Guidelines for the Conduct of Re-Examinations at the Faculty of Science and Technology
These guidelines are valid from the spring semester 2024.
Background
The probability for a student to be in phase with the program is considerably reduced if the time of re- examination coincides with regular examinations: the more weekly examinations, the greater the risk that the students focus on a few courses instead of giving all the program courses the same priority. In addition, additional exams during the study periods take time from education, making the periods more difficult to schedule.
It is important to give the students the best chances to pass their examinations at the first occasion. It is important that the study periods are not too short and that the students can use as much time as possible to study for their regular examinations.
Guidelines
These guidelines apply to both oral and written examinations[1], [2].
Re-examinations must be offered in re-examination periods, i.e. a regular examination time cannot be substituted for a re-examination time. Regular examinations must not be placed in a re-examination period.
Each examination shall be followed by at least two re-examinations per year, one of which will be offered in the re-examination period in August. Some courses have several course periods per year[3], [4]. The following table shows when re-examinations are provided (table 1). A department may choose to provide additional reexamination sessions. For courses extending over two periods, the table below refers to the period in which the examination occurs[5]. The principle is that there should be a short amount of time between the regular examination session and the first re-examination session, while maintaining a reasonable workload for the departments. A re-examination directly after the regular examination has been avoided, as far as possible. In case of re-examinations in the examination period directly after the regular examinations, these examinations should be scheduled with the largest possible distance.
The regular examinations around the end of the year should, if possible, be scheduled during the last days of the semester. Teaching ought to take place in January. The final examination for a course must be scheduled within the period of regular examinations, while a partial examination may be scheduled earlier in the study period, depending on the course syllabus and the pedagogical approach.
A student may register and take a regular examination for a different course instance than for the course instance the student is registered on.
Courses given by another faculty and which are also offered to study programme/s at the other faculty (cross listed courses) may in exceptional cases have different reexamination periods following the decision of the chair of the responsible educational board. The students concerned shall be informed well in advance.
For programmes offered in collaboration with another higher education institution(s) the guidelines at the institution where the course is given apply. The students concerned shall be informed well in advance.
Table 1
See link to original document below "PDF", p. 3.
[1] Does not apply to laborations, seminars and other elements/parts which give credits, but only to examinations that are scheduled in the examination period.
[2] Special consideration should be given to the housing situation on Campus Gotland during the summer. Reexaminations should be scheduled in the next few days after the end of the semester in June and before the start of the semester in August. If there is a desire among the students, and practicable, a re-examination time can also be offered at the same time in Uppsala during the re-examination periods in June and August.
Programme-specific deviations from these guidelines during the semester (re-examinations in early spring and Easter) may be decided annually by the chair of the relevant educational board after the deviation proposal has been approved by concerned programme councils and course-giving departments. The ability to deviate only applies to programmes in the case of programmes at Campus Gotland, which either has co-curricular studies with other faculties or only has programme-specific courses in the programme syllabus. Deviations shall be justified.
[3] For courses that are offered three times or more per academic year it is enough with a re-examination in August. For other courses at least one more re-examination, in addition to the re-examination in August, must be offered per academic year.
[4] For courses that are given every second year, the guidelines apply the academic year in which the course is given. The academic year when the course is not given, it is enough with a re-examination in August.
[5] For a 10 credits course extending over two periods and with a final examination in the second period, the second period is marked in the table. For a course extending over two periods and with an examination in each period, each examination is marked separately in the table. Such a course is followed over two rows in table 1.