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The learning that you do while a student at Exeter is about much more than the assessments. We design our modules to engage and interest you in a subject, and we hope that your experience in classrooms (on campus and virtual), group work meetings and via independent study is positive and rewarding. The critical skills, knowledge and understanding that you develop throughout your course will allow you to explore and reassess your place in the world, and to help shape the choices you make in the future in your working and personal lives.

Our diverse international community of faculty and students means that you will experience a wide range of teaching and learning styles, opinions, and resources. Although we have clear policies and guidance (set out in our Teaching Quality Assurance Manual) we encourage our faculty to develop innovative approaches to teaching, learning and assessment that draw on the latest pedagogical research, and that make the best use of new technologies and individual expertise. This means that no two modules will take the same approach or assess in the same way; you will need to be ready to be flexible and adaptable in your approach to study and assessment. It’s no coincidence that these skills are highly sought-after by your future employers.

Formal assessments in the Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences check whether you have met all of the ‘Intended Learning Objectives’ (ILOs) of a module. You can find these in module descriptions and handbooks, and they are specific to each module that you take. Your tutors will explain these clearly to you throughout their teaching, and you will receive careful guidance on exactly what is expected of you in each assessment, whether it’s by exam or coursework. If you are ever not sure about something, please just ask!

Types of assessment

Your achievement of learning objectives within modules will be measured via a variety of different assessment types. We embrace innovation and creativity in the HASS Faculty when it comes to researching and developing new approaches to teaching, learning and assessment. You may find you'll be asked to demonstrate your learning in more ways that just traditional essays and exams.

Using the arrows or blue bar below, click through the slides to take a look at some of the commonly used assessment types across our modules:


Submitting coursework 

Your module tutors will advise you on how to submit coursework assignments, as this can vary between different types of assessment. Always leave plenty of time to submit your work – computer or printer issues are not accepted as reasons for late submission.

If you haven’t already been granted mitigation, a late assignment will incur mark penalties, as outlined in the Table of Late Penalties. You’ll receive an email when your assignment feedback is available.

Exams

On most of our programmes, exams usually take place during two main periods. The provisional dates are as below, please for updates and further information, check the Exams and Assessment web page:

  • Saturday 4 January 2025 – Saturday 11 January 2025
  • Monday 28 April 2025 - Saturday 31 May 2025
  • Referred and deferred exams take place from Saturday 9 August - Monday 18 August 2025.

If your course has mid-term exams your module tutors will let you know the dates via classes and ELE pages.

You will receive a notification from the Exams Office when your timetable is ready to access via 'MyTimetable'. It sounds obvious, but please make sure that your device is set to the correct UK time (GMT or BST depending on the time of year) when you view the timings in order for them to be accurate. In the past we have had students miss their exams because mistakes with this! British Summer Time ends on Sunday 27 October 2024 (when the clocks go back one hour to GMT) and we return to BST on Sunday 30 March 2025 (when the clocks go forward one hour).

Further information about exams can be found on the University Exams and Assessment website.

If you require any specific exam provisions, such as extra time or computer use due to a disability you must arrange a meeting with the AccessAbility team to have an Individual Learning Plan (ILP) put in place. Appointments can be booked on the Wellbeing webpages. There are deadlines by which you should have this meeting, to ensure you plan is ready for your exams: please click on the 'deadlines' link above to check.

If you are unable to take exams on certain dates due to religious observances, you need to complete a form on the Religious Observance webpages by Friday 18 October for January exams, January 24 for May exams, and 27 June for August exams.

Please don’t assume that any provisions you had at school or college will automatically be put in place at University.

Mitigation

If you feel illness or other adverse personal circumstances may affect your ability to undertake an assessment, you may be able to apply for mitigation. This does not include IT issues (e.g. lost work or poor internet connections), so please back up your work at all times.

For coursework assignments (not exams), you can have an evidence-free extension of 72 hours (3 days).

This option is available once per assessment. You can use it up to four times over a rolling 12 month period; any further extensions required after this must be applied for through the evidence-based process detailed below.

If you need an assessment extension of more than 72 hours and/or if you’ve used all four evidence-free extensions, you need to apply for evidence-based Mitigation. Individual lecturers or tutors are not able to grant mitigation or extensions. You must submit mitigation requests within 24 hours after the assessment deadline.

It is very important that you are familiar with the mitigation process from the beginning of your time with us, so that if you find yourself in a position to need it, you are able to comply with the tight restrictions around when you can apply. You can find out more on the mitigation webpage.

To apply for mitigation you need to complete the online mitigation form available on the University's mitigation website. All mitigation will be treated as confidential.

You can also get advice on mitigation via email.

Last modified: Friday, 30 May 2025, 5:18 PM