Information Systems Engineering. Four-Year MEng. Scheme for the award of honours. (Effective for ALL years from 2009 onwards)

Transcription

1 Information Systems Engineering Four-Year MEng Scheme for the award of honours (Effective for ALL years from 2009 onwards) GH56 MEng Information Systems Engineering (Rev 1.1) 1/9

2 General Information This document sets out the assessment structure of degrees awarded in Information Systems Engineering including the criteria for progression and the criteria for award of an honours degree. The degrees are composed of parts corresponding to the years of the course: four parts for an M.Eng. and three for a B.Eng. At the end of each year, except the final year, a decision is made on progression to the next part. The Board of Examiners has the responsibility for setting and marking examinations and considering progression and award of honours. The Board of Examiners includes Departmental, College and External Examiners. It takes into account the marks awarded to each candidate in formal examinations and for other work, together with any other relevant information including statements from tutors. The board also considers examination prizes, admissibility to Part 3 of an M.Eng. course and supplementary tests to be taken by students failing marginally at Part 1 and Part 2. Marks are not divulged to students by assessors or the Board of Examiners. The Registrar will release marks confirmed at Examiners' Meetings to individual students in accordance with the procedures of Imperial College. All marks are held in the database to full machine precision. Occasionally, and for display purposes only, the marks will be rounded up to 0, 1 or 2 decimal places. The final course overall mark will be calculated from the database marks and not from the displayed marks. Please note that marks for any examination, project, coursework, or other assessed work may be scaled (up or down) if deemed appropriate by the relevant Board of Examiners. This applies to marks for work completed at Imperial College London; and also marks for work completed at overseas institutions as part of a year abroad. You should treat marks gained at any other institution with particular caution as they are likely to be moderated before being incorporated into your overall results. All work which is marked and graded must be retained. It may be required for re-submission to the Examiners at the end of the academic year. The grade letters, mark boundaries and honours classes are as follows: A - excellent 1st class standard A > 70% B - very good Upper 2nd class standard 60 < B < 70 C - competent Lower 2nd class standard 50 < C < 60 D - adequate 3rd class standard 40 < D < 50 E - unsatisfactory 30 < E < 40 F - very unsatisfactory F < 30 The year weightings applied in calculating the overall mark for a degree are as follows: Part 1: 1/9 Part 2: 2/9 Part 3: 1/3 Part 4: 1/3 Any information concerning factors which may have influenced students performance during the year (extenuating circumstances such as illness, personal problems) must be submitted to the Senior Tutor as soon as possible after the factor arises and in good time to be considered by the end of year Examiners Meeting. Evidence not brought to the GH56 MEng Information Systems Engineering (Rev 1.1) 2/9

3 attention of the examiners before the examiners meeting cannot be considered unless there is a good reason why it could not have been presented earlier. European Credit Transfer Scheme Awards Degrees at Imperial will conform to the Bologna Agreement from the 2009 intake. This document shows the ECTS points allocated to the elements of part 1 of the degree. The M.Eng. degree is an integrated masters degree composed of 240 or 270 ECTS points over the 4 parts. The first 3 parts will earn 180 ECTS and part 4 will earn 60 ECTS for the term-time work and 30 ECS for professional development between parts 3 and 4. The professional development is required for the integrated masters to reach the 270 ECTS required of a cycle 2 degree. Each academic year or part of a degree should contain 1,500-1,800 hours of student effort to obtain 60 ECTS. Each ECS point requires hours of student effort including classroom/lab time plus private study. GH56 MEng Information Systems Engineering (Rev 1.1) 3/9

4 Part 1 Assessment Scheme Mark Allocation A mark allocation of 1000 is assigned to Part 1 and is distributed as follows: 1. Written examinations 700 (70%) 2. Assessed coursework 200 (20%) 3. Summer term project 100 (10%) Examinations Students take compulsory examinations in: Paper Number Title ECTS Points 1.1 Analysis of Circuits Digital Electronics Analogue Electronics Communications Software Engineering: Introduction to Computing* Software Engineering 1 - Algorithms and Data Structures Introduction to Computer Architecture and Systems Mathematics Introduction to Management and Organisations 5 * coursework only no written exam Assessed Coursework Weighting (%) ECTS Points Electrical Laboratory 9 Summer Term Project 10 Technical Communication 2 Computing 9 Total Weighting of Part 1 The weighting of Part 1 is 1/9. Project The assessment is based on a written report plus an oral presentation. Pass Mark and Progression Criteria Requirements In order to progress to Part 2, students are normally required to achieve the following: a) 40% in each of the examined subjects listed above b) 40% in the aggregate of the coursework items listed above. Supplementary Qualifying Tests At the discretion of the examiners, a candidate who stands marginally failed at Part 1 may be GH56 MEng Information Systems Engineering (Rev 1.1) 4/9

