Marking is the process of assigning an assessment score or grade and/or comments to a piece of work produced, performed or submitted by a student according to criteria for that assessment task.

5.1 Marking protocols

Lecturers-in-Charge must ensure that:

• marking is fair and consistent across the student cohort;
• internal moderation processes are established in units with more than one marker;
• marking is consistent with set marking criteria and academic standards;
• marking is not to be delegated to any other member of staff, except to academic staff contracted to mark assessment, without the approval of the Head of School;
• where other markers are employed, specific information is provided by the Lecturer-in-Charge as to what is to be marked, the marking scheme, how many pieces of work are involved, and the date by which assessed work must be returned to the Lecturer-in-Charge;
• comments on the assessment tasks submitted by the student are made on the exercise/assignment or on a marking sheet that is returned to the student with the assignment.

5.2 Feedback

Before they begin their final examinations, students are entitled to timely and constructive feedback related to achievement of learning outcomes on all assessment tasks completed during the semester, with the exception of items submitted within the last two weeks of semester. Timely feedback is within three weeks of submission or at least 48 hours before a related assessment is due for submission.

Feedback on a students progress in a unit should be both in a quantified form, such as scores or grades, and a qualitative form such as comments, model answers or suggested readings.

Marks for assessment tasks in large classes may be posted on a noticeboard to indicate the group mean and distribution of marks or grades. Student identity numbers only must be used in any such posting to preserve confidentiality.

Students should be given the opportunity to discuss their performance and the feedback received with an appropriate academic staff member.

Students may apply to the Lecturer-in-Charge to view their final examination script after the official release of results.

Lecturers-in-Charge may discuss final result grades, including final examination results, with students after the official release of results.

5.3 Conflict of interest

Lecturers-in-Charge, or other staff appointed to mark assessment items, have a responsibility to assess students work fairly, objectively and consistently across the student cohort in a unit. Academic staff who consider that they may be or be perceived to be affected by a conflict of interest must bring this to the attention of their Head of School (refer to Staff Code of Conduct).

5.4 Allocating and recording final result grades

Lecturers-in-Charge are responsible for collating and recording the results for all assessment tasks and recommending a final result grade for each student in a unit. Each students aggregate marks for a unit are allocated a grade according to the descriptors for each grade as listed in Table 2. The head of School or nominee ratifies the final grade results.

Final result grades are not provided to students until results have been officially released by the University.

5.5 Post-assessment moderation

Lecturers-in-Charge are required to review the distribution of final grades in a unit. Lecturers-in-Charge are also required to provide relevant evidence to the Head of School or nominee to substantiate a decision to deviate significantly from the academic standards detailed in section 3.2. Where such evidence is not provided, the results will be reviewed in line with the required standards reflected in the recommended distribution of grades.