• You should familiarise yourself with the layout of the Ian Wand Building and other buildings you use regularly and ensure that you know the location of emergency exits. When the fire alarm sounds you must vacate the building quickly and calmly (without running). If you are in a taught session, follow the instructions of the person in charge; if you are working in the laboratories, do not wait to be told what to do, simply leave the room and follow the emergency exit signs to exit the building. Please proceed to Fire Assembly Point 43. It is up to you to leave the building as quickly and safely as possible and make your way to the Fire Assembly Point.
• The Fire Assembly Point for the Department of Computer Science is located in the middle of Academic Square (between the Ian Wand building, Law & Sociology, School of Arts and Creative Technologies: East and Catalyst buildings).
• If you discover a fire please do not use fire extinguishers, evacuate to the nearest Fire Assembly Point and raise the fire alarm.
• Any individuals with decreased mobility, for whatever reason, who would not be able to exit the Ian Wand Building, unaided, without using the lift, within 2 minutes, must have a Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan (PEEP). This applies even temporarily for conditions like a broken leg. If you think you may require a PEEP assessment please contact andrew.firth@york.ac.uk in the first instance.
• Once you have evacuated the building, do not re-enter it until given permission to do so by a fire marshal. Fire Officers often ask for the alarm to be switched off whilst they investigate the cause of the alarm, therefore, the alarm stopping is not a sign that you can safely return.

The fire alarms in the Ian Wand Building are tested each Monday morning at approximately 8:45am, lasting approximately 20 seconds. When the alarm sounds briefly at this time, it is not necessary to evacuate the building.

Security

If you are working in the Department outside office hours, it is in your own interest to contact Security (01904 324444, or 4444 from a campus phone) immediately if you are suspicious or concerned about any strangers seen in the building.

Additionally, panic alarm buttons are located on the walls close to the windows in the software labs or on the internal walls near doors - if pressed these will automatically alert Security to a problem.

You can also get help on campus with a simple tap on your phone by installing the SafeZone app. You'll have access to Campus Safety 24/7 and will also receive any critical notifications from the University.

The Student Handbooks are your 'go-to' documents for everything you need to know about your course.

The Handbooks are created in Google Docs format. We recommend that you add the appropriate handbook to your 'starred' list of documents in your Google Drive, so that you can access it quickly and easily.

If you have any questions about the content in your Student Handbook, please contact cs-ug-admin@york.ac.uk (for undergraduate students) or cs-pgt-admin@york.ac.uk (for postgraduate taught students)

• Read the Student Handbook for undergraduate students
• Read the Student Handbook for on-campus postgraduate taught (MSc) students

From the start of academic year 2023/24, the University moved from three terms to two semesters.

• Read more about semesters and what this means for you

Here in Computer Science, you can use the spaces in the Pod and on the first floor balcony. You don't need to book these space, and they're available for everyone to use on a 'first come, first served' basis.

If you need to use one of the PCs in our Software Labs, then head to CSE/069&070 on the ground floor. This lab is usually available to use, if there is no teaching or other events taking place in there.

Across the University campus, there are over 1000 study spaces, with a variety of different environments to suit your preferences.

• Read more about the University's study spaces

In the first instance, take a look at the Year in Industry section on the student pages.

If you have any further questions, send an email to our specialist Placement Team, Luke Bryant and Harriet Leaf.

• Contact the Computer Science Placements Team: email cs-placements@york.ac.uk

The University's Centre for Global Programmes manages incoming and outgoing study abroad opportunities. The team aims to provide every York student with the chance to have an international experience, whether this is for a full academic year, or for a shorter period of time.

Study abroad opportunities are available to both undergraduate and postgraduate taught (MSc students)

• Find out more about the opportunities to study abroad

Elective modules are those offered by departments to students from outside that department. 

Departments identify non-compulsory modules within each of their programmes that a student may replace with elective modules. The number of modules that may be replaced in this way cannot normally amount to more than 40 credits. 

It is important to note that it may not always be possible to grant your request to undertake an elective module because of timetabling or other constraints.

• Read more about elective modules and what to do if you’d like to study modules offered by other departments

You can view the teaching and assessment patterns on the Computer Science Course Schedules for your academic year.

Your exam timetable is available for you to view through My Timetable. A PDF version of the exam timetable can also be found on the Student Intranet.

Assessment papers are released on the VLE at the start time of your assessment or exam window. For exams, time for downloading the question paper is incorporated into the exam timings (e.g. if your exam is 4 hours long, then the nominal time for completing the paper will be 3 hours and an extra hour has been included for downloading and reading the paper).

