E.MA Rules of Assessment 2011/2012

 

Art. 1. DEFINITIONS

 

For the purpose of the present rules, the following definitions shall apply:

 

i.    Exam Commission: the commission set up to determine the results of the first semester and to review complaints about the assessments of first semester courses;

 

ii.    Examination Committee: the committee composed of the members of the E.MA Council, competent to hear the oral defence of the thesis and to give the definitive mark for the thesis, and to confer the E.MA degree.

 

 

Art. 2. DEGREE COMPONENTS

 

The degree components are the following:

 

A.           First semester courses in Venice

Thematic Sections (hereinafter TS) 1-5 (50% of the total mark, equivalent to 30 ECTS credits);

 

   B.         At least two assessed course units at one of the participating Universities (15% of the total mark, 9 ECTS credits) during the second semester;

 

C.           Thesis (35% of the total mark, 21 ECTS credits).

 

 

Art. 3. FIRST SEMESTER COURSES ASSESSMENT

 

 

1. In general

 

i.           First semester assessment will consist of a written exam for TS 1, an essay for TS 2 and TS 3, a written exam and a project document for TS 4 and a 24 hours take home assignment for TS 5.

 

ii.           The E.MA Programme Director and the TS responsibles will jointly design the exams.

 

iii.      The E.MA Programme Director will supervise the exams, essay assignments, take-home exams and project assignments, assisted by the fellows. They will be responsible for clarifying queries regarding the exam questions and the assignments.

  

2. Organisation of exams in particular

 

i.        For the exam, students will be given a sheet with questions referring to the relevant thematic section. The allotted time is up to four hours for the TS 1 exam and up to two hours for the TS 4 exam to answer the exam questions. Students will write their answers on working papers pre-marked with a stamp. Furthermore they will receive two envelopes and a card. The card, filled in with the student’s name and surname, must be put in the smaller envelope. This envelope and all the working papers will be inserted in the larger envelope.  At the end of the session, the large envelope will be given to the exam supervisors. The answers of each student will be circulated anonymously to the markers. Any sign likely to identify the author of the answer must be avoided.

 

ii.        Students may be allowed to use language dictionaries and texts of international instruments only if not annotated.

 

iii.       Students will not be allowed to exchange views on questions during the writing period. They can leave the exam room only in turn (one at time) and under monitoring of a supervisor.

 

iv.      All notes and rough versions may only be written on the working paper provided by the E.MA Programme and must be returned with the good copy of the answer.

 

v.      No page limit for the answers is established, unless the E.MA Programme Director gives a specific indication. Additional paper can be requested from the exam supervisors.

 

vi.       If the supervisors discover violations of the present rules, an incident report will be completed and submitted to the Exam Commission.

Students will be informed that such action has been taken and may have to appear before the Exam Commission. If the Commission determines that a serious breach of the rules has taken place, the student concerned shall be awarded a “0” for the exam and may be excluded from participating in the second semester.

 

3. Deferral of exams

 

Students are expected to attend first semester’s exams except in the case of severe physical impediment, such as hospitalisation or grave illness. In any case such illness must be documented through a note of a doctor indicated by the E.MA Programme and presented no later than 24 hours before the exam is set to begin. In the case of an emergency occurring within 24 hours of the exam, the student will present evidence of his/her emergency treatment. If such exceptional cases occur, students will be asked to take deferred exams during the weeks immediately following the exam week.

  

4. Assessment and complaints procedure

 

i.        The thematic sections’ exams, essays and written assignments are graded under the supervision of the relevant thematic section responsible.

 

ii.       Exams, essays and written assignments will be graded in accordance with the highest standards of fairness, consistency and equity. The marks for each exam, essay and written assignment will be awarded according to a scale from 0 to 10. The scale is to be interpreted as follows: a 0 is awarded when no work is submitted or when it is submitted in violation of general principles of academic honesty, a 3 is given to a performance which is entirely inadequate, a 5 is given to a performance which clearly fails to meet the Programme’s requirement, but which nevertheless demonstrates some understanding of the material, a 6 constitutes a ‘pass’, a 7 is considered ‘satisfactory’, an 8 is ‘good’, a 9 is ‘very good’, and a 10 is ‘excellent’. In assessing exams, essays and written assignments, examiners may use one decimal point to distinguish between marks.

 

iii.       In the event an essay or a written assignment (such as a take-home exam) is submitted after the dead-line determined by the E.MA Programme Director, the essay or written assignment shall be first graded according to the above scale. After the grading, the mark of the essays shall be diminished by 0.5 points per every commenced day of late submission and the marks of the take home assignment will be diminished 0,5 points per every hour of late submission.

 

iv.      Without prejudice to the procedure for TS 1 (see Art. 3, point 5, vii, a), results will be announced before the end of the semester by the Exam Commission.

 

v.        Complaints about assigned marks for exams, essays and written assignments must be directed to the Exam Commission, which is competent to review complaints and adjust marks, if appropriate. The decision of the Exam Commission shall be final and binding. 

 

5. Admission to the second semester, re-sits

 

i.                 A student is admitted to the second semester upon the successful completion of the first semester courses.

 

ii.                For the purposes of determining successful completion, the assessments of the thematic sections are weighed as follows:

 

TS 1: written exam (8 units)

TS 2 & TS 3: individual essay (8 units combined)

TS 4: written exam (4 units) and group project document (2 units)

TS 5: take home assignment + presentation related to field trip (6 + 2 units).

 

iii.              A student who has obtained 6.0 or more for a thematic section is awarded the corresponding amount of units.

 

iv.               In order to gain access to the second semester, students need to collect a minimum of 22 out of 30 units, and need to obtain an average of 6.0 over the weighed marks.

 

v.                 A student whose average is less than 5.5 over the weighed marks shall be asked to withdraw from the programme.

 

vi.               Students who have not collected 22 out of 30 units, or who have obtained an average of between 5.5. and 5.9 over the weighed marks shall be allowed to re-sit.

 

vii.             The re-sit procedure is as follows:

 

a.       When a student fails TS1, the student will be given the chance of re-sitting the written exam in the course of the first semester;

 

b.      The end-of-term re-sit for TS 2, TS 3, TS 4 and TS 5 takes place at the end of the first semester, immediately after the Exam Commission has determined the final results (taking into account its decisions on complaints). The end-of-term re-sit is an oral re-sit in front of the full Exam Commission. The Exam Commission decides on the specifics of the format and the substance of the re-sit and announces such specifics to relevant students after it has determined the final results.

 

c.      The oral re-sit regards all exams, essays and written assignments for which the student has received a grade of less than 6.0, except TS 1. Students will not be allowed to re-sit exams, essays and written assignments for which they have already received a grade of 6.0 or above at the original sitting.

 

 

 

 Art. 4. SECOND SEMESTER COURSES ASSESSMENT

 

i.                     During the second semester, the participating universities shall apply their own rules of assessment. However, before submitting the second semester grades to the E.MA Executive Committee, the E.MA Directors must standardise them to a 0 - 10 scale, according to the interpretation given above, under Art. 3, point 4, ii.

 

ii.                    A student must take at least two courses which together amount to at least 9 ECTS credits. In case a student takes additional courses, account will only be taken of the best results equivalent to at least 9 ECTS credits.

 

iii.                  A student who fails second semester courses may graduate if the overall average for the year is 6.0 or above.

 

 

 

                Art. 5. THESIS

 

1. Assessment

 

i.      The thesis shall consist of an academic piece of work, written individually and independently by the student. It shall be different from work previously undertaken by the student outside the framework of the E.MA Programme, e.g. in another Master’s programme. It shall be written in English. The student may write the thesis in French upon prior approval of the E.MA director of the second semester University. The thesis defense shall be in English.

 

ii.       The thesis should be between 20.000 and 30.000 words (1.5 spacing, 12 points, Times New Roman), including footnotes (1.0 spacing, 10 points, Times New Roman; extra pages with table of contents and a full bibliography shall be attached. An abstract in English (approx. 200 words) shall be submitted together with the thesis.

 

iii.       The thesis shall be provisionally graded jointly by the E.MA Director and by the supervisor (where different) or another person (where the Director is the supervisor) at the host university. The E.MA Director shall submit a written assessment of the quality of the thesis to the E.MA Examination Committee.

 

iv.           The markers shall be guided by the following criteria:

 

10=Excellent

An excellent and exceptional thesis which is a work of publishable quality that could be sent to a peer-reviewed journal and be published with only minor revisions. It displays originality and has a well-defined topic. Overall, the work is an outstanding piece of academic writing with no shortcomings.

 

9=Very Good

A sound piece of work, publishable with revisions. It makes full and accurate citations of all relevant academic and legal references. It makes a logical and consistent argument and displays analytical reasoning and good use of evidence and/or exposition, but may contain a few shortcomings and only a few grammatical and spelling errors. In short, a “revise and resubmit” piece of academic work which is above average standard.

 

8=Good

Sound piece of average quality needing revisions because of certain shortcomings. There is the core of a good argument that needs to be better supported. Overall the Thesis shows hard work that needs to be cleaned up, for instance, concerning grammar, spelling and citation.

 

7=Satisfactory

Generally, a good research topic with a good structure that is reasonably articulated. The work is overall a competent piece of work, but it contains some significant shortcomings of a substantial nature as well as problems with citations, grammar, and spelling.

 

6=Pass

Completed work which is reasonably executed so that it meets the minimum criteria, but it contains problems with substance, exposition and argumentation as well as problems with grammar, spelling, and citation.

 

Markers may use one single decimal points to distinguish between these categories (for example 7,5).

 

   

2. Penalties

 

i.            In the event the thesis is submitted after the dead-line determined by the E.MA Council, the thesis shall be first graded according to the above scale, and after the grading, the mark shall be diminished by 0.2 points per every commenced day of late submission.

              

ii.          In the event the thesis is submitted more than one week after the deadline determined by the E.MA Council the matter shall be referred to the E.MA Executive Committee for appropriate action after consultation with the E.MA Director from the second semester university of the student concerned.

 

3. Theses defence

 

i            Where the thesis is graded at 6.0 or above, the student shall be invited to an oral defence in Venice in September.[1] 

 

Where the thesis grade is less than 6.0, a copy of the thesis shall be sent to the E.MA Programme Director to be referred to an expert in the subject from another institution in the E.MA network for a new marking. Where this marker also awards a mark of less than 6.0, the student shall not be invited to the oral defence, and subject to para vii below, shall fail the programme. When the new marker awards a mark of 6.0 or more, the student shall be invited to the oral defence.

 

ii.           The thesis and its oral defence will be assessed by the E.MA Council acting in its capacity as the Examination Committee, in the presence of the E.MA Director (or a qualified representative) from the second semester university of the student concerned. The definitive mark for the thesis will thus be decided after the oral defence.

 

iii.          In exceptional circumstances the E.MA Council acting in its capacity as Examination Committee can allow a student who has not been invited to the oral defence or who, after the oral defence, has received a mark of less than 6.0 for the thesis, to submit a new text of his/her thesis, or a thesis on a new topic, under the conditions and within the time limit the Committee determines.

 

iv.           In exceptional circumstances a thesis defence organised via skype or videoconferencing may be allowed. The decision is taken by the E.MA Executive Committee on a case by case basis.[2

 

v.           An interested student must present a request for an e-defence explaining at length and evidencing the reasons why such a defence should be taken into consideration by the E.MA Executive Committee. If such a request is allowed, then the student shall not participate at the “physical” defence and the graduation ceremony in September.

 

vi.          One or more of the E.MA thesis defence Commissions will become the “e-commission”. Such a commission may decide to meet at the same time of the other “off line” E.MA thesis defence commissions or even before that date. In any case, all thesis defence results shall be presented to the E.MA Council at the September meeting.

 

 

Art. 6. Conferral of Degree

 

The degree will be conferred as a Joint Degree by the E.MA participating universities of the inner circle upon the successful completion of the Programme. In exceptional circumstances, the E.MA Examination Committee may award the E.MA degree to a student who does not satisfy the above rules but who, in the opinion of the Examination Committee, merits the degree.

 

 

Art. 7. VARIATIONS IN PROCEDURE, AND OVERALL OUTCOME OF THE DEGREE

 

The academic faculty of the E.MA Programme has made every effort to ensure fairness, consistency, and equity in its procedures for assessment. However, students should remain sensitive to the trans-national and multi-cultural nature of the programme; this will necessarily lead to some differences in procedure, but not in the overall outcome of the degree.