STUDENT HANDBOOK

Department of Medical Physics & Bioengineering University College London UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT HANDBOOK 2008/2009 Medical Physics & Bioengineering Undergraduate Student Handbook 2008/09 Page 2 College Term Dates 2008-2009 First Term: Second Term: Third Term: September 22, 2008 January 12, 2009 April 27, 2009 December 12, 2008 March 22, 2009 June 12, 2009 While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information in this document, the Department cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions contained herein. Medical Physics & Bioengineering Undergraduate Student Handbook 2008/09 Page 3 WELCOME Welcome to UCL, one of the foremost universities in Britain and the world. It is a pleasure to welcome you also to the Department of Medical Physics & Bioengineering. I hope that the time you spend with us will be thoroughly enjoyable and highly productive. Our Department is proud to host internationally-leading research groups covering a broad range of activities and spread over several sites. As you will discover, our staff and students have a diverse range of interests and expertise, covering many areas of physics, engineering, medicine, physiology, computer science, and mathematics. This provides a highly stimulating multidisciplinary environment for learning and for scientific research. Although one of the largest Medical Physics & Bioengineering Departments in the UK, we are small enough to enable staff and students to get to know each other well, which we believe engenders a friendly and supportive atmosphere. Our Department staff and students regularly organise various academic activities (such as lunchtime seminars) and social events throughout the year, and you are strongly encouraged to participate in any that interest you (or even organise some of your own)! A significant proportion of your time, particularly during the first two years of your degree, will be spent in our sister department, the Department of Physics & Astronomy. The general aim of both departments is to deliver degree programmes designed to develop a student’s full potential, using the research strengths and experience of the staff in a challenging and stimulating environment. During your course you will not only acquire an in-depth understanding of your chosen field of study, but also gain a sufficiently broad education in specialist and transferable skills to facilitate progression to a wide variety of careers, both within and outside the field of medical physics. If you are a new student, you may find the size of UCL a little daunting at first. But please do not panic - you will soon find your way around! You are entering into a new and exciting phase of your life and there are bound to be many things with which you are unfamiliar. However, we have many people in both departments who will be delighted to help you. In the Medical Physics & Bioengineering Department, Dr. Alan Cottenden (a.cottenden@medphys.ucl.ac.uk) is the Undergraduate Programme Tutor, who can advise you on any issues related to your degree. Every student is also assigned a Personal Tutor in the MPB department, who is the person you should contact initially if you find you have problems of an academic or personal nature. The Personal Tutor for first-year students starting in September 2008 is Dr. Adam Gibson (a.gibson@medphys.ucl. ac.uk). For more general enquiries, you can ask Ms. Mohini Nair, our Teaching Support Officer, located in the department main office on the second floor. In the Physics & Astronomy Department, Prof. Ian Ford (i.ford@ucl.ac.uk) is the Programme Tutor who can advise you on academic matters, and Ms. Trea Saint, the Undergraduate Teaching & Admissions Coordinator (room E2), is also available to offer advice. Meanwhile, feel free to come and see me to say hello or to discuss any problems you may encounter. I wish you every success in your studies and an enjoyable time at UCL. Professor Jem Hebden Head of Department Email: jem@medphys.ucl.ac.uk Medical Physics & Bioengineering Undergraduate Student Handbook 2008/09 Page 4 CONTENTS DATES OF COLLEGE TERMS........................................................................................................... 2 WELCOME ............................................................................................................................................ 3 1. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................. 6 2. GENERAL INFORMATION ............................................................................................................ 6 2.1 LOCATION OF LECTURE THEATRES AND OTHER TEACHING VENUES ..................................................... 6 2.2 HOW TO CONTACT A MEMBER OF STAFF............................................................................................... 7 2.3 HOW STAFF WILL CONTACT YOU .......................................................................................................... 7 2.4 SAFETY ................................................................................................................................................ 7 2.5 WHAT WE EXPECT OF YOU ................................................................................................................... 8 (a) Attendance ...................................................................................................................................... 8 (b) Behaviour within the Department .................................................................................................. 8 (c) Change of address .......................................................................................................................... 8 3. INFORMATION FOR NEW STUDENTS ....................................................................................... 8 3.1 PEOPLE OF IMMEDIATE USE TO YOU ..................................................................................................... 8 3.2 OTHER SOURCES OF INFORMATION WITHIN THE TWO DEPARTMENTS ................................................... 9 (a) Careers advice................................................................................................................................ 9 (b) Equal opportunities and disabilities ............................................................................................... 9 3.3 ADVICE ELSEWHERE IN THE COLLEGE ............................................................................................... 10 (a) Health service ............................................................................................................................... 10 (b) Faculty Tutor ................................................................................................................................ 10 (c) Dean of Students ........................................................................................................................... 10 (d) Advisers to women students .......................................................................................................... 10 (e) Financial support ......................................................................................................................... 10 4. STUDENT ACTIVITIES AND FACILITIES ............................................................................... 10 4.1 CUMBERLAND LODGE WEEKEND ...................................................................................................... 10 4.2 COMMON ROOM FACILITIES .............................................................................................................. 11 4.3 LOCKERS ........................................................................................................................................... 11 4.4 ACCESS TO MEDICAL PHYSICS & BIOENGINEERING DEPARTMENT.................................................... 11 4.5 PHOTOCOPYING ................................................................................................................................. 11 4.6 STUDENT PHYSICS SOCIETY .............................................................................................................. 12 4.7 UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON UNION (UCLU) .............................................................................. 12 4.8 UNIVERSITY OF LONDON UNION (ULU) ............................................................................................ 12 4.9 INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS ....................................................................................................................... 12 5. TEACHING AND LEARNING ...................................................................................................... 12 5.1 COURSEWORK.................................................................................................................................... 12 5.2 TEXT BOOKS ...................................................................................................................................... 13 5.3 TUTORIALS ........................................................................................................................................ 13 5.4 PEER ASSISTED LEARNING (PAL) SCHEME ........................................................................................ 13 5.5 PROBLEM CLASSES ............................................................................................................................ 13 5.6 REVISION LECTURES.......................................................................................................................... 14 5.7 TIMETABLES ...................................................................................................................................... 14 5.8 READING WEEK ................................................................................................................................. 14 6. LIBRARY AND COMPUTING RESOURCES ............................................................................. 14 6.1 COLLEGE LIBRARY ............................................................................................................................ 14 6.2 PHYSICS & ASTRONOMY UNDERGRADUATE LIBRARY ...................................................................... 14 6.3 COMPUTING FACILITIES ..................................................................................................................... 14 6.4 SOFTWARE ......................................................................................................................................... 15 7. STUDENT FEEDBACK ................................................................................................................. 15 7.1 MODULE EVALUATION BY STUDENTS ............................................................................................... 15 7.2 STAFF-STUDENT CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE (SSCC) ..................................................................... 15 7.3 FEEDBACK FROM THE GENERAL SESSION AT CUMBERLAND LODGE .................................................. 