Students will be required to fulfil the requirements for Postgraduate Taught Awards in order to be eligible for their final award.

From this academic year 2020/21 a new borderline category will be introduced when students are being considered for their award this year. If students meet the following criteria, they can be awarded a higher degree classification, when being considered for their award:

• For a postgraduate taught student, where the weighted average for award classification is within 2 percentage points of the borderline for the Distinction or Merit category, students should be promoted if at least 50% of the weighted credits counting towards the classification are above the class boundary and this should include the compulsory dissertation/project where applicable. (This rule will apply to Masters courses, Postgraduate Diplomas and Postgraduate Certificates).

You may recall that in 2019/20, as a result of the rapid movement to on-line learning in March 2020, interim measures were introduced that permitted the degree classification to be determined based upon the best 120 credits for Masters degrees (students still needed to pass the number of credits required to be eligible for the award of a degree). This is based on modules with the highest marks totalling a minimum of 120 credits for a Masters degree and a minimum of 90 credits for a PG Diploma. The best 120/90 credits must comprise whole modules and, depending on the credit weighting of modules included, it is possible that the total used for classification will be a slightly higher volume of credit but cannot be any less. We also removed the requirement that students must attain at least 40% in failed modules in order to be eligible for the award of a Master’s degree or Postgraduate Diploma.

Consequently, if you were registered on your PGT course in 2019/20, you will be eligible for award under either the measures in place from the current academic year (as detailed above), or under the interim measures that were in place for 2019-20 students, whichever gives you the best outcome.

Therefore, when it is time to consider your final degree classification, the Board of Examiners will undertake two separate calculations to determine this based on the two sets of arrangements for 2019/20 and 2020/21, i.e.:

• Calculation 1: 2020/21 PGT 2% Borderline Category
• Calculation 2: 2019/20 Degree Classification calculation based on the best 120 credits for Masters degree and best 90 credits for PG Diplomas.

Whichever calculation leads to the best possible award outcome for your degree will be applied, and a recommendation for award will be based upon this by the Board of Examiners.