Faculty of Life and Physical Sciences

The Board of Examiners considers students' progress in its final meeting for each year, normally in November.

• Satisfactory progress in an academic year means passing at least half of your units.
• Unsatisfactory progress means failing more points than you pass. Units from which you have withdrawn without penalty do not count.

In the case of students who have attempted no more than eight units, have failed more than half of them and have a weighted averaged mark below 30 per cent, the Board will decide whether the progress status should be 'On Probation' or 'Suspended'.

Probation, suspension and exclusion

The Board will assign a progress status of 'On Probation' to students who have attempted no more than eight units, who fail to make satisfactory progress and have a weighted average of at least 30 per cent. If you are assigned the progress status of 'On Probation', you are permitted to re-enrol but may have conditions attached to your enrolment by the Faculty. The Faculty will inform you of those conditions.

Unless the Faculty determines otherwise in exceptional circumstances, the Board of Examiners will assign a progress status of 'Suspended' to all other students who fail to make satisfactory progress. Students in their first calendar year of their enrolment would not normally be suspended. If you are assigned the progress status of 'Suspended', you will not normally be permitted to re-enrol in the Faculty for one year, after which you will be permitted to continue with your course.

Unless the Faculty determines otherwise in exceptional circumstances, the Board of Examiners will assign a progress status of 'Excluded' to a student who has previously been allocated a progress status of 'Suspended' or 'On Probation' and fails to make satisfactory progress for a second time.

If you are assigned the progress status of 'Excluded', you will be excluded for at least one year and will need to apply for readmission in writing, explaining your previous poor performance and why you believe that your performance will improve if you are permitted to continue with your studies. Any achievements gained during your absence from the course should also be included in the letter. Your letter should be submitted to the Programme Executive at PSB who will forward it to the Faculty on your behalf.

Requesting a waiver of suspension or exclusion

If you believe your poor results were caused by factors that (a) were beyond your control, and (b) have now been overcome, you may write to the Board of Examiners to request a waiver of the suspension (preferably with supporting documentary evidence). Be aware that not many waivers are granted.

Unit exclusions

Failing units may mean that you have to drop back a cohort in order to complete units in the approved sequence and to ensure prerequistes are met.

If you fail the same unit twice you will normally be blocked from re-enrolling in it.  Moreover, under the Science Rules you will not be permitted to take any further units in that discipline.  The same applies if you fail 24 points in one discipline at one level.

You may be able to request special permission to continue on grounds of exceptional circumstances, or you may be able to repeat the unit by enrolling in the Not-for-Degree course. However, permission will not necessarily be granted, espically to continue a major or program.

Note that a grade of FN (late withdrawal) counts as a fail.

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