15 Medical Physics & Bioengineering Undergraduate Student Handbook 2008/09 Page 5 7.4 PEER OBSERVATION OF LECTURERS ................................................................................................... 15 8. EXAMINATIONS ............................................................................................................................ 16 8.1 EXAMINATION SCHEDULE .................................................................................................................. 16 8.2 HOW TO PLAN FOR AND SURVIVE EXAMINATIONS .............................................................................. 16 8.3 WITHDRAWAL FROM EXAMINATIONS AND INTERRUPTION IN STUDY ................................................. 17 8.4 PROBLEMS DUE TO ILLNESS ............................................................................................................... 17 8.5 PROBLEMS DUE TO LATE ARRIVAL OR ABSENCE ................................................................................ 18 8.6 RE-SITS AND REPEATS OF YEAR ........................................................................................................ 18 8.7 DYSLEXIA .......................................................................................................................................... 18 8.8 PLAGIARISM ...................................................................................................................................... 18 9. ASSESSMENT AND PROGRESSION IN THE DEGREE .......................................................... 19 9.1 EXAMINATION RESULTS ..................................................................................................................... 20 9.2 SEPTEMBER REFERRALS AND DEFERRED ASSESSMENTS ................................................................... 20 9.3 YEARLY PROGRESSION AND DEGREE CLASSIFICATION ....................................................................... 20 9.4 MSCI PROGRESSION RULES ................................................................................................................ 21 10. PRIZES ............................................................................................................................................ 21 11. DATA PROTECTION ACT .......................................................................................................... 22 APPENDIX 1: PORTICO .................................................................................................................... 23 Medical Physics & Bioengineering Undergraduate Student Handbook 2008/09 Page 6 1. INTRODUCTION As you will already be aware, your studies at UCL will be located partly in our Department of Medical Physics & Bioengineering (MPB), and partly in the Department of Physics & Astronomy (P&A). While your principal base is within the former, you will find that you spend the majority of your time during the first two years attending lectures in the latter. Consequently we have sought to provide you, within this Handbook, with a range of useful information about both Departments and their structures and regulations in so far as they apply to you as an undergraduate. This Handbook complements the College publication “UCL Student Handbook”, which is provided to each student on admission. (If for some reason you do not have a copy of this, you may obtain one from the Registrar’s Department, which is located at the end of the South Cloister. You can do this when you register with the College.) It is a good idea to keep these two publications at hand; together, they will answer most of your questions. Details about course structures are not in this Handbook. They are provided separately in other Departmental literature and on our MPB and P&A websites: Medical Physics & Bioengineering: Physics & Astronomy: www.medphys.ucl.ac.uk www.phys.ucl.ac.uk where you can find the current structures of all our full-time undergraduate degree programmes, including detailed aims and objectives, syllabuses etc. for each module in the 3-year B.Sc. and 4-year M.Sci. degree programmes. Our websites also provide extensive information about our other teaching and research activities. Most members of staff in both departments have their own webpage which will contain a short biography along with their research interests. For the P&A Department, Trea Saint (room E2) can provide you with the necessary ID and password to access appropriate intranet webpages. 2. GENERAL INFORMATION 2.1 Location of lecture theatres and other teaching venues The main teaching spaces used by the two Departments are given below. Medical Physics & Bioengineering Lecture theatre 1.02 Lecture theatre 1.03 Room 1.19 Room 1.20 Room 2.14 Room 3.09 First floor, Malet Place Engineering Building First floor, Malet Place Engineering Building First floor, Malet Place Engineering Building First floor, Malet Place Engineering Building Second floor, Malet Place Engineering Building Third floor, Malet Place Engineering Building Except for some students who have been given swipe-card access to the third floor, students must use the security intercom to the right of the door opposite the lifts on the third floor in order to visit room 3.09 or any other office or lab located on the third floor. Access to the second floor offices and labs may be obtained by asking Mohini or another member of administrative staff in the main office. Physics & Astronomy Massey Theatre A17 A1 D103 Cluster room D105 Lab 1 Lab 2 Lab 3 A19 Ground Floor, Union Building Undergraduate Common Room, Fourth floor, Physics Building Fourth floor, Physics Building First floor, Union Building (access from Union Building) First floor, Union Building (access from Physics Building) First floor, Physics Building Second floor, Physics Building Third floor, Physics Building Asteroid cluster room, Fourth Floor, Physics Building The lift within the Physics Building serves all four floors directly, while the lifts at the North Cloister entrance to the Department only appear to serve three higher floors and the basement. However, floor 1 is Medical Physics & Bioengineering Undergraduate Student Handbook 2008/09 Page 7 reached by that lift where there is access via stairs to Lab 1 (1st Floor Physics) and Lab 2 (2nd Floor Physics). Other locations Chemistry Theatre Roberts 309 Roberts G08 Ground floor, Christopher Ingold Building, Gordon Street Third Floor, Roberts Engineering Building Ground floor, lecture theatre, Roberts Engineering Building 2.2 How to contact a member of staff Members of the teaching staff in both departments can be contacted by using the internal mail or email. For MPB staff, mail boxes (“pigeon holes”) are located within the main office area behind the glass wall on the first floor of the Malet Place Engineering Building. Any mail for staff should be handed to Mohini Nair who normal sits by the access window, and she will place it in the appropriate box. Email addresses for most staff are available on the MPB website, but generally have the structure: “first initial” dot “last name” followed by @medphys.ucl.ac.uk. For P&A staff, mail boxes are situated outside room E15, on the ground floor of the Physics Building. If there appears to be no appropriate box, ask the Undergraduate Teaching Secretary in room E2 for guidance. Room numbers for teaching staff can be obtained from the two boards facing the mail boxes outside room E15. These boards display photographs and room numbers of all teaching staff in the Department. Members of staff also have email addresses. These can be looked up in a Departmental Directory which is available in room E2 (again ask the secretary there for assistance) or can be found from the Departmental or College websites. In any communication with a member of P&A staff, always state your name, degree course and year. It takes time for staff to get to know the large number of students in the Department. If you need to contact anyone in either Department from outside the College you can use the following official addresses and/or phone numbers: Department of Medical Physics & Bioengineering Malet Place Engineering Building University College London Gower Street London WC1E 6BT Phone: 020-7679-0200 Department of Physics and Astronomy University College London Gower Street London WC1E 6BT Phone: 020-7679-7144 You should not, however, have personal mail delivered to either address. To telephone individual members of staff from outside, dial 020-7679 followed by the telephone extension number (having removed the first digit (3) to leave a four digit number) of the person whom you are trying to contact. 2.3 How staff will contact you General information for students is posted on notice boards. For the MPB department, this is placed outside the main office on the second floor. For the P&A department, the notice-board is outside the Massey Lecture Theatre. You should check both regularly. If staff members from either Department or from a College administrative division wish to contact you personally they will do so either by internal mail, by mobile phone or (most commonly) by email. All students have a mailbox located at the entrance to The Massey Theatre, ground floor, Union Building. IMPORTANT: Please ensure that you check your mailbox and your UCL email account regularly to avoid missing important or urgent information. It is your responsibility to be aware of such announcements! Note that UCL will only send email to your official UCL computer account. If you want to redirect emails to another account, there are instructions for doing this on the UCL webpage. 2.4 Safety Both departments place great importance on safety, with special emphasis on safety in the Laboratories. You are expected to behave in a sensible manner, especially when dealing with any of the Laboratory equipment. The P&A Departmental Safety Officer, Mr. Derek Attree, will give guidance to all students at the beginning of the session on how to conduct themselves whilst working with equipment to ensure both their own safety Medical Physics & Bioengineering Undergraduate Student Handbook 2008/09 Page 8 and that of those working around them. Further detailed information is given in the laboratory handbooks for the Physics Laboratories. Fire drills are held during the academic year at unannounced times, so you should familiarise yourself with the instructions displayed on notice boards in hallways and on lab notice-boards as to the procedure you should follow and where assembly points are. There are Fire Evacuation Marshals (FEMs) appointed from the staff and technicians who will take charge of you during these times. 