5 given the opportunity to sit up to two supplementary qualifying tests. Part 2 Assessment Scheme Mark Allocation A mark allocation of 2000 is assigned to Part 2 and is distributed as follows: 1. Written examinations 1400 (70%) 2. Assessed coursework 400 (20%) 3. Group project 200 (10%) Written Examinations Each taught course is assessed by written examination as summarized in the table below Paper Number Title 2.1 Digital Electronics Communications Signals and Linear Systems 2.6 Control Engineering 2.11 Mathematics 2.12 Software Engineering 2.13 Computer Architecture 2.15 Language Processors 2.17 Discrete Mathematics and Computational Complexity Humanities or Language course Candidates must take one Humanities (H*) or Language (ML*) course. Assessed Coursework Weighting (%) Electrical Laboratory 11.5 Computing Laboratory 11.5 Group Project 7 Group Project The project runs over six months and assessment is by means of a web page, a presentation and a written report. Weighting of Part 2 The weighting of Part 2 is 2/9. Pass Requirements In order to progress to Part 3, students are normally required to achieve the following: a) 40% in each of the examined subjects listed above b) 40% in the aggregate of the coursework items listed above. Supplementary Qualifying Tests GH56 MEng Information Systems Engineering (Rev 1.1) 5/9

6 At the discretion of the examiners, a candidate who stands marginally failed at Part 2 may be given the opportunity to sit up to two supplementary qualifying tests. Qualification for Entry to Third Year Students registered for the MEng degree must normally achieve an average for Part 2 above 50% in order to be admitted to the third year of the MEng degree. Other students will normally be required to transfer to the BEng degree. GH56 MEng Information Systems Engineering (Rev 1.1) 6/9

7 Part 3 Assessment Scheme Mark Allocation A mark allocation of 3000 is assigned to Part 3 and is distributed as follows: 1. Written examinations 1950 (65%) 2. Assessed coursework 450 (15%) 3. Project 600 (20%) Written Examinations All candidates must take the compulsory course C526 Databases and must take an additional 7 subjects. Candidates may also choose an extra subject i.e. candidates can take 8 or 9 subjects in total. The additional 7 subjects must compose 6 technical subjects and one non-technical. If 9 options are taken the optional extra course may be EE, DOC or non-technical. A maximum of two non-technical courses may be taken. The average mark will be calculated according to the following formula. The denominator of the average is the minimum number of courses plus half the number of extra courses. Average = Sum of all Marks / (8 + ½n extra ) where n extra is the number of extra courses taken and equals 0 or 1. The average examination mark is weighted as 65% of Part 3. You have until February in 2010 to confirm your choices and you will be notified by of the deadline. Options cannot be modified after this deadline. Assessed Coursework Coursework will be averaged separately using the same formula as for the written examinations. Project i) the group project is weighted as 20% of Part 3. ii) the coursework commitment associated with each registered subject is averaged by the same formula as the written examinations and the average is weighted as 15% of Part 3. Students undertake a project in one of two forms. They may choose either option (a) or (b) below subject to the agreement of the College. (a) Industrial Elective This project is carried out in industry and is assessed by a College supervisor on the basis of a final report. (b) Group Project This project is carried out in College and is assessed on the basis of a report, a presentation and demonstration. Pass Requirements In order to pass Part 3 and progress to Part 4 candidates must achieve 40% in Part 3 aggregate, normally by obtaining 40% in each of the following elements. i) Assessed coursework ii) Examination total GH56 MEng Information Systems Engineering (Rev 1.1) 7/9

8 Part 4 Assessment Scheme Mark Allocation A mark allocation of 3000 is assigned to Part 4 and is distributed as follows. 1. Written examinations 1800 (60%) 2. Individual project 1200 (40%) Written Examinations Candidates must choose a minimum of 7 subjects and may choose an additional extra subject. Of these subjects, at least one must be a technical option from the EEE department and at least one must be a technical option from the Computing department. In addition a non-technical course must be taken. A maximum of two non-technical courses may be taken. The average mark will be calculated according to the following formula. The denominator of the average is the minimum number of courses plus half the number of extra courses. Average = Sum of all Marks / (7 + ½n extra ) where n extra is the number of extra courses taken and equals 0 or 1. Where assessed coursework is set, the coursework mark will count towards the examination total. You have until February in 2010 to confirm your choices and you will be notified by of the deadline. Options cannot be modified after this deadline. Individual Project The individual project is weighted as 40% of Part 4. Assessment is based on a written report and an oral presentation of the project work. GH56 MEng Information Systems Engineering (Rev 1.1) 8/9

9 Final Assessment and Honours Classification To be eligible for the award of honours a candidate must normally achieve a Part 4 average of at least 45% and a project mark of at least 40%. There is no provision for the award of a pass degree. When considering the final honours classification the examiners will take as the primary measure of a candidate s performance the total mark accumulated (Grand Total) in Parts 1, 2, 3 and 4 using the weightings implied by the total marks for each Part as follows: Part 1: 1/9 Part 2: 2/9 Part 3: 1/3 Part 4: 1/3 In addition, examiners will take into account all other facts relevant to the candidate s performance. First Class : 70% - 100% Second Class, Upper Division: 60% - 69% Second Class, Lower Division: 50% - 59% Third Class: 40% - 49% Taken over the whole course, the relative weights attached to the three types of assessed work are: Written examinations 65% Assessed coursework 11.6% Project work 23.4% Guideline Grade Descriptions for Coursework and Projects A B C D F Excellent work demonstrating sound understanding of the principles involved: extended scope; effective practical methodologies; report writing to a standard close to that expected for external publication. Good work demonstrating sound understanding of the principles involve; effective practical methodologies; report writing to a good technical standard. Satisfactory work without significant errors or omissions; report writing to a satisfactory standard. Work and / or report writing that is unsatisfactory in a small number of areas. Work and / or report writing that is unsatisfactory in several significant areas. GH56 MEng Information Systems Engineering (Rev 1.1) 9/9