Regulations for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts by Full-time Study


  1. Before admission to any course leading to the degree of Bachelor of Arts candidates must:
    1. satisfy the general entrance requirements specified in the University's Regulations for Admission to Degree Courses;
    2. satisfy the requirements for the specific degree course; candidates may be admitted direct to the second or Final Year of a degree course with the prior approval of Faculty Board and in accordance with University Ordinance 7.2.
  2. All candidates admitted to a course for the degree of Bachelor of Arts shall be candidates for an honours degree and shall be registered for one of the following degree courses:

    Applied English Language Studies
    Archaeology
    Archaeology and Geography
    Archaeology and History
    Archaeology and Iberian Studies
    Contemporary Europe
    Contemporary Europe (English)
    Economics and Philosophy
    English
    English and French
    English and German
    English and History
    English and History of Art and Design
    English and Music
    English and Philosophy
    English and Spanish
    Film and English
    Film and French
    Film and German
    Film and History
    Film and Philosophy
    Film and Spanish
    French
    French (Linguistics and Language Studies)
    French and German
    French and German (Linguistics and Language Studies)
    French and History
    French and Music
    French and Philosophy
    French and Portuguese
    French and Spanish
    French and Spanish (Linguistics and Language Studies)
    German
    German (Linguistics and Language Studies)
    German and History
    German and Music
    German and Philosophy
    German and Spanish
    German and Spanish (Linguistics and Language Studies)
    History
    History of Art and Design and French
    History of Art and Design and German
    History of Art and Design and Spanish
    History and Sociology
    Humanities (English Studies)
    Humanities (English and Historical Studies)
    Humanities (Historical Studies)
    Language Learning
    Management Sciences and French
    Management Science and German
    Management Science and Spanish
    Media and Political Communication
    Modern History and Politics
    Modern History and Politics with Economics or Philosophy
    Modern Languages
    Music
    Music and Management Science
    Philosophy
    Philosophy and History
    Philosophy and Mathematics
    Philosophy and Politics
    Philosophy and Sociology
    Politics and French Studies
    Politics and German Studies
    Politics and Spanish (or Portuguese) and Latin American Studies
    Political Communication and Media Management
    Spanish
    Spanish (Linguistics and Language Studies)
    Spanish and History
    Spanish and Latin American Studies
    Spanish and Portuguese
  3. All degrees (with the exception of BA Contemporary Europe and degrees combining two or more Modern Languages where agreement must be reached with the discipline) are normally also available on a part-time basis. Full-time degrees consist of three years study (or four years, including a year's residence abroad, for single and combined honours Modern Language degrees). Part-time degrees will normally be taken over a period of not less than four years (five for single and combined honours Modern Languages degrees) and not more than eight years.
  4. Degree courses are based on a common unit structure as follows:
    1. The subjects available in the School are divided into units; candidates are normally required to take the equivalent of at least eight units in each year to form a coherent pattern of study. Each unit is normally worth 15 credit points (for further details of the Credit Accumulation and Transfer Scheme (CATS) Guide and Regulations see Section IV).
    2. A unit is a self-contained part of a programme of study. Each unit will have its own aims and objectives, syllabus and assessment requirements. Units will normally be assessed during and/or at the end of the semester in which the student takes the unit.
    3. Departments may specify for each degree course certain units which candidates for that degree course are required to take in each year. Apart from the specified units (if any) the choice of units shall be subject in all cases to programme approval.
  5. To qualify to proceed from one year of the degree course to the next, candidates must reach a standard in the examinations deemed satisfactory by the Board of the School, including practical examinations and course assessments where these are prescribed. A satisfactory standard must similarly be obtained in the final year of the course to qualify for the award of Bachelor of Arts.
  6. Candidates who successfully complete Year 1 but do not wish to proceed further with their course may be awarded a Certificate of Higher Education (CertHE). Candidates who successfully complete Year 1 and Year 2 but do not wish to proceed further with their course may be awarded a Diploma of Higher Education (DipHE). (See Section IV for Credit Accumulation and Transfer Scheme: Guide and Regulations.)
  7. If candidates have not attended the required courses and completed the prescribed work for a degree course to the satisfaction of the Head of Programmes concerned, the Examining Board will have the discretion to mark or not to mark the scripts.
  8. Students may proceed to the second year of the programme provided that either they achieve Honours equivalent standard (ie 40%) in each unit or they obtain an average of 40% across all units and fall below 40% in no more than the equivalent of 30 credits. Marks awarded for individual units may represent a rounding up of marks for individual components of the unit, but in calculating the 40% average, no rounding up is permissible. Students who are not eligible to proceed to Year 2 will be offered the opportunity to be re-examined/re-assessed in all units in which they have failed to achieve a mark of 40 (see Failures - section 7). Failure to become eligible to proceed following re-examination/re-assessment will normally result in termination of programme. A student who achieves the pass mark for each unit but does not wish to, or is not entitled to proceed to the second year, may be awarded a Certificate of Higher Education (CertHE).
  9. For student entrants in 2003/2004 and after the pass mark for Year 2 and Year 3 units is 40. For student entrants before 2003/2004 the pass mark for Year 2 and Year 3 units is 35. For student entrants before 1999/2000: in each year students must pass in more than half of those units whose marks contribute towards the final degree. For all student entrants in 1999/2000 or after: to qualify for an Honours degree, a student must not fail more than two units in either of Years 2 and 3 and not more than 3 units overall. For student entrants before 2003/2004 to qualify for a Pass degree, a student must not fail more than 3 units in either year and not more than 5 units overall. Student entrants from 2003/2004 or after will not be eligible for a Pass degree. The Final Year dissertation (if any) must be passed. For all entrants before 1998/99: examinations/assessments held in Years 2 and 3 contribute towards the final degree results according to a weighting set by the Department and agreed by the School Board. For all students who entered in 1998/99 or after: examinations/assessments in Years 2 and 3 contribute towards the final degree result according to a weighting of 1:2 of pre-final year as against final year work. Students who fail to achieve this 'pass threshold' will be offered the opportunity to be re-examined/re-assessed in the minimum number of units necessary to reach the threshold (see 'Failures' below). In each case the Discipline or Combined Honours Examination Board will have final responsibility for deciding which of the failed units will be re-examined/re-assessed. Failure to achieve the threshold on re-examination/re-assessment will normally result in termination. Students who reach the pass threshold but fail one or more units will carry forward these fail marks towards their final degree result.