2.5 What we expect of you (a) Attendance Every student is obliged to attend regularly the lectures, laboratory classes and tutorials which constitute parts of their degree. If you are unable to do so for any significant time and for any reason, you should inform the MPB Undergraduate Tutor Dr. Alan Cottenden (020-7288-5670; a.cottenden@medphys.ac.uk) as soon as possible. This should be done either in person, by telephone, letter (internal mail or normal mail) or email. For extended absence due to illness, you must provide a Medical Certificate upon your return to College. Attendance registers are distributed in all lectures and practical sessions and you are expected to sign them. If you are noted to be absent from a sequence of two lab sessions or three lectures from a module, that fact will be reported to the Tutors who will take the appropriate actions. Tutorial absences will also be reported in a similar manner. (b) Behaviour within the Department It is expected that students will observe the basic courtesies in their behaviour towards staff and fellow students. While asking questions in lectures is to be encouraged, a background of whispering can totally disrupt a lecture for other students and is strongly discouraged. You may be excluded from lectures for persistent disruptive behaviour. You are expected to arrive at lectures, tutorials and laboratory sessions on time. If, however, you are unavoidably delayed, you should join the class with the minimum of disruption, with any apologies being saved for later. No food or drinks are to be consumed in the lecture theatres or laboratories. UCL does not permit smoking anywhere on its premises. (c) Change of address Throughout your time at UCL, it is essential that the MPB department has an accurate record of your address and a contact telephone number if possible. If not, tutors and others will be unable to contact you in case of an emergency. Should you change either your home or term-time address (or telephone number) at any time, you must immediately inform UCL via the PORTICO website (www.ucl.ac.uk/portico). See further information in Appendix I below. 3. INFORMATION FOR NEW STUDENTS 3.1 People of immediate use to you There are a number of staff in both departments who you will meet in your first few days here. Their contact details are: Department of Medical Physics & Bioengineering Name Dr. Alan Cottenden Dr. Adam Gibson Prof. Jem Hebden Ms. Karen Cardy Ms. Mohini Nair Title Undergraduate Programme Tutor First Year Tutor Head of Department Departmental Administrator Teaching Support Officer Room 2.02 * 3.05 2.18 2.17 2.24 Ext 30298 * 30279 30280 30250 30253 Email a.cottenden@medphys.ucl.ac.uk a.gibson@medphys.ucl.ac.uk j.hebden@medphys.ucl.ac.uk k.cardy@medphys.ucl.ac.uk teachsup@medphys.ucl.ac.uk * Note that Dr. Cottenden spends the majority of his time at the UCL Archway Campus, where he can be contacted at 020-7288-5670. Medical Physics & Bioengineering Undergraduate Student Handbook 2008/09 Page 9 Department of Physics & Astronomy Name Dr. I. Furniss Prof. I. J. Ford Miss Trea Saint Ms. M. Mohamad Mr. D. J. Attree Mr. J. O’Brien Title Affiliate & Overseas Study Tutor Physics Programme Tutor Room E4 E6 Ext 33481 37136 37246 37144 33459 33445 Email if@star.ucl.ac.uk i.ford@ucl.ac.uk t.saint@ucl.ac.uk m.mohamad@ucl.ac.uk dja@hep.ucl.ac.uk j.o’brien@ucl.ac.uk Teaching & Admissions Coordinator E2 UG Teaching Secretary Safety Officer Lab Superintendent E2 C19 Lab1 To telephone individual members of staff from outside UCL, dial 020-7679 followed by the telephone extension number of person whom you are trying to contact (minus the 3). The Head of the P&A Department is Prof. J. Tennyson (Room E12/E14, ground floor, Physics Building). Whilst he is happy to talk to students about their problems, it is advisable in the first instance, that such problems should be addressed to the Programme Tutors. At the start of their degree, every student will be assigned a Personal Tutor in the MPB department. For firstyear students starting in September 2008, their Personal Tutor will be Dr. Adam Gibson, whose contact information is given above. Whereas purely scientific questions should be discussed with lecturers, for any other problem which is preventing you working at your best (whether it is academic, financial, personal welfare etc.) do not hesitate to talk to your Personal Tutor or to the Programme Tutor (Dr. Alan Cottenden). Your Tutors may discuss some issues with the Head of Department as and when necessary, but any discussions will be treated in strict confidence. However, if you wish the information to be confined to the Tutor, then that is what will happen! The Tutor’s advice will always be given in a spirit of helpfulness, although it may not necessarily be what you want to hear; they have to work within the rules of the Department and UCL. For example, it is their responsibility to monitor attendance at lectures and practical sessions and they will certainly want explanations if your attendance is not regular or your work appears to be falling off in quantity or quality. If you need a reference during your time at College, whether for personal or academic reasons, you can ask either your Personal Tutor or the Programme Tutor. Tutors and other staff are generally happy to provide references for students they know, but remember that it is only polite to ask them first before you put their name on an application form. For more general enquiries, you should ask Ms. Mohini Nair, the MPB Teaching Support Officer, located in the department main office on the second floor. 3.2 Other sources of information within the two departments (a) Careers advice Advice on careers within the Medical Physics field is available from Prof. Andrew Todd-Pokropek (phone extension 30300; email atoddpok@medphys.ucl.ac.uk). The P&A Departmental Careers Officer is Prof W. R. Newell, with whom appointments can be made either by telephoning extension 37140 or by email on w.r.newell@ucl.ac.uk. He can also be found in room E8 which is on the ground floor of the Physics & Astronomy Building. (b) Equal opportunities and Disabilities The MPB Departmental Equal Opportunities Liaison Officer is Ms. Karen Cardy (telephone 30250 or email k.cardy@medphys.ucl.ac.uk), whose function is the promotion of equal opportunities for women, ethnic minorities and those with socio-economic disadvantages. If you feel that you have been discriminated against on racial or sexual grounds or have been harassed in any way, you should inform Karen Cardy or your Personal Tutor or the Programme Tutor directly. Immediate confidential help in dealing with the problem is assured. Karen is also the departmental Student Disabilities Coordinator. Medical Physics & Bioengineering Undergraduate Student Handbook 2008/09 Page 10 3.3 Advice elsewhere in the College (a) Health service Students are welcome to consult, by appointment, any of the staff at the Gower Place Practice (formerly the Health Centre), who include Physicians, Psychologists, Dental Surgeons and Nurses. All these staff are familiar with the special difficulties that students may encounter, and all such consultations are entirely confidential. The telephone numbers are as follows: Gower Place Practice – 020-7387-6306; Dental Practice – 020-7679-7186. Both the Doctors and Dentists are located at 3 Gower Place which is situated at the rear of the Physics Building. In addition, a Student Counselling Service is available which covers such aspects as: homesickness, loneliness, anxiety, depression; problems with studies and exams; problems in relationships; family problems; eating disorders; drug or alcohol problems; and sexual issues. This service is totally confidential and “demand-friendly”. Appointments can be booked by calling in person at 3 Taviton Street (First Floor, room 101), or by telephone (020-7679-1487). (b) Faculty Tutors Rather confusingly, MPB is a member of the UCL Faculty of Engineering Sciences (FES) while P&A is within the UCL Faculty of Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MAPS). The FES Tutor is Dr. Marco Federighi (phone: 33911, email: m.federichi@ucl.ac.uk) and the MAPS Tutor is Prof. David Tovee (phone: 37235 or 37767, email: david.tovee@ucl.ac.uk). Either Tutor may be consulted on administrative issues, by appointment. (c) Dean of Students Dr. Ruth Sidall is the Dean of Students (4 Taviton Street, Ground Floor) and can be consulted by appointment during mornings only. Her secretary can be contacted on 020-7679-4545. The Dean is available to help with all aspects of welfare in the College and can help even in difficult cases concerning student financial worries. (d) Advisers to women students The Advisers to Women Students assist the Dean of Students in providing advice and welfare support to students and are available specifically for women students who need to talk to a woman. Appointments with the Advisers to Women Students (Dr. Dorothy Einon – 25385 or email d.einon@ucl.ac.uk, and Dr. Hilary Richards – 32934 or email h.richards@ucl.ac.uk) may be made by calling the Dean of Students Secretary on 020-7679-4545 or visiting the office at 4 Taviton Street. (e) Financial support UCL has been allocated by the Government a limited sum of money, known as the Access to Learning Fund, from which grants can be made to British students who find themselves in financial difficulty. These grants do not have to be repaid. Eligible undergraduate students must provide evidence of having taken out a Student Loan. Application forms are available from the Students Union’s Rights and Advice Office, First Floor, Bloomsbury Building and the Dean of Students’ Office, 4 Taviton Street. The college also offers emergency loans and hardship funds. All details are on the UCL website. An “Information for Students” booklet should be sent to you by the College Registry which will give you a more complete overview of the help available from UCL personnel. 4. STUDENT ACTIVITIES AND FACILITIES 4.1 Cumberland Lodge Weekend Every year, during the first term, a group of approximately 50 students and several members of the academic staff from the P&A Department spend the weekend at Cumberland Lodge, a beautiful country house close to Royal Lodge, the late Queen Mother’s residence which she left to the Duke of York, in Windsor Great Park. The intention is to get students and staff away from the College environment and to get them to know each other better over discussions of interesting problems in physics and astronomy in an informal and very pleasant environment. The majority of students attending are from Year 1, though other years and postgraduates are also well represented. Medical Physics & Bioengineering Undergraduate Student Handbook 2008/09 Page 11 Talks are given by members of P&A staff, and invited people from outside College. Topics include some of the research activities of the P&A Department, sometimes a lighthearted look at Science. The weekend concludes with a general discussion period, chaired by the Departmental Undergraduate Teaching Committee chairman, during which students can give their opinions about the Department, the lecture modules, or indeed any topic which they wish to raise. In addition to the talks, ample time is available for informal discussions and for social activities, two of the most popular of which are walking in Windsor Great Park and the Saturday night party. The Weekend usually takes place over the first weekend in November. Students travel to Cumberland Lodge by coach, leaving the College site on the Friday afternoon and returning to London after tea on the Sunday evening. The fee, including transportation and all meals, is around £50. This is considerably less than the actual cost, owing to the large subsidies provided by the P&A Department and by the St Catherine’s Foundation, which runs Cumberland Lodge. Students invariably enjoy the Weekend and regard it as excellent value for money. You are encouraged to book early as places are limited. 