We recommend that you upload a copy of your exam answers to the submission point on the VLE for the relevant module at least 30 minutes before the end time of your exam, to ensure that there are no technical issues at the last minute. You should check what you have submitted to ensure that you have submitted the correct file. You may make as many submissions as you like before the deadline - your latest submission before the deadline is the one that will be marked.

If you wish to submit multiple files, these must be submitted as a single ZIP file. The single document or zip file that you submit at the latest point before the deadline will be marked (all previous submissions/documents are overwritten). Make sure to click the "submit" button after uploading. If your file is too large to be uploaded to the Teaching Portal, it should be submitted prior to the deadline through the University’s Deposit Service which will send your submission to cs-large-submissions@york.ac.uk.

Please remember to keep an eye on the module VLE site and your emails for any announcements during exams.

If you have any general questions, or urgent queries regarding a suspected error in the exam, inform cs-exams@york.ac.uk with enough time for a response to be considered and made within the first hour of the exam. Please do not contact the Module Leader directly - email cs-exams@york.ac.uk and the Student and Academic Support Team will liaise with the Module Leader. 

If a question is unclear and no correction or clarification has been issued, then answer the question as best you can and note the assumptions you have made to allow you to proceed. Inform cs-exams@york.ac.uk about any suspected errors on the paper immediately after you submit.

Please remember to keep an eye on the module VLE site during the exams, as if there are any widespread technical issues or clarifications, announcements will be made via the VLE.

If you don’t submit until after your deadline, a late penalty process will apply. Your closest submission to the deadline will be marked. All work submitted late, without valid exceptional circumstances, will have marks deducted. 

For exams, submissions up to 30 minutes late are accepted with a 5 mark penalty. Submissions made after 30 minutes will be marked at zero. 

For all other assessments such as open assessments, 5% is deducted for work that is up to one hour late, and then 10% is deducted for each day (or part of each day) that the work is late (1 day = 10%, 2 days = 20%, 3 days = 30%, 4 days = 40%, 5 days = 50%). After 5 days, the work is marked at zero. 

The deadline timings are strict, and even work submitted one second after the deadline will count as being late. Therefore if the deadline is 13:00, work submitted at 13:00:01 will be considered late and will receive a penalty.

If you submit on time but notice an error in your submission after the deadline, you cannot choose to submit again after the deadline, accept the late penalty and ask for this work to be marked instead. Your latest submission before the deadline is the one that will be marked.

If you experience technical problems submitting your assessment on the VLE, please email your submission as a zip file to cs-exams@york.ac.uk, or send it via the University’s Deposit Service to cs-large-submissions@york.ac.uk. 

As a general rule, slowness of IT systems and loss of work cannot form the basis of an exceptional circumstances claim. There may, however, be situations in which an IT problem is much more significant than what it was reasonable for a student to expect. In this scenario, we would advise you to take screenshots of any technical issues you experience, and submit an Exceptional Circumstances claim if you feel this is applicable to your situation. Evidence may take the form of announcements or communications about power or systems failures.

Your submission point will take into account the extra time you are entitled to. If you have any queries, or if you experience any issues regarding this, please contact cs-exams@york.ac.uk.

Self-certification of assessment

You may use self-certification for short-term, acute illnesses or short-term unforeseen circumstances occurring prior to submission of an open assessment or the start of an exam. 

For exams, you can self-certify up until the start time of an exam, which would result in a deferral of the exam until the late summer assessment period. 

For other assessments such as open coursework assessments, you can self-certify up until the submission deadline, which would result in a 4 calendar day extension. 

You may use self-certification for a maximum of 3 assessments per academic year and you don’t need to provide evidence of your circumstances. Students can self-certify via the ‘Self-Certification task’ in eVision. 

Exceptional Circumstances affecting assessment

There may be certain occasions where you want to request more significant adjustments if you have experienced exceptional circumstances.

Students may submit an exceptional circumstances claim which should be supported by sufficient evidence to support the claim. Types of claims may include physical and mental illness, bereavement, legal proceedings etc.

There are a range of adjustments available for approved exceptional circumstances claims and most frequently used are the opportunity to sit or resit assessments at a later date ‘as if for the first time’, and extensions to assessment deadlines. 

Claims should be submitted before the assessment deadline or start time of the exam. If you submit your claim after this time, your claim would need to meet the additional requirement of demonstrating good reasons for not applying earlier.

If you have any questions regarding exceptional circumstances, please email cs-excep-circs@york.ac.uk. 

