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Assessments and academic support

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Assessments

Assessment practice

Course progression:

FPO4.1 Students are assessed by means of unit submissions, portfolio reports, assignments and attendance of lectures during face-to-face contact sessions and participation in online activities. Assessments will be of a practical and written nature.

FPO4.2 Students are required to attend at least 60% of face-to-face contact sessions and to communicate online with their tutors regarding unit submissions. Students are required to submit all portfolio reports and assignments before the final mark for the relevant course will be released. Should this not be done by the due date, the student will not be allowed to undertake the next course.

FPO4.3 Successful completion of all courses and an approved portfolio reflecting experiential learning to be submitted by the due date are required for successful completion of the Diploma.

FPO4.4 Students who obtain less than 50% for an assignment or portfolio report will be permitted to repeat it. Students need to obtain a minimum of 50% in individual courses to pass the Diploma.

FP04.5 To be awarded the Diploma with distinction, an overall average of 75% must be obtained with no less than 70% for any course. All courses must be passed at first attempt.

Assessments:

Assignments must be written in an academic format, with correct citations and references given for all literature used. Please be consistent with whatever referencing style you decide to use. Assignment submissions must be made through the Amathuba Turnitin portal. Written assignments must be saved in a Word document in this particular order before submission on Vula: Surname first, then first name, and last, student number. More detailed information about the assessments is given within each course site.

Extension requests (Please read carefully)

Under certain circumstances, an extension may be granted. However, it remains the student’s responsibility to ensure that they communicate timeously to the relevant convener. As a general rule, except for certain critical situations, requests received 72 hours before submission due dates will not be granted. Please download the request for extension form, fill it and submit to the relevant convener. Extensions granted will be at the discretion of the convener. Kindly refer to the table below for some guide on some acceptable and unacceptable reasons for extension requests.

Reasons that would normally be acceptable for an extension	Reasons that would not be acceptable for an extension	Reasons that might be considered for an extension in some cases
Bereavement (documented) Incapacitating illness (documented) Illness of close relative (documented) Serious personal/ social disruption (e.g. divorce, adoption, house fire) Factors for which the University is responsible (e.g. cancellation of sessions, late distribution of necessary materials)	Normal work pressures Referred work from other courses Unavailability of source material (including library books and journals) Holidays Religious festivals or similar commitments Pre-arrange house move Family events (e.g. weddings) Pregnancy (‘normal’) Personal computer failure as you should have taken adequate precautionary measures e.g. backups Leaving it to the last minute to access IT equipment/printing facilities and then finding that they are not available unless there has been a systems failure Non-compatibility of your IT equipment with University IT equipment, as it is expected that you should have planned and checked that it was possible to transfer files from your computer to the University systems well before the assessment deadlines Not communicating challenges early enough to relevant conveners	Major documented change in work circumstances (e.g. major reorganization, change of responsibilities) Documented pregnancy (complicated) Challenges are communicated early enough to the conveners

Academic support

Active, student-centred teaching, learning & assessment are core to the PGDip. There are many formative assessment opportunities where students are able to develop their ideas and submit their drafts for feedback from the course coordinators & tutors before the final submission.

Library

The UCT & FHS libraries offer support to students:

General contact: libraries@uct.ac.za
For research help head here.
Referencing help is found here (& here is a Vancouver referencing guide).
Registered UCT students are also able to freely download referencing software (Refworks & Endnote) from ICTS.

Plagiarism

Importantly, UCT has a zero tolerance policy when it comes to plagiarism. Please read this guide to understand what UCT considers to be plagiarism & how to avoid it.

All assessments are submitted via Turnitin. Turnitin detects the percentage of similarity to other published sources. Postgraduate students should also have access to a separate Turnitin site where they may submit their assignments beforehand to view their similarity scores. The lower the score the better! And with proper in-text referencing & a bibliography students have no need to worry.

An anti-plagiarism declaration & honesty pledge, which should be added to assignments, can be found here.

Writing centre

Students have access to the UCT & FHS writing centres.

They have a great list of writing tips here & students can book a consultation for help with their written assignments.

Contact them at: fhs.writinglab@gmail.com

The UCT Writing Centre also offers free writing courses for students to take. Brief descriptions of each course can be found below. These courses may be offered at different times throughout the year.