4.2 Common Room Facilities A common room (room 3.14) on the third floor of the Malet Place Engineering Building is available for all MPB students and staff throughout the day. It contains basic tea and coffee making equipment, a microwave oven, a small refrigerator (although nothing should be left inside overnight), and a water cooler. There are also copies of selected current science magazines and journals (which must not be removed from the room). There is a small Undergraduate Student Common Room provided within the P&A Department which is located in room A17 on the top floor of the Physics Building. 4.3 Lockers All MPB students are allocated a locker for storage of books and personal effects, which is located in the corridor on the first floor of the Malet Place Engineering building (outside room 1.19). Keys are available from the MPB main office for a £5 deposit, which will be refunded on return of the key/receipt. If the key is lost, the deposit is retained by the department, and a second key is only issued on receipt of a further £5 deposit. Items are placed in the lockers at the student’s own risk, and therefore it is important that students do not use the lockers to store valuables (especially laptops). Please do not leave food in the lockers overnight. 4.4 Access to MPB Department For reasons of security, access to some parts of the MPB department is somewhat restricted. The department is primarily located on the first, second, and third floors of the Malet Place Engineering Building, next door to the Science Library. Starting soon, all visitors to the department will need to swipe their ID cards to enter the building. The lifts provide access to all floors except the first floor, for which students must take the stairs (special provision is made for disabled students). Access to the student computer room (room 1.18) and the seminar room (room 1.19) requires a key code which students will be given at the start of the year. If you need to visit anyone on the second floor, students should ask Mohini Nair or one of the other administrative staff in the main office (behind the glass wall). The common room (room 3.14) on the third floor is usually unlocked and accessible during working hours (08:00 – 18:00). Normally, access to all other offices and labs on the third floor requires students and other visitors to use the security intercom to the right of the door opposite the lifts. However, some students who need to visit the third floor regularly may be given swipecard access. 4.5 Photocopying All MPB students are provided with a personal printer code, which will enable you to print/photocopy on MPB printers/copiers. The code will be allocated along with your Medical Physics computer account. The code will allow first-year and second-year students to produce 250 prints/copies per year, and third-year students to produce 500 prints/copies per year. Once the allocation is used, an extension may be requested via your personal tutor (or project supervisor in the third year). However, sufficient justification must be made in order to obtain an extension. Undergraduates are not allowed use of the photocopying machines located within the P&A Department. However, there is a photocopying service (CATS Print Service) available to students sited between the lower-ground of the South Junction and the lower refectory for which copy cards are required. Cards may be Medical Physics & Bioengineering Undergraduate Student Handbook 2008/09 Page 12 purchased from the CATS office and full colour and black and white copiers are available. The machines are fast and reliable and offer a full range of copying services. Staff are always on hand to assist students. There are also photocopiers in the DMS Watson Library. 4.6 Student Physics Society There is a Physics Student Society called Event Horizon, which has associations with the Institute of Physics. It offers social events, arranges lectures by visiting speakers from other Universities, and coordinates visits to external research organisations and industry. A small annual membership fee is payable. 4.7 University College London Union (UCLU) UCL has a very active Students Union located at 25 Gordon Street, adjacent to the Physics Building. There are several bars and coffee shops, a general shop and hairdressing salon within the Union Building. In addition, there are a vast number of societies catering for all tastes and interests. The Union holds a Freshers Fair in the College Cloisters at the beginning of the first term, where all the societies, sports clubs and other Union activities have stalls and provide information. The Union provides basic advice on such things as financial matters, welfare, housing, Council Tax, legal problems, health etc. and there are full-time Sabbatical Officers (current UCL students who take a year break from their studies to administer the Union) on hand to help. The Union runs a Night Line (020-7631-0101) for students who are in trouble or just need to talk to someone during the hours when the College and Union are closed. The Union also has a sports ground at Shenley in Hertfordshire, where the P&A Departmental Staff/Student Cricket Match and Barbecue takes place during the summer term after the examinations. 4.8 University of London Union (ULU) The ULU building is located on Malet Street. You will need a valid Student Identity Card to enter. It contains a multitude of facilities including a swimming pool in the basement and a refectory on the top floor. It is an ideal place to meet students from other Colleges in the University of London. 4.9 The Institute of Physics (IoP) The IoP is the professional body for physicists. Student membership (at a modest cost) brings with it the excellent monthly publication Physics World which contains informative scientific articles as well as news of the Institute’s activities and job opportunities. The IoP is located at 76 Portland Place and offers the use of a library to its members. 5. TEACHING AND LEARNING For all our degree programmes you will be registered for four course units worth of lecture and practical modules each year, which are delivered during terms 1 and 2. The structures of the programmes and individual modules are given in the additional booklet “BSc/MSci Programme Structures”. The following provides an overview of the teaching and learning processes employed by both departments. 5.1 Coursework All lecture modules include a component of continuous assessment. For most modules it counts for between 10% and 20% of the final mark. This component is made up in various ways, including problem sheets, essays, and in one case includes the result of a mid-sessional examination. The marks for continuous assessment contribute to the final grading achieved for modules and hence towards the class of degree attained. When possible, coursework is handed out to a schedule to limit the overloading of students and should consequently be submitted on time. Work submitted late will be marked, but will attract a penalty unless a reasonable excuse is given to the course organiser/lecturer. Coursework problem sheet marks, for example, will be reduced by 10% for each working day that they are received late. Papers may be handed in late up to such time as the solutions are made available, after which they will gain no credit. Coursework should be handed in as stapled sheets bearing your Personal Tutor’s name (as well as your own!). It is our aim to get marked work back to you as quickly as possible (usually via your Personal Tutor, see later.) If you have been unable to hand in work due to illness you should contact the lecturer or your Tutor. Medical Physics & Bioengineering Undergraduate Student Handbook 2008/09 Page 13 Departmental regulations require that a minimum credit of 15% of the maximum mark in the coursework component of modules (unless prevented by illness or other adequate cause for which certification must be provided) is necessary for a student to be regarded as having completed the assessment of this component of a lecture course. IMPORTANT: Failure to reach the minimum level will normally result in a student being denoted as NOT COMPLETE on the module, regardless of the performance in the written examination, and receiving ZERO credit. Grading on practical laboratory modules are based entirely on continuous assessment. Such modules may consist of a combination of experiments recorded in notebook form, selected experiments reported in full detail, some lectures and problem sheets. All constituent parts of a module must be attempted in order that you are considered to have completed the module. Considerable emphasis is placed on developing effective communications skills and it forms an integral part of your training here, accounting for a total of 5% of a B.Sc. degree (and slightly less for the M.Sci. degree) taken in years 1 and 2. Failure to get a good mark in the Communication Skills components could affect your degree classification adversely. 5.2 Text books Each year lecturers recommended books for their lecture course to the P&A Undergraduate Teaching Committee. For the very large courses in first and second years (and sometimes in the third year also) the P&A Department tries to make arrangements to buy sufficient copies of those books at a discount and sell them to students at the discounted price. For courses having a smaller enrolment, it is normal for students to look in either the UCL or Departmental libraries to find the recommended books or buy them from local bookshops such as Waterstones. 5.3 Tutorials You will have two tutors to support you in your studies. First, you will have an MPB Personal Tutor – usually the same person throughout the three or four years of your degree program – with whom you will meet regularly, to discuss, for example, Medical Physics & Bioengineering topics and visit hospital departments and research groups. For first-year students starting in 2008, the MPB tutor will be Dr. Adam Gibson (see section 3.1 above for contact information). Much of the Communications Strand of your degree program will also be supervised by your MPB tutor. In addition, during your first and second years you will have a P&A tutor whose role will be to support you with the P&A modules that you take. During these tutorials you will be able to discuss any problems you encountered with past coursework (essays and problem sheets) and other matters of an academic nature. Marked problem sheets and essays are also returned to you via these tutorials. You will usually have a different P&A tutor each year. You will normally meet with each of your tutors as part of a small group, usually comprising four or five students. Tutorials are also an important opportunity for students to highlight any problems which they may be encountering. Difficulty with a particular module, or problems of a personal nature, can be identified by the tutor and help can be provided. There is a bond of confidentiality between the personal tutor and the tutees, which we aim to respect. 