Disability support

For long-term adjustments students should consider requesting a Student Support Plan through the Disability Services team or students may wish to apply to take a Leave of Absence to take a break from their studies.

Wellbeing support

Our Computer Science Wellbeing Officer, Magda Praszczak Vel Tracz is available to listen to any issues that might be impacting your wellbeing during your time at University. 

If you are stressed or feeling overwhelmed about any aspect of your studies or if you are experiencing personal, health, or relationship issues, Magda is available to listen and talk things through. You can book an in person or online appointment with her directly via the self-booking system or email magda.praszczakveltracz@york.ac.uk.

Module teaching staff encourage you to utilise opportunities during teaching sessions to receive guidance and support. If you have concerns about teaching or marking quality, students should raise these via the Computer Science teaching feedback form. Your feedback will initially be ready by the Teaching Quality Manager, Jen Beeston. If you have any questions about this process, please email cs-teaching-feedback@york.ac.uk.

Remember that you can also raise issues through your Course Reps, who gather student feedback, help to resolve issues and act as the student voice of their cohorts. If you’d like your views to be represented via the Course Reps, we would encourage you to email them.

You should look carefully at your marks and feedback. The Department of Computer Science implements a rigorous marking and moderation policy to ensure that all modules have robust processes in place to produce unbiased feedback that accurately reflects the students achievements. Students are unable to appeal against academic judgement of their examiners. Disagreeing with the quality of a piece of assessed work, for example, is not a basis for submitting an appeal. 

If you feel there is a procedural error or discrepancy that you want to raise, you should email cs-exams@york.ac.uk. The Student and Academic Support Team will liaise with the teaching team to investigate your query. Generally following marks and feedback release, the department will only look into student queries about results if there is a clear procedural error or discrepancy raised by the student. For example, this could include sections of submitted work that students do not believe has been marked or a calculation error in the overall marks for an assessment.

Please note that marks are provisional until they have been ratified at the Board of Examiners meetings that take place during the summer. Once an academic decision has been ratified by the Board of Examiners, there is no further scope within an academic department to amend that decision. In such cases, students are advised of their right to appeal that decision.

If you fail a module, don’t panic! In most cases there will be opportunity to achieve the necessary credit either through compensation or reassessment.

You will find information about resit guidance on the student intranet. This details progression and award criteria (including compensation criteria and extra accreditation criteria for accredited programmes). If you don’t meet the progression and award criteria, you may be able to take reassessments within the limits for your specific programme/stage of study.

Credit weighted mean calculations

The credit weighted mean (average) for each stage can be worked out by multiplying your module marks by the credits associated with each module. Then total the result and divide by the amount of credits in your stage (for UG this is 120 credits per stage, for PGT 180 credits in total).

Example 1 (Stage 2 of a bachelor's degree):

Module A (20 credits) Mark 46 x 20 = 920 

Module B (20 credits) Mark 64 x 20 = 1280 

Module C (20 credits) Mark 56 x 20 = 1120 

Module D (20 credits) Mark 40 x 20 = 800 

Module E (20 credits) Mark 62 x 20 = 1,240 

Module F (20 credits) Mark 75 x 20 = 1,500 

Total 6,860 ÷ 120 = 57.16 (57 is the rounded mark used for award calculation)

Award calculations

For bachelor's programmes, your total award mark will be calculated using stage averages for stages 2 and 3, weighted in the ratio 2:3 (40% of the mark is taken from stage 2 and 60% from stage 3). To calculate, multiply the stage 2 average by 2 and the stage 3 average by 3, then divide the total by 5: 

Stage 2 average of 57: (57 x 2 = 114) 

Stage 3 average of 64: (64 x 3 = 192) 

114 + 192 = 306 | 306 ÷ 5 = 61.2 

Award mark = 61.2 (rounded to 61) Upper second class degree (2:1) 

For integrated masters programmes, your total award mark will be calculated using stage averages for stages 2, 3 and 4, weighted in the ratio 2:3:3 (25% of the mark is taken from stage 2 and 37.5% each from stages 3 and 4). To calculate, multiply the Stage 2 average by 2, the Stage 3 average by 3 and the Stage 4 average by 3. Then divide the total by 8: 

Stage 2 average of 57: (57 x 2 = 114) 

Stage 3 average of 59: (59 x 3 = 177) 

Stage 4 average of 51: (51 x 3 = 153) 

114 + 177 + 153 = 444 | 444 ÷ 8 = 55.5

Award mark = 55.5 (rounded to 56) Lower second class degree (2:2) 

For postgraduate taught (PGT) programmes, your award mark is calculated using your stage average across your 180 credits of modules.

