Residential Schools Policy
The Faculty policy on residential schools for external students is to allow individual Schools to determine their own approach/es in terms of the type/s of residential schools they set, if any, within the framework established by University policy as approved by Academic Board. Schools must operate in a manner consistent with this over-arching policy and should also take note of the following issues as determined by the Faculty.
- Schools should consider the implications of their approach/es to residential Schools in terms of not placing overly restrictive barriers on access to award/degree programs.
- Any administrative implications arising from the approach/es to residential schools taken by the School is the responsibility of the School itself and not the Faculty administration. This includes monitoring of attendance registers for compulsory residential schools, processing exemption requests, and any other administrative action which arises from the School's approach/es to residential schools.
- In terms of Faculty programs being delivered offshore by distance education, whether or not face-to-face teaching is regarded as necessary in particular courses is a matter of academic judgement, as is the question of whether any residential or other schools should be provided by Faculty academic staff or could be provided offshore by suitable local teachers. However, Faculty academic staff should seriously consider the necessity for schools, and options available for alternative methods of delivery, particularly in relation to the needs and capacities of stand-alone offshore students enrolled via external mode.
- Unit coordinators are responsible for ensuring that all external students enrolled in units with optional schools are fully informed, via the study guide or otherwise, of the material to be covered in the school and the nature of the teaching methods to be used in the school. However, there is no requirement for students who choose not to attend an optional school to be given additional material or additional assessment tasks.
- Where students are given exemption from a compulsory school, unit coordinators should ensure that these students receive information on the coverage of the school in advance and should respond to reasonable requests for any additional materials (eg, lecture notes) which are distributed at the school. However, the unit coordinator is under no obligation to supply additional materials (eg, to write and distribute special lecture notes) to students who are exempted from attendance.
- Where an assessment task is conducted at a compulsory residential school, students who are given exemption from the school should be told in advance of any substitute assessment tasks or modifications to the assessment formula.
- Non-attendance at an optional school or exemption from a compulsory school should have no direct impact on a student's final assessment in the unit. However, students should be told in advance (in the study guide) of the pedagogic benefits of any scheduled school and the disadvantages to a student of non-attendance.
Approved by Faculty on 19 March 1999