5.4 Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) scheme The idea behind this scheme is that students who have been through a lecture module are often the best people to understand the difficulties that other students have. Each year volunteers are sought from second and third year students to run lunchtime classes three or four times a term to help students with problems on some of the core first-year and second-year modules. The scheme is run by students for students and no staff are present at these sessions. 5.5 Problem classes Most first-year core modules have associated problem class sessions. These were instigated at the request of students some years ago and have proved to be very beneficial. After taking into account timetable constraints, the schedules and groupings of students are posted on the P&A notice boards. Classes, which are normally held on some afternoons of the week, are not assessed, but attendance is mandatory. During these sessions, students attempt problems and two to three teachers are on hand to give assistance. NOTE: Nonattendance at these classes can lead to a course being incomplete on a student’s record, i.e. the course would not have been passed. Medical Physics & Bioengineering Undergraduate Student Handbook 2008/09 Page 14 5.6 Revision Lectures These are normally given early in term 3, shortly before examinations begin. Each lecture module is assigned two periods, when you may ask the lecturer to go over problems or subject areas where difficulties have been encountered. Attendance at these is not mandatory and no new material is covered. Timetables for revision lectures will be issued at the end of term 2. 5.7 Timetables These are available before the start of each term and you will either be given a copy of your timetable or may collect it from room E2 in the P&A Department. A set is also displayed on the P&A Tutors’ notice board between rooms E4 and E6 on the ground floor, and on the P&A website. 5.8 Reading Week For first and second year students only, a Reading Week will be held in term 1. Lectures will not be given, but tutorials and practical classes will continue as normal. Students are strongly advised to use this opportunity to catch up with their work, or broaden their understanding by additional reading or discussion. Please note that other departments in which you may take courses during your time at UCL may have different policies regarding Reading Week. 6. LIBRARY AND COMPUTING RESOURCES 6.1 College Library The College has several libraries and you are strongly advised to find out the whereabouts of these early in your course. The main Science Library is located in the DMS Watson Building, next door to the MPB department in Malet Place. In addition you may wish to visit the Main Library (The Donaldson), which is located under the Dome of the College adjacent to the Flaxman Gallery. You will need to have a valid student identity card to gain access to these libraries and enrol so that you may borrow books. 6.2 P&A Undergraduate Library The P&A Department has a small undergraduate library, housed on the top floor of the P&A building in room A21, which is for use by its own undergraduates. The library carries multiple copies of the course books for first and second year lectures, useful reference books, and some course books for third and fourth year courses. The Library is managed by a member of the academic staff, but staffed by undergraduates who are paid by the P&A Department for this work. Apart from books, it also provides a small area for study and work. A charge of £15 is made to join the Library. This is a once-only fee, normally paid when you first meet the P&A Departmental Tutors, and no other charges are made. This money is used to buy books for the library. Past examination papers for first, second, third, and fourth year Intercollegiate M.Sci. courses are available on the P&A website (www.phys.ucl.ac.uk) under “Teaching”. 6.3 Computing facilities The MPB department has a small undergraduate computer room (room 1.18) located on the first floor. It contains a cluster of networked PCs which can be used for any work-related activities, including report writing and reading emails. To use these machines you will need to use your Medical Physics computer account. Access to room 1.18 requires a key code which is available from your MPB tutor. Within the P&A department there are personal computers available for student use in the teaching laboratories. These are primarily used for the laboratory courses, but can be used for report writing when no laboratory course is being given. (NOTE: In such cases, safety considerations dictate that there must always be a technician or staff member present in the laboratory.) These computers have limited connection to the internet or to other machines distributed around the College. There is also a cluster of networked PCs located in the Asteroid Cluster Room (room A17) for which a valid access password (other than the UCL account ID) is required; this password is obtainable from Professor I. D. Howarth (email: idh@star.ucl.ac.uk). These machines are normally available to final year students for project work. UCL Information Systems manages a large number of computers, which are sited in clusters around the College. Time on these machines must normally be reserved in advance and further information about Medical Physics & Bioengineering Undergraduate Student Handbook 2008/09 Page 15 booking may be obtained from the Information Systems Help Desk located in the basement of the Language Centre Building. To be able to use the College computers you will need an account ID and password, which will be allocated at the beginning of the first Term. The cluster located in room D104/5 of the P&A Department is open from 09:00 to 21:00. This cluster (which is not under the control of P&A, but is under the direct control of the College IT authorities who are responsible for ensuring that it is open by 9 am) is used for class teaching purposes, but outside scheduled times it may be used by individual students without booking. Towards the end of term, when reports and essays become due, College-managed computers tend to be heavily used, so plan well ahead. 6.4 Software College-managed PCs run Windows Terminal Server (WTS) which emulates the Windows XP operating system. A large proportion of the software available is Microsoft in origin. To be compatible with software running on the managed cluster machines, the Departmental laboratory computers have the same main software packages, namely Microsoft Excel and Word, plus other specialist software. The Asteroid Cluster runs the Linux operating system so that certain analysis programs at the Observatory, used by astronomy students, can be accessed. 7. STUDENT FEEDBACK Student feedback concerning the learning process is an extremely important part of the academic monitoring system in both departments. The main formal methods are student course evaluation forms and the StaffStudent Consultative Committees. Verbal feedback direct to Tutors is also important. 7.1 Module Evaluation by Students Every lecture and practical module is assessed by students. Towards the end of the module, questionnaires specifically tailored to the form of teaching are distributed to students about 5 or 10 minutes before a teaching session ends. Instructions are given to the students by the lecturer about the forms and how to fill them in. Volunteers are usually sought to collect all forms and produce an overall summary sheet. Written comments about aspects of the module are also asked for on the forms, which are completely anonymous. The completed forms and summary sheet are handed by the collator to the Teaching Support Co-ordinator, who will then process them for the Undergraduate Teaching Committees in each department and the corresponding Head of Department. Both departments greatly value the feedback from students which in the past has resulted in many positive changes; complete confidentiality is assured. Modifications to modules and their delivery can be made very quickly by action of the chairs of the Undergraduate Teaching Committees. 7.2 Staff-Student Consultative Committees (SSCC) Each department has a Staff-Student Consultative Committee which meets once in each of the first two terms and is a chance for students to bring matters of importance and concern to the attention of each department through elected representatives from each year. Comments made to Personal Tutors can also be passed on by the Programme Tutors. The Minutes of the meetings, which are normally kept by a student representative, are subsequently submitted to the corresponding Undergraduate Teaching Committee (UTC) for its consideration, and posted on notice boards throughout the Department. A representative from the SSCC normally attends UTC meetings. Actions arising from legitimate complaints are acted upon quickly wherever possible. 7.3 Feedback from the general session at Cumberland Lodge One part of the Cumberland Lodge meeting in term 1 (see above) is always a general discussion session, involving all student and staff attendees, covering all aspects of the learning process from first year to postgraduate. It often produces some extremely useful information for the teaching staff, which can be acted upon for the following academic term or session. 7.4 Peer observation of lecturers Observation of individual lecturers by other teachers within both departments is carried out once or twice per lecture module. The Observer attends the lecture, but takes no part in the teaching, and afterwards discusses with the lecturer any bad or good points. Medical Physics & Bioengineering Undergraduate Student Handbook 2008/09 Page 16 8. EXAMINATIONS 8.1 Examination schedule A mid-sessional examination for the first year mathematics module (PHAS1245) is held in the last week of the first term, just before the Christmas break. This examination is designed to give us guidance on students’ progress and to provide students with experience of the style of University examinations. It counts as a small part towards the continuous assessment of that module. The main examination period is during the third term, usually running over a four-week period, typically from week 2. Most examinations are held away from the main College site, so that it is important that you know exactly where and when the examination is being held. Examination timetables for College-based examinations and maps showing the location of the possible examination halls will be available before the end of the second term. These must be collected by candidates from their Departmental Tutor. The timetables also display an important alphanumeric identifier code, unique to each student, which is used to identify your answer paper, as papers are marked anonymously. This timetable must be your constant companion, along with your College ID card, when you attend an examination. Any student who has not received such a timetable at least two weeks’ prior to the start of the examinations period should check immediately with their Tutor and/or the Examinations Section of the Registry. Without it you may be refused entry to an examination. Dates and times of examination are also displayed on Portico and on Departmental notice-boards. Where the use of calculators is permitted in an examination, all students will have to use “standard” calculators in examinations which conform to the College specification. These will not have any text facility nor be able to store, for example, equations. UCL has decreed that, except in certain specified examinations, only the following calculators should be used: (a) Battery-powered CASIO FX 83WA-S, FX83ES, FX83MS, approx. £6.99 (b) Solar-powered CASIO FX85WA-S, FX85ES, FX85MS, approx. £8.99 Both the above calculators are widely available and are sold at the College shop. NOTE: The unauthorised use of calculators during an examination constitutes an examination irregularity. 