Assessment information | School of Mathematics Teaching | School of Mathematics teaching information

Assessment requirements for MSc courses and how to submit appeals or complaints.

Each taught course that the School delivers in an academic session has related assessment rules, which have been agreed by the Board of Studies before the new session begins.

Progression to Dissertation

The MSc programmes consist of a taught component (120 credits of compulsory and optional courses) and a dissertation (60 credits). Upon completion of the taught component of the programme, any student satisfying the following conditions will be permitted to progress to the dissertation:

an average across 120 taught credits of at least 50%
AND a minimum of 80 credits at 50%.

Please note that candidates are not allowed to resit an assessment in order to facilitate progression to the dissertation unless they have a Null Sit due to valid Exceptional Circumstances.

Assessment requirements

The overall result for your Masters degree is arrived at by combining the average result of the taught courses (both compulsory and optional) and the result for the dissertation. The table below provides further information about the marks that are required for each classification. Students who do not qualify for a Masters degree may be awarded a Postgraduate Certificate or Diploma.

Grade requirements
	Diploma	MSc	MSc with Merit	MSc with Distinction
Taught course average (across 120 credits)	40% or above	50% or above	60% or above	70% or above
80 credits at 50%	-	Yes	Yes	Yes
80 credits at 40%	Yes	-	-	-
Project/Dissertation	-	50% or above	60% or above	70% or above

(In order to qualify for the Postgraduate Certificate, students must have an average of at least 40% across 60 credits of taught courses, and to pass a minimum of 40 credits at 40%.)

Please note that candidates are not allowed to resit an assessment in order to be considered for the award of MSc, unless they have a Null Sit due to valid Exceptional Circumstances.

Scaling

It is not always easy to predict in advance how hard or easy an exam or other assessment will turn out to be. For that reason, to ensure the outcome of assessment is fair and reasonable, exams and other substantial assessments are “moderated”. This means that the marks received on the common marking scheme may differ from the “raw” mark on the script that was originally generated by the marker(s) of the assessment.

In performing this scaling, we pay attention to a number of sources of information such as: whether it is apparent from student attempts that parts of the assessment were easier or harder than expected; whether the distribution of class marks is in accordance with norms for pass rates, proportion of A grades, etc. In response to this information it may be decided to scale marks up or down.

The final marks for components of assessment are decided by the Board of Examiners. They may, after discussion, decide to adjust the moderated marks, by changing or introducing a scaling. In particular, moderated marks for coursework may on occasion be adjusted by the Board of Examiners.

Unsatisfactory performance

Under the rules of the University, the School reserves the right to request formally that a student who is not performing adequately is withdrawn at any point during the programme.

Appeals

The University regulations for taught postgraduate appeals can be found here:

Student Appeals

Complaints

We would encourage students to raise any problems (either academic or personal) as quickly as possible by approaching their Student Adviser in the first instance. When such matters cannot be resolved informally, the University has a formal student complaints procedure.

University Complaints Procedure

This article was published on 2025-02-26