The 20-point Common Reporting Scale
Updated on: 5 March 2025
Understand the University’s grading scale and the type of grading applied to modules when students have special circumstances.
The University uses a 20-point Common Reporting Scale to calculate module grades.
One decimal point is included in the calculation of final grades.
Some academic Schools use a different scale for marking and a conversion procedure is applied to produce a grade on the 20-point scale after a student completes a module. Schools that use a different scale will publish their procedures for marking and for conversion of marks to final grades in their module or School handbooks, or both.
Special circumstances
The University can make changes to the final module grades of students with special circumstances by applying one of the following policies:
S-coding
Adjustments can be made to a final grade in an Honours module due to special circumstances. This is not available for 1000- or 2000-level modules, except for students in the BA International Honours programme.
When S-coding is applied to a module result of:
- ‘Pass’ – the credits are retained, but the grade may be excluded from the degree classification calculation.
- ‘Fail’ – the student may get another opportunity to complete the assessment. This will be treated in the same way as the original assessment.
Requesting S-coding
To request S-coding, students must submit an application to the Director of Teaching of the relevant School as soon as possible.
A request to apply S-coding to grades after they have been published is known as a ‘retrospective request’. This can only be granted in exceptional cases at the discretion of the Assistant Vice-Principal (AVP) Dean of Learning and Teaching, and their decision is final.
There are limits on how many credits can be S-coded in a degree programme.
For more information, read the S-coding guidance.
V-coding
In exceptional circumstances module grades received in a semester or a year can be invalidated as if modules were never taken.
Affected modules are marked with a V instead of a number.
Students cannot request V-coding. It may only be offered by the Proctor or delegate when all other academic options have been exhausted and the circumstances are judged to be serious enough.