The policy would have applied to graded work in the second half session, including dissertations.
By: Anttoni Numminen
King's College - Courtesy: AJN
The University of Aberdeen's Senate has today voted against a No Detriment (ND) policy for the second half session.
The ND policy was presented to the Senate with the aim "that assessment undertaken during the second half-session of 2020/21 will not have a detrimental impact upon undergraduate degree classification or postgraduate taught award."
A No Detriment policy was in place from March 2020 until the end of the 2019/20 academic semester, however, the new and updated policy was rejected by the Senate.
According to the University, the proposal was voted down with votes of 40 for and 56 against. It was previously reported that the vote was split 39 for and 55 against, however, this was due to two member's votes not being included in the electronic totals during the meeting, due to apparent technical difficulties.
The full ND policy proposal can be viewed on the University's website, by logging in with your student username and password.
Speaking at student council last week, the University's Vice-Principal Education, Ruth Taylor, said she was in favour of the No Detriment policy and that it would "apply to the second half session".
The policy was drafted by The VP Education alongside AUSA's Vice-President for Education, Ondrej Kučerák.
Caption: The VP Communities' Tweet
Speaking on Twitter, AUSA's Vice-President for Communities, Radeen Moncrieffe, said: "Things I learned from the Aberdeen Uni senate meeting today are:
- Lecturers & academics would rather talk about SCEF forms than pay attention to a presentation about anti-racism
- They have voted AGAINST a no-detriment policy for students to not 'disadvantage the best students'"
The University's website states that "The Senate is responsible for all academic matters relating to teaching and research. This includes approving teaching and learning (including assessment) policies and practices, regulations that govern students’ programmes of study, their progress and their awards, and admission requirements to the University’s various degrees (known as “Going Rates”); and ensuring that appropriate and effective arrangements are in place for student support (academic and non-academic)."
The University, Ruth Taylor and AUSA have all been contacted for comment, however, the University and the VP said that they would not be able to provide a statement until tomorrow.
This is a developing story and The Gaudie will be providing updates as soon as it has them. Follow Gaudie News on Facebook for the latest.
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