Regulations

The student attendance and engagement policy applies to students on all courses leading to an award of the University. There's a dedicated policy for students on the Foundation Diploma. The University expects all students to demonstrate attendance consistent with full engagement with their course.

In particular, the development of effective skills in collaborative working is key to successful engagement; team working forms an essential element within many units, whereby students are dependent on the input from their fellow team members. In addition, a number of units introduce new material which requires students’ involvement and engagement and even those units which can be developed off-site or use independent learning nonetheless have integral elements of tutorial monitoring, feedback and development.

Similarly, the University has a duty of care to its students, and has a responsibility to ensure their wellbeing. Patterns of attendance which may indicate causes for concern will always be investigated in line with this policy.

It should also be noted that overseas students who require a Student Route Visa to study in the UK may be required to leave the country if they do not meet the attendance requirements of the University. It should further be noted that Overseas students on Foundation Degree courses are required to be timetabled for a minimum of 15 hours per week.

There are no attendance requirements for short courses, although we do encourage you to attend all the sessions which are offered.

The University has a Student Charter, which sets out the respective responsibilities of the University, students and the Students’ Union in creating the kind of learning community we wish to be. Students are also expected to follow and adhere to the University's Student Code of Conduct.

If you are unhappy about some aspect of your experience at AUB, or you feel that you have been treated unfairly, you have the right to make a formal complaint. The best thing to do is to speak to the person involved – most situations can be resolved quickly and easily. If you have been unable to resolve an issue, there is a formal way of pursuing your complaint through the University’s complaints procedure. This is distinct from the Appeals Policy, which deals with academic issues. There is also a separate Appeals Policy for students on the Foundation course.

As part of day to day business we handle and collect student data. Find out what data we collect, how we use it and your rights in our student privacy policy.

All members of the University’s community including staff, students, visitors and contractors have a responsibility to treat others fairly and respectfully regardless of the characteristics which may define their identity. These include the legally protected characteristics which are: Age, Disability, Gender reassignment, Marriage and Civil partnership, Pregnancy and Maternity, Race, Religion or Belief (including lack of belief), Sex and Sexual Orientation.

The University has committed to provide a working and learning environment founded on dignity, respect and equality where discrimination of any kind is treated with the utmost seriousness.

For more information, please read our Gender Identity Policy.

The Fitness to study policy is intended to provide a supportive process where a student’s welfare or behaviour is giving cause for concern, where the range of supportive measures that the university may reasonably be expected to provide have been employed but have not satisfactorily resolved concerns, and/or where the use of the Student Disciplinary Procedure would be inappropriate or counter-productive.

Fitness to study means a student’s fitness to start, continue or return to a course of academic study, and their ability to meet the reasonable academic, social and behavioural requirements of the university without having an unacceptably detrimental effect on the health, safety, welfare or educational experience of other students, or the reputation and good order of the university.

The University has a number of health and safety policies, relating to the use of specific pieces of equipment. You'll require an induction before you are permitted to use some items. We are not listing all of these policies here; they will be introduced to you as relevant through the course.

The Intellectual Property Policy explains that, as a student, you retain the intellectual property rights over any work that you produce at the University, and also sets out how the University may support you in exploiting these rights where appropriate.

You should note that the University is entitled to use, reproduce, modify and distribute student work for the purposes of marketing, publicity and otherwise enhancing the reputation of the University, without commercial gain.

We may also retain work to support the learning and teaching process, which may include being used as an example for future students. In these cases, your work will be anonymised.

The policy also includes some notes on the retention of student work, and your responsibility to ensure that work is collected.

Please note that the University is currently reviewing its IP Policy, but the terms above are very unlikely to change. If we do make any changes, we shall notify you individually.

You will be given an account on enrolment, which provides both an email address, and a login to the student portal. It is important that you abide by the Acceptable Use Policy, key provisions of which include:

• Don’t share your network password with anyone, or let them use your account. You will be held responsible for any activity on your account – whether that’s email, or sites you have visited or posts you have made. Make sure you keep your password confidential.
• Don’t access websites which contain offensive, obscene or abusive material, or promote illegal activity. In general, this is common sense, and it’s easy to click on a website by mistake, especially if it has a misleading name, but you should take care not to go to sites which may contain this kind of material.
• Peer-to-peer sharing is not permitted on the University network. This is part of the condition of our own service provider.

The Acceptable Use Policy summary gives further details.

Please treat the Library staff, Library resources and your fellow students with respect and comply with the following:

• Noise: anyone causing a disturbance may be asked to leave.
• Behaviour: behave in a courteous and considerate manner towards other users and Library & Student Services staff.
• Mobile phones: put your mobile phone on silent.
• Food and drink: do not bring food and drink (except bottled water) into the Library.
• Projects: do not carry out practical work in the Library. The Library must not be used as part of a project, for example for film, photography or drawing, without obtaining permission from Library staff in advance. This process requires a week’s notice. Please ask at the Library counter for a request form.

