my overall coursework marks before the examinations so that I know where I already stand? And will I have had feedback on all my coursework so that I can take account of this in my examination preparation?

In general, we will endeavour to get as much of the coursework marking done and to give you grades and feedback on this. However, we have moved most of our deadlines back to give you more time to complete coursework assignments, and so it will be challenging to return everything to you before the examination period begins. In particular large assignments, such as undergraduate projects, are unlikely to be marked and the mark returned before the exam diet.

I am concerned that the online format of examinations will allow more scope for collusion, and so cheating, by some students. How will this be addressed? 

The School is taking steps to reduce the possibility of collusion, and so cheating. Before each examination we will be asking you to accept and agree to an own work declaration (online) that indicates that you promise to complete the examination on your own, without outside help.

We take this very seriously and we are sure you do too. If we detect very unusual patterns in some scripts, then we may ask for a viva or follow up in other ways. In addition, posting to Piazza will be suspended during examinations.

If the examination mark will not necessarily be taken into account for my final course mark can I choose not to take the examination? 

We strongly recommend that you do take the examination, since it can only improve your overall mark and not reduce it. 

What happens if I fail courses? 

Usually the University has a rule that you can fail up to 40 credits in an academic year and the Board of Examiners can award credits on aggregate to allow you to progress and/or graduate.

We are in exceptional circumstances, and so there are now perturbations to these rules. This allows us to have the flexibility to be able to do what the Head of School outlined in his email and what has been put in more detail in the School guidance.

In particular, if you fail a course (and your baseline was more than 50%) then this course does not get counted in the calculation for your progression and/or graduation. If there are very extreme cases where a student has nothing or almost nothing to contribute to the baseline and has no passes in courses from the forthcoming examination diet, then we will be in touch to discuss this with you. If you are concerned, please contact the Student Support Team at studentsupport@maths.ed.ac.uk. 

Examinations: We have online advice about examinations in Study Hub: https://www.ed.ac.uk/institute-academic-development/study-hub/learning-resources

Also, Exam Bootcamp is a self-enrol resource on LEARN to support students taking examinations.  It covers three main areas:

1 - Get set by preparing: Plan, take stock, and identify gaps

2 - Do the revision workout: learn to focus, read effectively, re-structure, and re-test

3 - Develop effective exam strategies: Tried and tested techniques, and tips to use during examinations You can find Exam Bootcamp in the Self-Enrol (Students) section of the LEARN space (http://www.learn.ed.ac.uk).

Dissertations: https://www.ed.ac.uk/institute-academic-development/study-hub/learning-resources/dissertations

Academic writing: https://www.ed.ac.uk/institute-academic-development/study-hub/learning-resources/writing

Workshops: We will be running online versions of our workshops so please follow our twitter account (@IAD_StudyHub) or blog (https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/studyhub/) to find out more information on these.

Consultations: Finally, you may find it helpful to have a Study Skills Consultation with one of the team. This is a 30-minute one-to-one session with a Study Development Adviser to help you develop effective study strategies and enhance your approach to your academic work.  Study Skills Consultations will be running online from the 23rd March.  To find out more and book a place, please go to the website; https://www.ed.ac.uk/institute-academic-development/undergraduate/services/quick-consultations/quick-consultation