    For BA Humanities and BA Political Communication and Media Management: Degree classification is worked out on the basis of the 16 units taken in levels 2 and 3. Level 2 units are weighted against level 3 units in the ratio of 40 (level 2) to 60 (level 3).

    The degree classification is calculated as follows:

    (i) taking the final marks from all 8 Level 2 unit results, including any zero scores, dividing the total by 8 and weighting 0.4

    (ii) taking the final marks from all 8 Level 3 unit results, including any zero scores, dividing the total by 8 and weighting at 0.6

    (iii) add the Level 2 0.4 weighted score to the Level 3 0.6 weighted score to determine degree classification.

    An upgrade to the next highest classification is invoked for candidates who achieve 6 Level 3 unit results in the higher category provided that they have recorded no fails in Level 3. A mark of zero is awarded when a unit has been failed and either not retaken or has been failed at a second attempt. In these circumstances unit results of zero are included in the full results profile used for the calculation of degree classification at levels 2 and 3.


Progression from Level 2 to Level 3
  1. Students must achieve a Level 2 average mark of 35 or above (i.e. the total of all 8 Level 2 unit results, including zeros, divided by 8).

Failures (all years)
  1. Re-examinations/re-assessments will normally be held in late August/early September following initial failure. Students who believe that an August/September re-examination/re-assessment allows them insufficient time to improve their performance (for example, students who have failed a large number of units) will be permitted to suspend their course for one year and be re-examined/re-assessed in the following session at the normal examination times for their unit(s).
  2. Candidates resitting an examination in the academic year following initial failure will normally be required to take the papers set for that year irrespective of any change in syllabus; their registration will be suspended for a year and they will be required to take the examinations as an external candidate. However, in exceptional circumstances, the School Board may recommend that a candidate repeat a year of the undergraduate course following examination/assessment failure or for other cause.
  3. In any re-examination/re-assessment that is passed the mark awarded will be the mark to proceed (for entrants before 2003/2004: Year 1, 40; for Years 2 and 3, 35; for entrants in 2003/2004, or after all years, 40).
  4. Where the Discipline or Combined Honours Examination Board concludes, on the basis of written evidence submitted before the examination or due date for assessed work, that a student who would otherwise have passed has failed due to circumstances outside his/her control, the Board may recommend that the student be re-examined/re-assessed as if for the first time or be set other work or, exceptionally, be deemed to have passed on the basis of previously submitted work. Departments making any such recommendation must specify the evidence on which they do so. Failure in re-examination or other set work will be treated in accordance with the regulations on failures set out above.
  5. With the permission of the School Board candidates may transfer from one degree course to another not later than the end of the second semester of their course. In exceptional circumstances the Board may permit a transfer at a later stage.
    1. Philosophy may be begun as a new subject in the combined honours degree in the second year.
    2. First-year single honours candidates who have reached an appropriate standard in a first-year Alternative Subject in Music, Philosophy, Portuguese, or Spanish, may apply for transfer to a second-year combined honours course with that subject as one of the two combined subjects*.
    3. Candidates reading single honours Spanish and Latin American Studies, including Portuguese, who wish to transfer to combined honours Portuguese and Spanish will transfer at the end of the first year.
    4. Candidates following a combined honours course who pass in one subject only in the qualifying examination may, with the permission of the School Board and subject to the requirements of the department concerned, proceed to the second year of the single honours course in that subject.
  1. Students who have passed the final examination/assessment in any degree course of the School may be admitted to the final examination/assessment in another degree course after not less than one year of attendance at prescribed courses of study for that other degree.

* Such transfers may also be allowed in cases where the relevant first-year course has not been taken but where an appropriate standard has been achieved, e.g. by study and/or residence in the country concerned.