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Important policies and requirements

 

Anti-Harassment
The University is committed to the prevention of unlawful discrimination in its working and learning environment and wishes to encourage a culture where harassment and bullying are unable to thrive. Incidents of harassment and bullying are regarded extremely seriously and may be grounds for disciplinary action. This may include dismissal or expulsion. Please review the University’s policy on dignity and respect

Attendance requirements
These are defined in Regulation 3.

Duration of study
Regulation 16 sets out the minimum and maximum periods of study allowed for all postgraduate degrees.

Award ceremonies
The University's award ceremonies take place each year in late June/early July. If you have not heard from the Student Records and Examinations Office three months in advance of the ceremony at which you expect to graduate, please let the Student Records and Examinations Office know.

Equal opportunities
The University is committed to a policy of equal opportunities in accordance with its Charter. It is the University's aim that potential and current students are treated fairly on the basis of merit regardless of age, disability, family responsibilities, gender, HIV status, marital status, nationality, race, religious or political views or affiliations, sexual orientation, socio-economic background or transsexualism. There is an Equal Opportunities Policy Statement for Students, and the Human Resources Department also publishes guidance.

The University Equalities and Diversity Committee reports directly to the University Executive Committee. Students and staff are represented on the Committee. The Students' Union also has a detailed Equal Opportunities Policy, an Equal Opportunities Officer and a Women's Officer.

Ethics
www.bath.ac.uk/vc/policy/ethics.htm
There is a University Code of Ethics. In particular you should ensure that:

Complaints and appeals
The University seeks to minimise student complaints and grievances by ensuring that students have opportunities to participate in all the formal decision-making processes of the institution through representation on committees at programme, departmental and institutional levels. The University is committed to the continuing review and improvement of its provision and seeks regular feedback from students through Staff/Student Liaison Committees, evaluation questionnaires and user groups. The University is also committed to providing an environment within which students are encouraged to raise any matters of concern in an informal manner as soon as they arise. This often circumvents the need for formal complaints or grievances.

Where complaints and grievances arise, there are procedures to ensure that these are addressed fairly and promptly and that students can lodge their complaints and grievances, in good faith, with the assurance that they will not be penalised for doing so.

Students who wish to raise formal complaints or grievances should seek further advice from the Department/School and/or the Students’ Union, and look at

Conduct and discipline
Regulation 7 and Regulation 8 set out disciplinary regulations and procedures for students.
Universities are communities whose members work, and often live, in close proximity. This requires certain standards of behaviour. In return, the University accepts that it owes a duty of care and responsibility to the members of that community. This means that we have expectations about the standards of behaviour of our students and staff and that there are regulations which govern this. Failure to comply with University regulations may lead to disciplinary action. When you register, you are agreeing to these regulations in so
far as they relate to your behaviour and actions.

Data Protection
The University of Bath needs to process data about you in order to carry out its normal administration. We may collect, store, use and disclose the data for any purposes connected with your studies, your health and safety and for other legitimate reasons. Extensive information is published on the University website by the University's Data Protection Officer. For example, this may include supplying relevant data to the Students' Union and in due course to the University’s Alumni Relations Office to form part of the Alumni database. In addition, information such as your email address may be published by your academic department or on the University’s website. The details of your award (e.g. degree subject and classification) are regarded as public information and will be published on open pass lists and may be released to third parties such as newspapers and prospective employers. To comply with statutory and government requirements we must provide data to organisations such as the Higher Education Funding Council for England, the Higher Education Statistical Agency, the Teacher Training Agency, Local Education Authorities, the Student Loans Company and Research Councils.

When you register with the University you will be giving us permission to process data about you. Registration provides you with an opportunity to see some basic personal data held about you and to correct inaccuracies. If you do not register and give your consent to this processing, the University may not be able to accept you as a student.
When you register we ask you to give details for an Emergency Contact. This data will be used or disclosed only in case of emergency. Please note that you must ensure that the contact is notified of the disclosure of their details to the University.
Personal data will be processed only in accordance with the University’s registration under the Data Protection Act.

Fieldwork away from the University
If you are intending to carry out fieldwork away from the University, either in the UK or abroad, you must talk to your Tutor and seek advice from the Finance Office about insurance and from the Health and Safety Office about safety issues.

Health and Safety
Please ensure that you are familiar with the requirements of the University's Safety Manual and Health and Safety Policy.

Use of unfair means, cheating and plagiarism
There are various forms of academic dishonesty but in the context of students it means cheating in examinations or presenting work for assessment which is not your own. Plagiarism as a form of cheating takes place when the student 'borrows' or copies information, data or results from an unacknowledged source, without quotation marks or any indication that the presenter is not the original author or researcher. If carried out knowingly, cheating and plagiarism have the objective of deceiving examiners and this threatens the integrity of the assessment procedures and the value of your award.

Work produced by someone else may be summarised or repeated providing it is referenced to the original author. As well as text, work such as diagrams, maps and charts must also be acknowledged. In addition to the use of quotation marks when quoting from original sources and secondary material, full references for both quotations and paraphrases or summaries of published material must be given. All references should then be included in a bibliography at the end of the piece of work. Appropriate references for web-based material must also be given, including the relevant URL.

There are several methods of referencing material. It is vital that you check with your Department/School which method is acceptable. Examples include the Harvard system and the Numeric system. Further information on referencing work can be found on the Library website.

Any student found to have cheated or plagiarised in assessment will be penalised. The Board of Examiners
will determine the nature and severity of the penalty, but this may mean failure of the unit concerned or a part of the degree, with no provision for reassessment or retrieval. Proven cases of plagiarism or cheating can also lead to disciplinary proceedings as indicated in University Regulation 7.4 (h), which forbids all students ‘the use of unfair means in any examination or assessment procedure’, including:

So:

Citing references (including web-based material)

The Library publishes a comprehensive 'Guide to Citing References’ on how to use references in your work. It is at the address given above, and it is most important that you are familiar with it, and follow the guidance it contains.

Intellectual Property

If you undertake or contribute to project work during your studies, it is possible that the results may be patentable. In most cases, the University will own the Intellectual Property Rights to this work but will also ensure that you receive due recognition for your contribution. The Intellectual Property and Legal Services team have published extensive information about this.

Employment while you are a student
The easiest way to find work while you are a student at the University is to contact JobLink, which specialises in finding on-campus jobs for students, as well as advertising work off-campus.
All students should seek advice from their Supervisors or Director of Studies about how much paid work they can reasonably expect to be able to carry out while working for a postgraduate degree, and those who are funded by any of the Research Councils should note that there are clearly defined limits to the maximum amount of paid work that students may undertake while studying. If you are in the UK on a visa, you should seek advice from the International Office about how much paid work you may legally do.