8.2 How to plan for and survive examinations However carefully all the examinations are planned by the Registrar’s Division, in consultation with all UCL departments, because of the wide range of options, it is impossible to please everyone all of the time. You may find that all your examinations are scheduled close together with no substantial break in between. The important thing is not to panic. Listed below are a few hints, which might make your examination period a little less stressful. Students habitually lose marks in examinations for reasons that have nothing to do with their lack of knowledge of the subject matter. You have studied for a long time (usually a year at least) to do your best in the examination and it would be irrational to throw away credit through lack of common sense. Here is some simple advice to improve your examination performance. Before an examination: check its date, time and location; know how long it will take you to get there; know the format of the paper (how many questions to choose from, how many questions to do, how much time to spend on each, etc.); prepare the required implements (pens, pencils, calculator, etc.); remember your College identification card and exam timetable. Do not take anything into the examination hall which could be misconstrued as helping you in the exam, e.g. small slips of paper with equations written on them, or anything written on your hands. UCL is very determined to eliminate plagiarism and cheating and will certainly act vigorously if such events are detected. You could be removed from the College without ever being allowed to finish your degree studies. Medical Physics & Bioengineering Undergraduate Student Handbook 2008/09 Page 17 At the examination: read the instructions (the rubric) at the head of the paper, taking particular note of: ► the number of questions to be answered; ► whether the paper is in sections, the number of questions to be answered from each section; ► the time to be spent on each question; ► whether or not each new question has to be started on a new page of the answer book. decide which questions you are going to attempt, trying to rank them in order of easiness, and answer them in this order; do all the parts you can of all the questions you decide to answer; if you get completely stuck on part of a question, do not pursue it whilst there are other questions that you know you can answer; you can always come back to the ‘troublemaker’ later, if time permits; most questions are in several parts and each part carries marks – even if you are unable to tackle the whole of a question, always make an attempt to do as much of it as you can and clearly identify which part you are answering; do not write long, rambling essays; examiners will be looking for understanding of a few key points, so list the ones you want to make, and write concisely about them – a single sentence on each key point is often all that is needed; it is unlikely that your handwriting will be at its best under examination conditions, but the examiner cannot give marks for an answer that cannot be deciphered – try to write as clearly as you possibly can; never leave an examination before time is up; even if you have done very little, there may be more marks to be had by polishing and thinking more about the questions; if you are in danger of running out of time, quickly sketch a skeleton of the answer you would have given; it may earn you a few more marks. All the above may seem very obvious. Nevertheless, year after year failure to observe these few commonsense guidelines leads some students to doing worse than they are capable of and in some cases to fail. Make sure you are not among them. 8.3 Withdrawal from Examinations and interruptions in study To withdraw from an examination you need to complete the appropriate form and obtain signed approval of MPB Department and Faculty tutors. Such approval may only be given on medical grounds or following the death of a near relative or other cause acceptable to the College authorities and provided certification is given to the MPB Department. Once approval has been granted you will not be regarded as having made an entry to the examination and may resit in the following session without penalty (see resits below). NOTE: If you are considering withdrawing, you must discuss the matter with the appropriate Departmental Tutor. Of course a withdrawal from an examination may impede your progression into the next year. Students with major health problems, or personal or financial difficulties may apply for an “interruption in study”, which normally also means that the student is withdrawn from all exams for that academic session. The student may resume at a later date subject to the resolution of the problem, normally supported by medical reports etc. 8.4 Problems due to illness If you are ill immediately prior to an examination it is essential that you inform your MPB Tutor. If you are unable to sit the examination through illness or other grave personal circumstances and supply documentary evidence it may be possible to apply for deferred assessment. Applications must be made within a week of the end of the examination period on the appropriate form to your Departmental Tutor for approval by the Faculty Tutor. All medical matters are treated confidentially. Deferred assessments are not permitted in your graduating year. Absence from exams on compassionate grounds are treated in a similar manner. This type of assessment will normally be carried out in the summer vacation (see section 9.2). If you sustain an injury such that you are unable to write, it may be possible for you to be supplied with an amanuensis, someone who will write down your answers to examination questions as you dictate. Several things should be borne in mind before you decide that an amanuensis is the way forward: a) the amanuensis must take down exactly what you say, even if it is wrong; b) you may be awarded extra examination time. Alternatively, if your medical condition means you are capable of writing slowly, you may prefer to be assessed by Student Health and be allowed to sit the examination under medical supervision. Although you Medical Physics & Bioengineering Undergraduate Student Handbook 2008/09 Page 18 will be given no extra time for the exam, you will be allowed breaks when the clock will be stopped and then started again after you resume writing. If you are taken ill during an examination you may be taken to Student Health together with your examination paper. This means that if you recover sufficiently to be able to continue, you can do so under medical supervision. If you decide that, despite feeling ill, you still want to sit the examination, you will be allowed to leave, temporarily, the examination hall under supervision. You will not be allowed any extra time, although a note of your absences from the examination hall will be made on the formal notification to the Registry. Please ensure that you are accompanied at all times if you do, temporarily, leave the examination hall. 8.5 Problems due to late arrival or absence If you arrive less than half-an-hour late you will be allowed to enter the examination hall and to sit the examination but you will not be given any extra time and MUST finish at the same time as the other candidates sitting the paper. If you arrive after the first half-an-hour but before the end of the examination you will not be allowed to sit in the examination hall but will be sent to report to your Departmental Tutor without delay. Normally you will be allowed to sit the paper in the Department but 30 minutes will be deducted from the time allowed. You will be asked to give a written explanation for your late arrival. If you arrive at the Department AFTER the time for the normal end of the examination you will NOT be allowed to sit the paper. 8.6 Resits of examinations and Repeats of year Students who at a first attempt do not successfully pass a module may re-enter normally on not more than ONE occasion provided the original or a strictly comparable module is being examined. Such a re-entry must be made at the next available opportunity. If you are unsuccessful at the re-sit examination, application must be made to the College for special permission to be re-examined on one further occasion. Normally, if a module is passed on re-sit, the “failed mark” is replaced by the average of the module mark obtained at resit and the pass mark in the algorithm for computing your overall average mark for the year (see degree classification below). If there were extenuating circumstances (e.g. medical conditions) for the earlier failure that have been accepted by your Programme Tutor, the full module mark may be used. Repeats of year are possible if the normal year progression criteria are not met (see below). Normally this is undertaken as a part-time student, and involves registration for up to two course units (half the normal load). Alternatively, resit exams can be taken without attendance at College; effectively the student takes a year out. If you are permitted to repeat all or part of a year you may substitute up to two half-units for original noncore modules failed or not examined. No more than two half-units may be substituted in this way over your entire degree programme. However, you will normally only be allowed ONE attempt at the examination in the new modules, i.e. no resit of a substitution is allowed. 8.7 Dyslexia If you have been clinically diagnosed as suffering from dyslexia you will be allowed extra time during examinations – usually an extra 10 minutes per hour. However, it is vitally important that your Tutor is made aware that you are dyslexic at least 3 months before the examination period, so that certain administrative documentation can be produced to ensure that the Examinations Section of the Registry are aware of your needs. Examinations taken by dyslexic students are held centrally in a room on the College campus. 