‘I might still get a first!’: UCL will officially be implementing a ‘no detriment’ policy

UCL has officially announced that they will be introducing a “no detriment” policy for this academic year, to make sure students’ grades cannot fall below their current average.

UCL made the decision to implement the policy after it was introduced by many other top universities last week, including Sheffield, Bath and Exeter. The policy is designed to recognise students performance so far whilst supporting further progression for the summer exam period.

In recognising performance so far, UCL’s no detriment principle means that they have put in place a system based on each students total grades up to this point in their studies and that will no be affected negatively by the summer exam period. Meaning, no one’s grade will fall below what it already stands at going into this period.

The University have stated that “if you are an undergraduate finalist or postgraduate taught student, your degree will be awarded either on the classification you have achieved in your work to date, or improved if you perform well in your final assessments.”

Similar measures have also been put in place for those second and third years who are progressing into final year in September.

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UCL are striving to treat all students fairly and so they have stated that if you are to perform well in your assessments there will be opportunity for grades to improved based on the summer assessments. They have stated that marking criteria and extenuating circumstances have also been put in place so as to recognise students performance in this challenging time.

They have also announced that there will be no summer resits this year, only deferred assessments. Also “Condonement” has been put in place for this year, meaning that certain modules that normally have to be ‘passed’ in order to progress will no longer have this pressure.

The reaction from students is overwhelmingly positive, we spoke to a History finalist, Annabel, who told The London Tab: “I’m relieved that it’s been put in place because I was worried about meeting the requirements of my masters offer, which had put a lot of pressures on my dissertation in these already stressful times.”

Rory, a Languages finalist said: “I’m gassed, means I’ll definitely make my masters offer but the ability to improve is good. I think it’s also really fair for students who are already averaging a first and have worked hard to get there.”