Provision of feedback to students on their academic work is a key part of the role of any university teacher, and a vital part of the learning process.
Effective feedback helps students to understand the mark that they have received for a particular piece of work (and may thus reduce the number of appeals/complaints), helps them to reflect on their own learning, and helps them to achieve better marks in future pieces of work. The benefits to students of effective feedback are obvious (which is why the NUS has made the improvement of feedback one of its priorities), and there are equally obvious benefits to the University.
There is considerable diversity of practice between (and sometimes within) departments. Some of this diversity is a natural consequence of differences between subject-areas, and it is not suggested that there should be a single, University-wide norm for the type or volume of feedback that should be given to students. Nor is it suggested that there should be a required medium through which feedback is provided; this may well vary depending on the subject, the nature of the assignment and the number of students on the particular module.
Subject to individual departmental policies (which may require that feedback is provided in a particular way), those responsible for modules are encouraged to explore the full range of feedback mechanisms available. These range from:
It is recommend that departments should ensure that when designing assessment and feedback mechanisms for new modules, and when reviewing the effectiveness of existing arrangements, staff adhere to the following key principles:
Departments may decide to provide feedback earlier than the feedback deadline of 20 working days. The 20 working days does not include Bank Holidays and any of the University’s Christmas closure periods (which is usually considered to be six days). Other vacation periods are included in the 20 working days as well as term-time (i.e. coursework handed in at the end of term should be returned at the start of the following term, not 20 working days into it). Working days are Monday to Friday.
It is recommended that Student Voice Groups(1) include a standing item of business to discuss arrangements for feedback on assessed work, the timeliness of feedback, and the quality of feedback. Annual Review of Courses reports should also continue to address this issue.
(1)Terminology updated to reflect the change from Student Staff Liaison Committees to Student Voice Groups from 2018-19.
A student who requests access to his/her examination script, or who wishes to know the marks received for individual questions, may apply to the department which is responsible for that module.
The department should either:
or: