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Glossary of Terms
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A
AA (units with codes beginning...)
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| Units with codes beginning AA are dummy units included in blocks
of options so that students can indicate that they do not wish to
choose an option from the block. |
Add/drop period
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| The add/drop period is the time at the beginning of each semester
in which students are permitted to change their unit selections for
the semester. |
Aims
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| This is the section of the unit description which provides a statement
of the aims of the unit. |
Approval
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| All changes to units and programmes of study (as well as new units
and programmes) must be approved by the relevant committees before
any changes can be made in SAMIS or in the web-based catalogues. For
further information on the level of approval required for each type
of change see the Quality Support pages QA3
(new programmes of study), QA4
(amendments to programmes and units) and QA49
(new units). |
Assessment (of units)
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| How a unit is assessed. There are a number of different ways in
which assessment may be carried out. See Table
6 for further information. |
Availability (of units)
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The availability of a unit to an individual student, whether or
not it is included in their programme of study, is subject to a
number of constraints for example: staff availability, minimum and
maximum group sizes, and timetabling factors.
A unit can be available in a single semester (1 or 2) or across
the whole year (indicated by "Academic Year" in the catalogues).
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C
Catalogues
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| The Programme & Unit Catalogues contain details of programmes
and units offered to undergraduate and postgraduate students. |
Changes to Programmes/Units (information
for staff)
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| Changes to programmes and units (as well as new programmes and units)
must be submitted to SREO in line with the deadlines given in the
Academic
Administration Calendar. All changes must be approved by the relevant
committees. Please click
here for further information. |
Choosing/Changing Units (information
for students)
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Undergraduate students will be asked to select any optional units
at around the Easter of the preceeding academic year (i.e. students
will be asked to choose units for 2005/6 after Easter 2005). This
process is usually carried out on-line and students required to
participate in unit selection on-line will be emailed about this
once the facility becomes available (your department will advise
you if this does not apply to you). Postgraduate students will be
asked to complete a form with their unit selections at the start
of their course.
Once you have chosen your units you may only change your selection
during the add/drop period. Your department
will help you with this.
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Codes, Programme
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Each code is specific to an individual programme of study and provides
information such as which department the programme belongs to, whether
it is an undergraduate or postgraduate programme, etc.
There is a different code for each different variant of a programme
for example: the full-time MEng in Mechanical Engineering has a
different code to the MEng in Mechanical Engineering programme which
includes an industrial placement in a thick, or thin, sandwich programme.
Please check to make sure that you have found the correct programme
within the catalogue.
Click here for
further information on programme codes.
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Codes, Unit
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Each unit code is unique to an individual unit. The code includes
information on the owning department and
the level at which the unit is taught.
Click here
for further information on unit codes.
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Content (of units)
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| The content section of a unit description gives details of the unit
syllabus. |
Credits
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| Credits are used to illustrate how units fit together within a programme
of study. The workload for a typical undergraduate year comprises
60 credits (usually split equally into 30 credits for each semester).
For postgraduate students the number of credits making up a year's
workload varies according to the type of course being studied. A typical
full-time postgraduate masters course comprises 90 credits, a postgraduate
diploma 60 credits and a postgraduate certificate 30 credits. Click
here for further information. |
Cross-department
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| Cross-department programmes and units are those which are taught
and administered by more than one department. Cross-department units
unit codes start with XX. Cross-department programmes will have XX
in the programme code (see Table 3 for more
details). |
D
Director of Studies Approved Unit
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| A Director of Studies Approved Unit (codes starting with ZZ) is
a psuedo unit included within the catalogue to indicate that a unit
from a wider selection than that given in the programme description
may be chosen. The unit description should provide more information
on which units may be selected but, as the title suggests, students
should contact their Director of Studies for further clarification. |
F
Full-time
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| A full-time undergraduate programme is normally considered as a
programme in which students are required to complete units making
up 60 credits during the course of an academic year and are either
studying or on a placement for the entirety of the year. |
G
Generally available units
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A generally available unit is a unit which is offered to students
across all departments of the University and may be taken in addition
to the requirements of a specific programme.
Students are permitted to take one six-credit unit (or its equivalent
- two three-credit units, or a five-credit unit from the other credit-rating
system) in an academic year, outside the requirements of their programme.
This will not count for progression in their degree programme, or
towards their degree result. However, the fact that they have taken
it, and the result they have obtained, will be recorded on their
transcript of results, and indicate that extra work has been done.
These units will be available subject to constraints such as minimum
and maximum group sizes, staff availability, timetabling factors,
and the ability to meet the pre-requisites. This type of unit is
known as a free/extra-curricular unit.
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L
Learning Outcomes (of units)
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| The Learning Outcomes section of the unit description states what
a student should be able to do after completing the unit. |
Level (of units)
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| The level of a unit is indicated by the first number in the code
it is assigned (see Table 4). It is
also given in the unit catalogue. Students must complete a specified
number of credits at a given level in order to complete their programme
of study (see QA3). |
M
Mandatory
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| A mandatory unit is a unit which must be taken by all students within
a particular programme of study. Units which are mandatory for students
on some programmes may be optional for students on others. |
Module
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Formally, the University refers to "units",
but the word "module" is used in the student system SAMIS.
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O
Optional (units)
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| Some programmes of study will allow students to choose a specified
number of the units for a given semester from a list. For example,
24 credits of the semester are made up of mandatory
units but the remaining 6 must be chosen from a list of units containing
both 3 and 6 credit units. These are called optional units. |
Owning Department
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The owning department is the department responsible for the administration
of a particular programme or unit.
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P
Placement Year (or Placement Period)
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| Students take a placement year as part of a thick-sandwich or a
study-year abroad programme. As the name suggests, this involves either
spending a year working in an industry relevant to the subject of
their programme of study, or spending a year studying overseas. Some
placements are for shorter periods than an academic year. |
Pre-requisite (units)
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| If a unit has a pre-requisite rule it means that students taking
the unit must have taken specified other units first. |
Programme
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| This refers to a student's programme of study: e.g. BSc in Natural
Sciences, MSc in Economics, etc. |
Programme Structure
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| A description of the mandatory and optional units which make up
each year of a programme of study. |
Q
Qualification Aim
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| The qualification aim is the final award that a student is expected
to achieve at the end of a programme of study. |
R
Requisites
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| The requisites section of a unit description gives details of any
other units which must be taken before, after or whilst studying the
unit in question or which may not be taken if the unit is studied.
Click here
for further details. |
S
Semester
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| Each academic year is made up of two semesters. You can find the
dates for each semester in the academic
year charts. |
Skills (of units)
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| The skills section of a unit description lists the intellectual,
professional, practical, and key skills students will gain by taking
the unit. |
T
Templates
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| Templates for programme and unit descriptions can be downloaded
from the Quality Support
website. |
Thick Sandwich
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| A 'Thick Sandwich' programme is one which includes a one-year industrial
placement. |
Thin Sandwich
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| A 'Thin Sandwich' programme is one which involves one or more shorter
placements (e.g. one Semester). |
U
Unit
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A unit is a component of a programme of study. Each unit has a
number of credits attached to it, as well
as a description giving an indication of its expected content, level
and a method of assessment. It may also
have rules dictating other units which students
must take either before, after or whilst taking the unit.
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W
Withdrawing Units/Programmes (information
for staff)
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Requests to withdraw a unit or a programme of study must be approved
by the relevant committee (Board of Studies for units; Senate for
programmes) before being forwarded to SREO to be processed. Any
such requests must be forwarded to SREO in line with the deadlines
in the Academic Administration Calendar.
It is the responsibility of the owning department to ensure
that all relevant departments and students are advised of the withdrawal
of a unit or programme.
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Y
Year-long units
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Year-long or academic year units (other than those indicating an
industrial placement or study-year abroad) will be introduced for
the first time during the 2005/6 academic year. Programmes of study
may only offer up to 36 credits of the annual workload in the form
of year-long units.
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Z
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