Exam Boards and Progression Requirements

Examination boards are obliged to adhere to Examination Regulations. The examination regulations are designed to establish quality standards for all Warwick degrees and to ensure equity of treatment across all candidates.

Progression and Award Rules and Requirements

There are differing rules for award, depending on your year of entry. Please refer to the relevant rules for award for your start year.

Students entering in 2021/22: Rules for Award 21/22

Students entering in 2022/23: Rules for Award 22/23

Students entering in 2023/24 or 2024/25: Rules for Award 23/24 and 24/25

Students entering in 2025/26: Rules for Award 25/26

All candidates are also subject to Regulation 8 - The Rules for First Degrees.

The First Year Board of Examiners

Before being permitted to proceed to an Honours degree, first year students are normally required to obtain an overall pass mark (40%) across their examinations and achieve the pass mark (40%) in each of their core and core optional modules.

Full conventions are available at First Year Boards of Examiners’ Conventions.

If you have failed to meet the criteria for proceeding to the second year, you will be given the chance to resit to meet them. You will be informed of the modules that you are required to resit and when the resits are (normally August or September). If you fail your resits, you will normally be asked to withdraw from the University. Under defined circumstances you have the right to appeal against this decision. More information on the appeals process can be found here.

Medical and other documented information affecting performance is noted by the Exam Boards. Any student who is unable to take the June examination through illness is normally offered the chance to sit exams "in a first attempt" (i.e. retaining the right to resit in the event of failure) in September.

The Second Year Board of Examiners

The Second Year Board of Examiners comprises members of the academic staff from the Philosophy Department. It makes recommendations that are subject to confirmation by the Senate.

The Second Year Board does not classify candidates. Its only purpose is to consider whether and how candidates should proceed to the final year. The Board usually meets in the first week of the summer vacation. Please note that all marks are provisional and may be raised or lowered by the exam board and/or Final Board. The decisions available to it are normally for each candidate:

to proceed to the final year of an Honours degree course
to proceed to the final year of a Pass degree course
to proceed to the final year of either an Honours of Pass degree with the option to resit failed modules
to resit failed modules in September or the following June, without residence, in order to proceed to the Third Year but with marks capped at 40%
to be required to withdraw.

Medical and other documentary evidence potentially affecting performance is noted by the Second Year Board and carried forward to the Final Year Board. It is not normally considered by the Second Year Board in any detail, unless special circumstances make it relevant to the Board's decision or further attempts can be offered.

The Final Year Board of Examiners

The Second Year Board of Examiners comprises members of the academic staff from the Philosophy Department together with at least one external examiner. It makes recommendations that are subject to confirmation by the Senate.

The external examiners are experienced senior academics from other universities whose role is to monitor our standards, to advise us on issues including borderline cases, and generally to act as independent arbiters and scrutineers. Please note that all marks are provisional and may be raised or lowered by the Exam Board.

The Board usually meets in the last week of the Summer term and considers the results of each candidate's second and third year modules. The decisions available to it are normally for each candidate:

to be awarded an Honours degree of first, upper second, lower second or third class
to be awarded a Pass degree
to resit failed modules the following June, without residence, in order to be awarded a Pass degree
to fail.

For students who started their course prior to the 2021-22 academic year, if you fail a module you will not normally be allowed to resit it. In case of illness or other very special circumstances a first attempt may be declared null and void and a subsequent first sit allowed. If you fail your degree overall, you will normally be permitted to resit failed exams the following summer, without residence (which means without attending at the University), in a final attempt to obtain a pass degree (an honours degree is no longer possible).

Medical and other documentary evidence potentially affecting performance is noted by the Final Year Board. It is very important that you make available to your Personal Tutor or, to your Senior Tutor, any evidence that provides relevant documentary support for any mitigating circumstances (usually medical) affecting your performance - and to do so before the Examination Boards meet.

How degrees are classified

The Examination Board works with a set of conventions that determine each student's degree class in a consistent and fair way. The conventions are based partly on the average mark across all modules and partly on the profile of marks across modules. The conventions are harmonised for use in all degree courses within each Faculty and are available online.

Although the Examination Boards follow standard guidelines, in exceptional circumstances, they can exercise discretion when awarding a particular class of degree to take into account relevant individual circumstances such as health. However, the Boards do not exercise discretion lightly or arbitrarily. Nor do they alter marks, unless specifically authorised to do so by the external examiners on academic grounds.