8.8 Plagiarism The following are extracts from the “UCL Student Handbook”, prepared by the Registrar’s Division. “Plagiarism is defined as the presentation of another person’s thoughts or words or artefacts or software as though they were a student’s own. Any quotation from the published or unpublished works of other persons must, therefore, be clearly identified as such by being placed in side quotation marks, and students should identify their sources as accurately and fully as possible .A series of short quotations from several different sources, if not clearly identified as such, constitutes plagiarism just as much as does a single unacknowledged long quotation from a single source.” Medical Physics & Bioengineering Undergraduate Student Handbook 2008/09 Page 19 “Where part of an examination consists of ‘take away’ papers, essays or other work written in a student’s own time, or a course work assessment, the work submitted must be the candidate’s own.” Plagiarism constitutes an “examination offence under the University regulations and will normally be treated as cheating or irregularities under the regulations for Proceedings in respect of Examination Irregularities. Under these Regulations students found to have committed an offence may be excluded from all further examinations of the University or of the College or of both.” The following is taken directly from a handout entitled “How NOT to fail your Degree” produced by N. Hayes and R. Muid from the UCL Department of Pharmacology (2006), but is also applicable to other UCL departments. “What does this mean in practice for you, as a student in this Department? It means you CANNOT do the following: • • • • • • • • Cut and paste from electronic journals, websites or other sources to create a piece of work. Use someone else’s work as your own. Recycle essays or practical work of other people or your own (this is self plagiarism). Employ a professional ghostwriting firm or anyone else to produce work for you. Produce a piece of work based on someone else's ideas without citing them. You CAN do the following: You can quote from sources providing you use quotation marks and cite the source (this includes websites). You can paraphrase (take information from a piece of work and rewrite it in a new form) but you must still mention the source. In the case of joint work (e.g. a group project) individuals may use the same data, but the interpretation and conclusions derived from that data must be their own. It doesn’t matter if you didn’t mean to plagiarise; at UCL any form of plagiarism is an offence which will be punished. Ignorance is not an excuse.” Note that inclusion of the above section in this Handbook is not plagiarism by us, as it has been enclosed in quotes and fully attributed to someone else in another UCL department. That is allowed! The most common form of plagiarism consists of downloading large sections of essays from the internet without including the necessary quotation marks or specific references. When teaching staff mark written work such as an essay or report, they often check for web-plagiarism. Students should note that UCL has now signed up to use a sophisticated detection system (known as Turn-It-In ®) to scan work for evidence of plagiarism, and the MPB and P&A departments intend to use this for assessed coursework. This system gives access to billions of sources worldwide, including websites and journals, as well as work previously submitted to both departments, UCL, and other universities. The MPB and P&A departments also consider the undisclosed “borrowing” of the results of laboratory experiments from other students in order to write up a detailed report on an experiment that has not been fully completed to be especially serious in that the whole practical module is judged by continuous assessment. If you work in a partnership with someone on an experiment or a group you may all use the same data obviously but it is expected that any report you produce will be in your own words and your own layout. Just changing the odd word here and there is not sufficient to avoid being very heavily penalized for plagiarism. It is educationally very healthy if students discuss their course material and problems with each other, but the mere copying of coursework without contributing to the dialogue serves little purpose in either understanding the subject matter or preparing a student for examinations. Again, the writing-up of coursework solutions must be done independently in your own fashion. Markers are particularly good at spotting identical patterns of errors (such as accidental typographical errors) occurring in courseworks, which is often the consequence of blind copying. Cases of suspected cheating are first investigated by a Departmental Disciplinary Panel. In accordance with the Examination Regulations, all serious cases must then be passed on to the College Registry, which will decide whether the case should be dealt with at the College or Departmental level. Penalties that can be Medical Physics & Bioengineering Undergraduate Student Handbook 2008/09 Page 20 imposed by the College can be very serious - students do get expelled and do not complete their degrees - as outlined by the Registrar’s Division at the start of this section. Students should be aware that a future employer requiring references about a student, normally seeks information from a Tutor regarding a student’s “honesty and integrity”. It is impossible to give a good reference for any student who has been caught resorting to plagiarism of any kind. 9. ASSESSMENT AND PROGRESSION IN THE DEGREE The pass mark for modules and progression rules from year to year changed in 2005/6. This arose from a College wide harmonisation scheme being implemented. (This section of the Handbook is rather complex). For all students, new and returning, from the session 2006/7 onwards, the pass mark for modules is 40%. For lecture modules, a continuous assessment mark from courseworks is combined with that obtained in the written examination to determine your final mark for each module. A final change to be implemented from the start of the 2008/9 session will be that the pass mark in the M.Sci. fourth year will be 50%. 9.1 Examination results Preliminary examination results emerge in late June after the P&A and MPB Boards of Examiners have met to ratify the results. (The results must also be ratified by the FES and MAPS Faculties and the College Board of Examiners before they are final.) The relevant Departmental Tutor will inform students of their progression in their degree. Confirmed marks will be released in late July through the PORTICO website by the Registry after full ratification of the results has occurred. Students can access this website using their UCL computing username and password. 9.2 September Referrals and Deferred Assessments Students who fail a lecture course exam may be offered the chance of a September referral, provided a mark of between 30% and 39% has been obtained overall and at least 30% has been obtained on the written examination. A referral consists of work performed during the summer vacation in the form of answering all of the questions on the failed exam paper. (Books and notes may be used in this task). Answers are marked by a set date and at a prearranged time and date in September you will have a half-hour long interview with two examiners, one of whom is normally the lecturer. This interview will determine if you have understood the work done over the summer. If this proves to be the case then the examiners will recommend that the Fail result be converted to a Pass at 40%. You are not allowed to count more than one unit passed on referral (i.e. two lecture modules) to the total units needed to progress to the next year of study. If you have been given permission for a deferred assessment, usually granted for documented medical reasons, this assessment will normally be carried out in a similar way to referrals except that a one hour interview will be held. Deferred assessments of students will normally be concluded before the start of the next session. No more than four units for the B.Sc., and six for the M.Sci. degree may be taken by deferred assessment during the period of study for these degrees, with a maximum of three units in any one year. 9.3 Yearly progression and degree classification In order to satisfy College requirements for the award of a B.Sc. degree, twelve course units must be completed of which eleven must be passed. For the award of an M.Sci. degree, sixteen course units must be completed of which fourteen must be passed (14.5 for students entering the fourth year in 2008/09). In view of this, the appropriate Faculty Tutor will not allow progression into the second year of the course unless you have passed at least 3.5 units in year 1, while the transfer from year 2 to year 3 requires seven or more units in 2006/7. Exceptions are only made if there are serious mitigating circumstances. A B.Sc. degree normally requires passing at least three advanced units in the final year of the programme, whereas an M.Sci. normally requires passes in 1.5 units of project work with passes in three advanced units in the final year of the programme (and three at masters level for those who entered at 2005/6 or later). In the algorithm used to calculate class of degree, the mean year mark for all years for entrants before 2005/6 is computed by weighting the best six half-units equally and half-weighting the other two. For new entrants in 2005/6 and onward the scheme differs. In year 1 the best four half-units will be weighted equally and the Medical Physics & Bioengineering Undergraduate Student Handbook 2008/09 Page 21 worst four half-weighted. In year 2 and year 3 the best six are weighted equally and the worst two halfweighted. In year 4 all half-units will be weighted equally. The final honours classification is then determined by the weighted mean of a student’s performance for each year, the weighting factors being 1:3:5 for the three-year B.Sc. degree, and 1:3:5:5 for the M.Sci. degree. Students entering the fourth year in 2007/08 will use the 1:3:4:4 weighting scheme. The award of honours is then determined as follows: Degree Class First Upper Second Lower Second Third Weighted Mean ≥70% 60-69.9% 50-59.9% 40-49.9% Students who fail to meet the criteria for an Honours degree will, if they have passed 10 and completed 11 units with at least two at advanced (year 3) level, be considered for the award of an Ordinary (unclassified) degree. Borderline cases are reviewed at the final MPB Examination Board Meeting when relevant information, including performance in all units, may be taken into account. You should make sure that your Departmental Tutor is aware of any mitigating circumstance which may have affected your performance in exams or work throughout the year. You will be required to provide written documentation supporting your claim. These matters will not be discussed openly at the Examination Board Meeting. Students who present mitigating circumstances should be aware that allowances made are almost always marginal, and important only to those students near borderlines. 