• You must abide by any legislative or licence restrictions laid down in relation to print, digital or audio-visual information. This includes not sharing your login details with any other person or organisation.
• The law restricts what you can photocopy and copy. Notices about this are displayed by the photocopiers, DVD players and VHS machines.
• If you do not return items issued to you on time, you will be charged fines.
• If you remove any item from the Library that is not issued to you, or if you damage Library property, you will face disciplinary procedures and may be banned from using the Library and its facilities.
• Do not lend your Library card, or take items on your card for other people, you will be liable for any fines incurred. You will also be liable to pay the replacement cost of any item lost or damaged whilst on loan under your name.
• You may also borrow other equipment from the University, which may range from small items to use as props, to significant items such as a digital cinematography camera kit. Before you are permitted to borrow from the University’s equipment stores, you will need to sign up to the terms and conditions of the online resource booking system.
  

The Student Disciplinary Policy explains that the University reserves the right to take disciplinary action against you if you breach any of its regulations. There is a range of possible sanctions; in the most serious cases, your studies at the University may be terminated, especially if we consider that you have brought the University into disrepute, or if there is a risk of harm to other members of the University community.

• Regulatory Framework and Undergraduate Assessment Regulations
• Regulatory Framework and Postgraduate Assessment Regulations
• Regulatory Framework and Postgraduate Taught Assessment Regulations (online courses)
• Assessment regulations (Foundation Diploma)
  
• Academic misconduct policy

The academic regulations include the regulations on late submission of work; what happens if you fail a unit; the conditions of progression to the next level of the course; and the way in which your final award will be determined.

You have to pass all the units in each year to be permitted to progress to the next year of the course.

If you fail a unit, you will be given one attempt to retrieve it. If you fail at the second attempt, you may be given a third opportunity, but this will depend on your overall profile of achievement.

You may be required to undertake some retakes during the summer vacation period.

The Fees and Charges Payment policy can be viewed here. The University publishes its fees for all its courses on its website. This includes research degrees, postgraduate taught degrees, undergraduate degrees, Preparation for Higher Education courses, summer courses, and evening and Saturday classes. Once you have commenced the course, the University will not increase the fee in subsequent years by greater than the rate of inflation permitted by the Government. For students enrolling in 2020/21, the University has committed to maintain the fees for higher education students at the same rate (with no inflation-linked increase) throughout the course of study.

The fees you pay for the course give you access to the teaching, assessment and resources necessary to complete your course satisfactorily. If you have not paid your fees for the course or agreed a payment plan, you may be barred from accessing resources (including the Library and academic IT resources); and if this situation continues, you may be barred from teaching and assessment.

If you have outstanding academic debts to the University, and have not agreed a satisfactory payment plan, you may not be permitted to enrol for subsequent years of study. Academic debts include outstanding fee payments, or any money you owe for course-related activities including educational visits and equipment you have bought from the University, or Library debts. Each case will be decided on its merits, but enrolment will not be withheld if your academic debt is less than £250.

You should note that the regulations for students living in University Halls of Residence form a separate contract with the University, and these will be available for you to review when we open applications for Halls. Any debts associated with accommodation will be considered separately from any academic-related debts, and will not impact on your teaching, assessment or progression through the course.

The offer we make you is made in good faith, and the University has every intention of honouring the commitment it has made. However, there may be occasions where we do need to make changes. For example, we may be required to respond to Government legislation or statutory requirements.

It is important that we make regular changes to courses to ensure that they remain current, including the most up-to-date knowledge in the subject area, and also so that we take advantage of educational opportunities which arise. We also make changes in response to student feedback. Changes are proposed by the course team in consultation with the student cohort and approved by a central University committee which always considers the impact on the student experience. We shall always try to minimise any negative impact, and if any change of this type is necessary, we shall inform you as soon as possible.

There are some circumstances which are outside the University’s reasonable control. These include an unexpected lack of funding, the departure of key members of staff whose knowledge is unique or not easily replaceable, industrial action, severe weather, fire, the failure of electricity or internet service, civil disorder, political unrest, government restrictions or serious concern about the transmission of serious illness making a course unsafe to deliver. In these instances, the University will try to give you early notification of any changes to your offer/course and will try to minimise the impact by identifying alternative ways of meeting your expectations or providing compensation where it believes there is a fair case to do so.

If you are thinking of transferring to another course, either at AUB or at another institution, advice about the process is contained within this booklet. You should read the guidance on pages 14-15 and 18-19 carefully before making a decision. We also encourage you to speak to a member of staff so that you are clear about the steps you need to take; we give a list of useful contacts on pages 24-25.

If you’re currently studying at another university and wish to transfer to Arts University Bournemouth, please go through direct entry.