Departments and faculties have responsibilities for investigating matters that run alongside examining processes, primarily for undertaking mark checks and for investigating academic misconduct that arises through coursework or other other forms of assessment.
Mark checks
The Examination Review Procedure requires all Departments or Faculties to provide a 'mark check' process. This is a requirement of the external ombudsman, the Office of the Independent Adjudicator.
The mark check process can be carried out in whatever way that the Department or Faculty considers most appropriate, this might require the student to submit an application or for the College Tutor or Director of Studies to approach the Department or Faculty in the first instance. The mark check process should be advertised to students and it must enable the student to:
- check that their marks on individual questions/papers have been added up correctly
- ensure all of their answer booklets etc have been marked by the examiners
- check that any reasonable adjustments relating to the marking of their assessments have been put in place
It is likely to be in everyone's interest to put a time limit on requesting a mark check - this should be a reasonable amount of time, whilst the Department or Faculty still has access to the necessary records.
Investigating plagiarism and other forms of academic misconduct
The University has synthesised all of the relevant guidance for Departments and Faculties on investigating plagiarism and other forms of academic misconduct into one document 'Staff guidance document - Suspected academic misconduct'.
If any Department or Faculty wishes to have any procedural advice then you can contact the Office of Student Conduct, Complaints & Appeals (OSCCA) at oscca@admin.cam.ac.uk. A member of OSCCA can also attend investigation meetings in order to give procedural advice.