Academic Unit Assessment Committees

Terms of Reference

Procedures for meetings of Assessment Committees for courses delivered in Australia are set out in the Assessment Committee Guidelines, which require that proper records of decisions are kept and due process followed.

Academic Unit Assessment Committees shall:

1. Be responsible for oversight of assessment processes and procedures within the Academic Unit.

2. Advise the Head of Unit on the final mark for each student in a subject, following due process and exercising academic judgement by:

3. • reviewing the results of assessment of each student and the grade distribution for each subject before transmission to the Faculty Assessment Committee;

   • ensuring that any modification or scaling of marks has been applied systematically and consistently; and

   • ensuring that the marks presented to the Faculty Assessment Committee for determination and declaration properly reflect the levels of performance of individual students.

4. Recommend the award of class of Honours.

5. Advise the Head of Unit of matters of concern and interest for appropriate action.

The Chair of the Unit Assessment Committee shall be responsible, in consultation with Committee members, when and as appropriate, for reviewing all exam papers set within the Academic Unit to ensure that the requirements set out in section 5.4.2 of the Code of Practice - Teaching and Assessment are satisfied.
Note: Where no Unit Assessment Committee exists in a faculty, the responsibilities above are to be fulfilled by the Faculty Assessment Committee.

Membership

The Academic Unit Assessment Committee shall consist of:

• the Head of the Academic Unit (or nominee with delegated authority) as Chair

• all full time and fractional members of the academic staff within the Academic Unit who have taught during the session

• other academic staff members who have substantially contributed to teaching and assessment of a subject offered by the Academic Unit, as determined by the Head

• academic staff from Academic Units external to the Faculty or from another University, as determined by the Chair

The Committee shall have a quorum as specified in either (i) or (ii) below, whichever is larger:

(i) five coordinators of subjects offered by the Academic Unit during the session; or

(ii) one half of the coordinators of subjects offered by the Academic Unit during the session or, where one half is not a whole number, the next higher whole number.