Assessment
How is the period of study abroad assessed?
The marks you obtain abroad will count towards your degree
classification. There are conversion scales for each country and in some
cases for individual universities where they use their own unique marking
system. View
Conversion Scales.
The number of Essex credits you will be awarded for the period abroad,
and how heavily the period abroad will be weighted when classifying your
degree, varies depending upon which degree course you are taking, how long
you have spent abroad, where you have studied abroad, and in which year of
your degree you went abroad.
- Students who spend one term abroad will receive
60 Essex credits for the period abroad. Where students have
taken four modules abroad, these will each be converted as
one 15-credit Essex module. However, in many universities
students do not take four modules per term and of course
whilst abroad, you must take the number of modules that
constitutes a full-time load at your host institution.
- If you have taken three modules, each will be converted
as a 15-credit module, plus the average of the three marks
will be used to make the fourth module. If you have taken
more than four modules, the conversion method will vary
depending upon whether the modules are worth equal numbers
of credits or not. You should discuss that type of case with
the Study Abroad Office.
- The credits from the period abroad will be weighted in
the same way as Essex credits from year two (if you study
abroad in the second year), or in the same way as Essex
credits from the final year (if you study abroad in the
final year).
- Students who spend a full year abroad on a 3-year
degree will receive 120 Essex credits for the year
abroad.
- If you have taken four modules per semester, each module
will be converted as one 15-credit Essex module. However, in
many universities students do not take four modules per term
and of course whilst abroad, you must take the number of
modules that constitutes a full-time load at your host
institution.
- If you have taken three, five, or more modules per
semester, marks will be converted as per the principles
described above. The marks from the period abroad will be
weighted in the same way as a second year spent at Essex.
- Students who spend a full year abroad on a 4-year
degree will receive 90 Essex credits on European
Studies, Modern Languages, and Latin American Studies
degrees OR 60 Essex credits for all other degrees.
This is because degree programmes that have as an objective study abroad
in a foreign language which you are studying as part of the degree attach
more credits to the year abroad than other degree programmes. In all cases,
you must still take a full-time course load whilst abroad. Modules must be
taken for credit; modules taken on a pass/fail basis will NOT be counted
towards your Essex credits, which could result in a failed component.
On four-year degrees:
If you have studied in the USA, your cumulative GPA will be converted and
the resulting mark will be used twice.
If you have studied in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Hong Kong,
Russia, or Israel, your marks for each semester will usually be averaged and
converted such that you have one Essex mark for each semester abroad.
However, there are some exceptions to this rule. The Study Abroad Office
will advise you if you fall into that category.
If you have studied in Latin America or Europe, if you have passed the
required number of credits/courses, then the lowest 25% (approximately) of
your marks will be discarded and the remainder will be converted into Essex
marks.
At European and Latin American universities, students must typically take
a large number of modules each with a small number of credits. Thus it is
usually necessary to combine modules in order to create a unit worth either
15 or 30 Essex credits. These combinations will be made in such a way that
you obtain the best possible marks.
Students doing Latin American Studies who have had special permission to
spend one semester at a university and the second semester undertaking an
internship will have two marks resulting from the first semester, converted
as above, and the third mark will be that given for the coursework
associated with the internship.
Students on and/with degree courses, for example the BA Politics & Modern
Languages, must in addition to completing the minimum required number of
credits in total, also pass at least a number of credits in EACH of their
major subjects that is equivalent to 30 Essex credits. This means that
merely passing the minimum total number of credits for the year is NOT
sufficient if one discipline has been failed.
In all cases, the year abroad on a 4-year degree is weighted as 20% in
the arithmetic average system of degree classification.