Programme boards

Programme boards make decisions about interim and final awards and about the progression of students on their programmes. It is the responsibility of the Chair of the Board (with support from the Programme Team, in particular the Programme Administrator) to organise the Module and Programme Boards. However the Programme Director needs to sure that the board for their programme has been appropriately scheduled. Programme Boards often have a lot of business to attend to; the suggestions below are intended to help the programme boards run efficiently:

• It may be appropriate for the Programme Director and the Programme Administrator to hold a pre-Programme Board meeting. Here, the Programme Director can use the regulations to confirm each student’s performance bearing in mind Examination Board Regulations (see also the examination board pack).
• To facilitate this process, information about the assessment grades for each module and any exceptional circumstances that are to be applied should be brought along.
  It is essential that as the Programme Director that you are familiar with the grades of the student cohort and have identified any borderline cases or cases that warrant further discussion.
• You may find it helpful to ask the Chair to instruct the Programme Administrator to order the student results according to their grades. This arrangement will ensure that all those students who are, for example, borderline cases will be considered in succession
• The Chair must ensure the appropriate ‘exit algorithm’ is used at the programme board to standardise the outcome of any borderline cases, as Programme Director you need to confirm this is in place. The current regulation on exit algorithms is available within the general regulations document.

As programme Boards will ultimately determine the results for the students, it is worth bearing in mind that the Programme Director should be available to answer queries from students on the day results are published (and possibly one or two days after that).