Appealing Masters Result

[IndianaJones2021]

Hi my son achieved a merit today in his university degree*. His overall grade was a 69.61 he's gutted he wasn't awarded a distinction.
Has anyone had similar and appealed.
Thanks in advance 😀

*MNHQ removed identifying info at request of OP

No experience of this but why on earth wouldn't they round that up!?

I know he's absolutely devastated, sometimes they remove the lowest two marks, which would of given him 72 %

Why should they though? If the cut off is 70% then that’s what it is. If you scored 379/400 in an A level exam and the boundary for an Astar was 380, which is .25% above your mark, would you expect them round it up?

Op I am sure he can appeal the mark. Does he have any grounds?

it says on the website that if there is scope to achieve the 70% by dropping 2 modules and averaging then this can be done.
He's had nothing but trouble, he should have graduated in December. The Uni admitted to leaving modules off his student record, only his resulting in 4 more months of work.

He needs to look at the calculation method for his final mark.

It should be published in the assessment regulations or the academic regulations.

Some, but not all Universities use a form of rounding or easing for a final grade near the boundary of a classification. Not sure what Swansea does.

The grounds for appeal are typically only if there's an error in the process.

A Merit is still a very good result

Oh right thank you HellonHeels I thought he would be able to appeal.

It should be corrected to 70%. If the grade boundary is 70, not 70.00 then the result should be expressed as a whole number, which in your son's case would be 70.
I'm amazed this wasn't spotted and corrected at the exam board.

That's not how it works if the result is expressed as an integer, I got 69.7 in one of my third year uni modules and it was rounded up to 70 for the overall module grade

is this still possible, it shows overall average 69.61%
Award - Masters of Science, Merit

They should publish details of exactly how they count. In DDs case no rounding but if you are close to 70% you get special consideration and if 50% or more modules by weight are 70% or above you go up.

Some look at preponderance, so if he had more credits in the 70s than in the 60s it might be upgraded. He needs to read his specific regulations.

At my uni it would be possible @IndianaJones2021 . It would be done by 'Chair's Action' outside the exam board. It would depend what the regulations are at Swansea, but as with most things, the squeaky wheel gets the oil, so I would advise him to complain to his Course Leader, copying in the Chair of the exam board (if he can find out who it was) and the Dean of his School.

Thank you, I'll recommend this route.

I bow to everyone’s better knowledge in terms of rounding up, looking at the mode of marks etc. Sounds as tho it’s worth querying or looking again at how marks are worked out @IndianaJones2021

I still think my Alevrl example is valid tho (for an a level mark I mean). One mark below is still one mark below, even if it is only a fraction of a %

I think it might depend on all his module marks. For example, if he failed one module and was compensated they might not be able to round up to a distinction as I don't think a distinction can be award if a module is compensated. Will depend on the specific university criteria but worth following up with them as they might be able to explain the workings.

Yes, we wouldn't have rounded up if someone was carrying a compensated fail. So you could have got 80 in your 60 credit dissertation, but a 45 in one 15 credit module would mean no round up.

It all depends what the specific course regs say.

I say this kindly @IndianaJones2021 but does it actually matter? Do people put their Masters 'grade' on their CVs? Pretty sure DD2 doesn't.

He wants to start a funded PHD, higher the great the better so he tells me.

Sorry if I missed bit but did he submit a complaint through the official registry channels for this?

I can't speak for this particular qualification, but I recall that one of my classmates at Glasgow was offered a viva when he was close to a first for an honours degree in Russian.

And does it mean that he didn't take the modules at the correct time, which could have impacted other modules if he needed that knowledge to take the later ones, or that they left them off the calculations?

He was only awarded today, we are looking at what options if any are available.

OK, I was thinking about when he realised the modules were missed off, but he should still be able to register a complaint about that. Has he spoken to his personal tutor who could sign post him? I'd start there.

Or, as I was it for many years, the lead admin manager for his pg course. They should be able to give advice. I had a few queries over my desk that were similar if not the same, and always tried to sort them to the best of my ability.