Example 2 (PGT):

Module A (20 credits) Mark 52 x 20 = 1,040 

Module B (20 credits) Mark 65 x 20 = 1,300 

Module C (20 credits) Mark 50 x 20 = 1,000 

Module D (20 credits) Mark 75 x 20 = 1,500 

Module E (20 credits) Mark 62 x 20 = 1,240 

Module F (20 credits) Mark 55 x 20 = 1,100

Module G (60 credits) Mark 65 x 60 = 3,900

Total 11,080 ÷ 180 = 61.55 (62 is the rounded mark used for award calculation)

To be eligible for the award of a Masters degree with merit, you must achieve: a rounded credit weighted mean of at least 60 over all modules, and a mark of at least 60 in the Capstone Project Module (where applicable).

To be eligible for the award of a Masters degree with distinction, the student must have achieved: a rounded credit weighted mean of at least 70 over all modules, and a mark of at least 70 in the Capstone Project Module (where applicable). 

Calculations for this purpose always use first-attempt module marks, or capped-reassessment marks. Decisions on the award of merits or distinctions are performed numerically, based on module marks, without any further academic judgement. 

For further guidance about working out your stage averages, you can view the student guides to progression and award.

If you're taken ill during term time, then you must let us know. you can self certify your illness via your e:Vision account.

You can self-certify for a maximum of ten days in any one academic year, with a maximum of seven days for any one period of illness

• Read more about self-certification of illness (sick leave)

Sometimes things happen that can seriously impair your performance in an assessment or prevent you undertaking the assessment at the scheduled time. If these events are unforeseeable and exceptional (ie serious and unusual), you may be able to defer an assessment or take it again.

• Read more about exceptional circumstances affecting assessment

If you need to take a break from your studies, then you can apply for a leave of absence.

• Read more about taking a break from your studies

If you have any questions about the financial implications of taking a leave of absence, please contact the Support & Advice team in the Student Hub.

• Contact the Student Hub

All our students should be able to live, learn and research in a peaceful and supportive environment. 

The University has a duty of care to protect its community and promote wellbeing, equality and fairness. There are procedures in place to respond to reports of student conduct that falls short of our expectations.

• Read more about the support available if you're experiencing misconduct.

If you are currently a student in Computer Science and you would like to change to another course within the Department, please contact cs-ug-admin@york.ac.uk .

If you are thinking of changing to a course offered by another department at York, then we strongly advise you to discuss the options and implications with your personal supervisor before you apply to transfer.

• Read more about changing your course

Leaving the University is an important decision. We want to make sure that you are aware of all the options available to you, and that you have access to the right advice and support.

In the first instance, we recommend that you contact your supervisor to talk through the options open to you. You can also speak to our Student Support team in Computer Science.

• Find out more about leaving the University of York

Comments, compliments or concerns about the teaching you're receiving? Let us know! 

• Send us your feedback about our teaching (Google Form - UoY login required)

There are three types of academic reps:

• Course Reps act as the voice of their cohort and work with staff to make improvements to their course. By gathering student opinion, Course Reps become specialists in course-based issues, helping to identify and tackle problems that arise.
• Department Reps take on a leadership role and support Course Reps to make positive change to the department as a whole. Department Reps are also invaluable contacts at the University of York Students' Union and take part in University-wide projects that improve the student experience.
• Faculty Reps work behind the scenes ensuring that the student voice is heard at all levels. By sitting on high-level committees, they influence University-wide decisions as well as pushing forward their own manifesto projects.

If you’d like to represent the views of your fellow students and have a say in how your programme is run, you can apply to be a course rep.

Read more about our academic reps in the Department of Computer Science

We want all of our students to get the most out of their time at the University of York. If things don't seem to be going quite right, then it's very important that you let us know.

Ideally, you should speak to the service involved (eg your supervisor or the Student Support Team in Computer Science). We want to be able to understand your concerns and offer any support we can. 

Where this isn’t possible, or if talking to us hasn’t fixed the problem, then you may wish to ask someone else to help you with your issue.

• Complaints and appeals have different processes and guidelines. Find out which process is right for you
• Read more about academic appeals
• Send us your feedback about our teaching Comments, compliments or concerns? Let us know! (Google Form - UoY login required)
• Contact the Undergraduate Student Support Team in Computer Science: cs-ug-admin@york.ac.uk
• Contact the Postgraduate Taught (MSc) Student Support Team in Computer Science: cs-pgt-admin@york.ac.uk