9.4 M.Sci. progression rules The following are additional criteria which are normally applied for determining progression to the third and fourth years of an M.Sci. programme. Before confirmation of entry to the third year of an M.Sci. programme, a student should have been awarded at least seven course units, with a weighted mark of at least 50%, as compounded from all available elements of the first and second year work. If the criteria are not satisfied the student is allowed to re-register on the relevant B.Sc. programme. Before confirmation of entry to the fourth year of an MSci programme, a student must have: • • • • Registered on a four-year degree course at least before the end of term 2 in year 3; Followed the third year of a four-year M.Sci. programme; Been awarded at least eleven course units, which should normally include all core courses; Achieved a weighted mark of at least 55%, as compounded from all assessable elements of the first, second, and third years work. If you do not fulfil the required criteria to proceed at the end of the third year, you will be considered for graduation with the award of a B.Sc. Honours degree. Note that, unless there are medical or other extenuating circumstances, you are not allowed to resit third year units in order to meet these criteria. 10. PRIZES At the end of each academic year outstanding performances of undergraduates can be rewarded by being nominated for receipt of a prize from the College and the P&A Department. The prize-giving ceremony is very informal and usually takes place in the P&A Department in the last week of the First Term (Christmas). Prizes are normally awarded in the form a cheque which may be used for any purpose. First Year OLIVER LODGE PRIZE – £50 Second Year WOOD PRIZE – £75 C. A. R. TAYLER PRIZE – £25 Best performance 2nd year Physics Best 2nd year essay Best performance 1st year Physics Medical Physics & Bioengineering Undergraduate Student Handbook 2008/09 Page 22 DAVID PONTER PRIZE – £75 CORRIGAN PRIZE – £50 First or Second Years ADDITIONAL SESSIONAL PRIZE – £30 Third Year SESSIONAL PRIZE – £75 Fourth Year BURHOP PRIZE – £100 BRIAN DUFF MEMORIAL PRIZE – £75 WILLIAM BRAGG PRIZE – £150 CASTILLEJO PRIZE - £100 Most improved 2nd year performance Best 2nd year experimental work (Award criteria redefined each session) Best Performance 3rd year Physics Best performance 4th year Physics Best 4th year project Best overall undergraduate Best overall Joint Maths-Physics/Astronomy In addition to the above prizes, following the recommendation of the Chairs of the Examination Board Meetings in June each year, and subject to approval by the External Examiners, an outstanding graduating student may be nominated for the MAPS or FES Faculty Prizes and/or the Granville Prize which is awarded to the best Physics graduate in the University of London. Each year the MPB offers an additional £50 prize for the best performance by a final-year Medical Physics student (which includes students enrolled in B.Sc., M.Sci., and Intercalated B.Sc. degree programmes). 11. Data Protection Act The Data Protection Act (1998) states than an individual has the right to see any personal information held about them by any organization, and to stop information about them being published without their permission. When you enrol in the Registrar’s Division you will be asked to sign an enrolment form which contains a clause for Data Protection allowing UCL to hold your personal information “for the purposes of administering your student life”. When you become a user of the UCL information technology (IT) system you will sign a disclaimer, in the contract, agreeing that UCL may hold information about you for this purpose, and that UCL may monitor your use of IT equipment. In order for both departments to comply with the requirements of the Data Protection Act, we will ask you to sign a disclaimer agreeing to the ways in which the departments will use and publish such information. Please ensure that you read the letter carefully and return it, signed, without delay at the start of the new Academic Year. Medical Physics & Bioengineering Undergraduate Student Handbook 2008/09 Page 23 APPENDIX I PORTICO – The UCL Student Information Service. The following section has been supplied by the UCL Registry. “UCL has recently introduced a new Student System which is known as PORTICO – The UCL Student Information Service. Access to PORTICO is available to everyone across UCL – both staff and students alike – via the website www.ucl.ac.uk/portico. You will need to logon using your UCL user ID and password, which are issued to you once you have enrolled. These are the same as the ones used for accessing UCL restricted web pages, UCL email and the Windows Terminal Service (WTS). If you do not know them, you should contact the Information System Helpdesk as soon as possible (www.ucl.ac.uk/is/helpdesk). Please remember that passwords automatically expire after 150 days, unless they have been changed. Warnings are sent to your UCL email address during a 30 day period, prior to your password being reset. You can read your UCL email on the web at: You can change your password on the web at: www.webmail.ucl.ac.uk . www.ucl.ac.uk/is/passwords/changepw.htm. Passwords cannot be issued over the phone unless you are registered for the User Authentication Service (see www.ucl.ac.uk/is/helpdesk/authenticate/). We strongly advise that you register for this service. If you have not registered for the User Authentication Service you will need to visit the IS Helpdesk in person or ask them to post a new password to your registered home or term-time address. More information can be found at www.ucl.ac.uk/is/helpdesk/. As a student you can take ownership of your own personal data by logging on to PORTICO. In PORTICO you can: • • • • Edit your own personal data, e.g. update your home and term addresses, contact numbers and other elements of your personal details; Complete online module registration, i.e. select the modules you would like to study, in accordance with the rules for your programme of study (subject to formal approval and sign off by the relevant teaching department and your parent department); View data about courses/modules, i.e. information on courses/modules available either in your home department or elsewhere to help you choose your optional modules/electives; View your own examination results online. Any continuing student requiring official confirmation of their results, or any graduating student requiring additional copies of their transcript, should refer to the information for obtaining an official transcript at www.ucl.ac.uk/registry/current/examinations/transcripts/ . If you have any comments or suggestions for PORTICO then please email: portico_web_feedback@ucl.ac.uk . On-line module registration for most students in years 2, 3 and 4. This facility enables you to choose your modules in accordance with the rules for your programme of study. This is not necessary for first year students, only students in later years where optional modules have to be chosen. Note that Portico does not yet include timetabling information, so you should check with the teaching department concerned to ensure that your choice of any optional/elective module does not clash with any of your other modules/classes. In addition, many departments have specific procedures for approving module selections/signing students up so you should ensure that you familiarise yourself with these. You can access the Module Selection screen in Portico via the option “Select your modules/course components” in the Student Academic Details container. Clicking on this option opens the following screen: Medical Physics & Bioengineering Undergraduate Student Handbook 2008/09 Page 24 The top of the screen shows any compulsory modules which you have to take. To complete the module registration process you should select any optional/elective modules as listed at the bottom of the screen. Clicking on the “Select” button next to the appropriate rule, which will open the optional/elective selection screen. Selection screen – optional modules If the rule specifies choosing a module from a defined list (an optional module), you will be presented with a screen as follows: Click in the “Select” box next to the appropriate module to choose the module(s) you wish to take. To view further details about the module, click on the module name. The rule in the header above the list of modules states how many modules/credits you should choose. You must enter the correct number and then click on the “Submit Selections” button to return to the main screen. To return to the main screen without submitting any selections, click on the “Cancel Selection” button. Medical Physics & Bioengineering Undergraduate Student Handbook 2008/09 Page 25 Selection screen – elective modules If the rule specifies choosing “any undergraduate module” or “any postgraduate module” (an elective module, subject to approval), clicking on the “Select” button next to the appropriate rule on the main screen will open the following screen: As with the optional module selection screen, the rule in the header will state how many modules/credits you should choose. You should input the appropriate module code(s) in the module box and insert an “A” in the “Occ” (Occurrence) field. Alternatively, you can use the “Search” button to find a module. Use the “Submit Selections” button to enter the modules, or the “Cancel selections” button to return to the main screen without submitting anything. Validation/Confirmation of selections Once you have completed all of your selections, ensure that they comply with any “Overarching rule” indicated in the “Overarching” column on the main screen and then click on the “Submit Selections” button on the main screen. Once you have submitted your selections, you will be presented with a final screen, where you can either undo your last change or you can confirm your selections by clicking on the “Confirm Selections” button. Note that once you have clicked on this button you cannot go back – you will then need to contact your Programme Tutor to make any amendments to your selections. Following your confirmation, you will be presented with a screen that confirms you have completed the module registration process, listing the modules you have selected. All of your selections are subject to the approval of the teaching department for the module and your parent department. You will receive an automatic email to your UCL email address if any of your selections are rejected and you must ensure that you respond to this by contacting your Programme Tutor, whom you should also contact if you wish to amend a selection at any time. You can check on the approval status for each of your modules by clicking on the “View Module Selection status” option in your Student Academic Details container. Any continuing student requiring official confirmation of their results, or any graduating student requiring additional copies of their transcript, should refer to the information for obtaining an official transcript at http://www.ucl.ac.uk/registry/current/examinations/transcripts/.”