Exercising discretion may mean placing more weight than usual on some parts of a student's performance than others - for example, on the third year, if the second year was known to be affected by illness. Any departure from guidelines is always based on properly documented evidence (e.g. a medical certificate or counsellor's report), and taking into account the need to treat all candidates consistently and fairly. Thus, the Boards do not (and do not have the right to) waive rules or adjust marks without good reason. In particular, the Boards will not award a higher degree class just because of illness if there is insufficient evidence in a candidate's record to justify the higher class.

Results

Students will be able to view their year results in the Modules tab of the Tabula profile (under the relevant academic year). Students will be able to see their individual module marks as well as details of the exam board decision.

The dates results will be released for the 2025-26 academic year are listed below:

Finalists: TBC
Year 1s: TBC
Year 2s and Year 3 non-finalists: TBC

Right to Remedy Failure

Students commencing their programme of study from the 2021-22 academic year, have the automatic right to remedy failure on one occasion in each module at the earliest opportunity. The right to remedy failure is not contingent on a student having either mitigating circumstances, or not having met the requirements to progress or graduate from their programme of study. There is no right to remedy failure at component level if the module is passed overall, even where mitigating circumstances apply. The policy on the Right to Remedy Failure is available here.

Reassessment Methods for Philosophy Modules

Where an exam board has recommended either a resit or a further first attempt at a Philosophy module, students should be aware that the reassessment method will vary depending on what has already been submitted

Details of resubmission methods for Philosophy modules is available here.

Exit Awards

‘Exit’ awards have been developed in order to recognise achievement where it was not possible to award the highest qualification for which they were registered, this includes students as follows:

who have not met progression requirements
who withdraw due to personal or medical reasons
who are restarting on another degree programme

More information is available here.

Appeals

First and intermediate-year appeals

First Year and intermediate-year undergraduates also have the right to appeal only against a decision that they be required to withdraw from their course of study, and then only if they are in possession of relevant evidence which was not available to the Board of Examiners when its decision was reached. You are required to complete a form if you wish to appeal. An appeal must be lodged in writing within 10 days of the publication of the exam results. Further appeals information and forms can be found on the Academic Registrar's webpage.

Final year appeals

Under certain defined circumstances Final Year undergraduate students may appeal against the award of a particular degree class or if they have not been awarded a qualification. You are required to complete a form if you wish to appeal. An appeal must be lodged in writing within 10 days of the publication of degree results. The appeal procedures may not be used to challenge the academic judgement of examiners nor to dispute marks awarded in individual modules or pieces of work. Further appeals information and forms can be found on the Academic Registrar's webpage.

Maximum Periods of Study

The Maximum Period of Study Policy applies to students commencing their studies from the academic year 2022/23 onwards. More information here.

Plagiarism

Your attention is drawn to the Department's statements on plagiarism and to University Regulation 11(B) . In making an application to do assessed work, and again when you submit it, you will be required to sign a declaration that you have read and understood these statements, and that you are aware of the penalties that may be imposed if the work submitted is judged not to be your own. If you are in any doubt about these matters, consult your personal or module tutor.

All Philosophy students are required to complete the Library's online Avoiding Plagiarism Moodle course about what constitutes plagiarism and how to avoid it. The course is designed for students in any route. Once you have completed the course, please download the certificate and upload it on Tabula so there is a record that you have done the training. The deadline for uploading your certificate is on Monday 27th October 2025 at 3pm.

Please note that electronic copy of your essay will be sent to the Turnitin Plagiarism Detection Service for checking for plagiarism, and that, even if no plagiarism is detected (or even suspected), your essay will be retained in perpetuity. You are referred to for further information about the way this service operates, and especially about your rights under the Data Protection Act with regard to the operation of this service. It is in your own interest also to keep a good electronic copy of all submitted work.

For many Philosophy modules, the assessment is split into a smaller and larger component. For further details about the acceptable level of overlap, please see the Philosophy Department Policy on the Relations Between Pieces of Assessment.

Generative Artificial Intelligence Tools (GAITs) and Assessment

Unless explicitly permitted by the module convenor, you MUST NOT use any generative Artificial Intelligence (for example, ChatGPT or Google Bard) in your Philosophy assessments. You MAY use non-generative tools such as a spell-check, basic grammar check (non-generative), calculator or similar. If you have any doubts about a tool or service you plan to use please contact your seminar tutor or module convenor.