Soton Uni is reviewing the no detriment policy again

The University has received a ‘significant volume’ of emails from students about the changes revealed last week


The University of Southampton will be reviewing the new changes to the no detriment policy.

Emails obtained by The Soton Tab, sent by various Student Offices this morning, say due to a “significant volume” of emails from students regarding the new changes to the no detriment policy, “the University have agreed that they will review how the classification policy is implemented, in conjunction with SUSU.”

The emails say: “Further information [will be issued] in due course.”

Last week, emails sent by the University revealed that under Soton’s no detriment policy, no work from semester two will count towards students’ degrees, other than final year dissertations and projects.

Emails obtained by The Soton Tab, sent to students in multiple departments, said semester Two grades will not count for first and second years, whilst final year students will be able to improve their grade with their diss, but not any other work from this semester.

Over the Easter holidays, students were told the University was implementing a no detriment policy, meaning their grade average can’t go below what they achieved before 22nd March. There had been confusion about what this policy actually means in terms of students’ grades, until these emails last week revealed more.

Although the no detriment policy is important due to the disruptions caused to this term’s teaching, there had been backlash amongst students over the University’s decision to remove the marks of all semester two work from students’ overall degree classifications.

The Soton Tab spoke to multiple Southampton students, from different courses and years, about the changes made to the no detriment policy. In one poll of Soton Tab Instagram followers, 40 per cent said they thought the Uni had made it a good policy, whilst 60 per cent said the Uni should have worked out no detriment differently.

A second year English and Spanish student said many students “may have had personal issues in semester one”, making it “unfair” to not let people improve their grades.

Many students told us they were “relying” on semester two modules and had been working hard to improve their grades, with one saying: “If you do better in semester two than one, then it should count!”

One student highlighted the need for a no detriment policy, saying: “semester one was my better grade, semester two was messed up with the stress and the pandemic.”