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Article 28 – Performance Assessment System

By juhaszildiko
Semmelweis University Organizational and Operational Regulations
– Part III. Student Standards –
Chapter III.2. Study and Examination Regulations

7. Assessment of Meeting the Study Requirements

Article 28 [Performance Assessment System]

(1) The system of evaluating the performance of the students at the different courses should be created in such a way that it should facilitate and encourage continuous learning and it should not lead to undue overload of the students. The method of assessment of the subjects of the subsequent academic year, i.e. practical grade or examination grade, shall be recorded in the model curriculum.

(2) During the study period, the number and duration of performance assessments should be determined in the following way:

  1. although the number of placement tests that aim to assess prior competences of the students is not limited, such assessments may only be applied in subjects including practical course(s) or laboratory practice course(s),
  2. the number of activities for the formative assessment of competences acquired during the semester (e.g., mid-term test or practical demonstration) cannot be more than three in the case of a course concluded by a term grade; or more than two, in the case of a course concluded by an exam grade.
  3. In the case of a course concluded by a term grade: the duration of the formative assessment activity can not be more than 60 minutes per credit value; in the case of a course concluded by an examination the assessment activity of the course can not be more than 45 minutes per credit value.

(3) Thesis writing courses and certain courses determined by the curriculum which are not concluded by an examination, such as practice placement period, planning exercise or project task, should be evaluated by partial performance assessment.

(4) It should be determined in the course syllabus how the results of the end-of-term assessment affect the determination of the end-of-term grade (term grade), the examination grade and the offered grade. The method and content of the performance assessment shall be specified in sufficient detail in the subject requirements (course syllabus), which shall be approved by the committee in charge of the education-related tasks of the given faculty.

(5) The end-of-term assessment in the case of subjects concluding by an examination grade

  1. cannot be a condition for signature, but it may result in giving a reduced amount of tasks or additional tasks for those who perform well or poorly.
  2. The result of the end-of-term assessment may be accompanied by a reduced amount of tasks at the examination or additional task as specified in the subject requirements (course syllabus); such reduction of the tasks at the examination can be for example a practical examination, exemption from the pre-examination quicktest, exemption from completing a certain part of the examination; an additional task may be, for example, to draw and complete extra topics during the examination.
  3. The subject requirements (course syllabus) shall specify the nature of the allowances or additional tasks associated with the results of each end-of-term examination and how and in what proportions they are to be taken into account in the examination.

(6) Assessment activities in the study period can take place on workdays between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. at the time of the course sessions or in different time(s) set in the schedule of assessment in advance. Any other scheduling requires the agreement of the Students’ Union.

(7) Assessment activities, such as term tests or student reports scheduled outside of the date and time that is assigned to the course in the timetable, shall not be scheduled to overlap completely or partially with a session of another compulsory subject course of the same semester in the model curriculum.

(8) The schedule of assessment should be made in the following way: The weekly number of summative performance assessment activities, such as written or oral mid-term tests or practical demonstrations of the subject courses of the same semester in the model curriculum cannot exceed two in general and four in the last two weeks of the term, and the assessments of the same week shall be held on different workdays.

(9) The schedule of assessment described in paragraph (8) has to be made for each training program regarding those compulsory and optional courses that are announced in the same semester in the model curriculum.

(10) The schedule of assessment, which includes the assessment activities and the possibilities for their retake, upgrading retake and the make-up possibility, has to be published at the homepage of the faculty responsible for the prorgram until the end of the first week of the study period.

(11) The educational-research unit may deviate from the schedule of assessment upon request of the Students’ Union or after approval of the Studies and Examinations Committee. In such a case, the students involved shall be informed by the course coordinator via NEPTUN one week before the time of the affected assessment activity.

(12) Due to failure to meet the attendance requirements, the instructor may refuse to sign or provide a term grade, if the student exceeds their absence over 25% of all of the practical sessions. In general, three late arrivals count as one absence. The degree of lateness that is still acceptable shall be included in the course requirements. In the event of an absence of more than twenty-five percent, the procedure as described in the course requirements shall be followed.

(13) The term grade should be formed by the summation of the students’ accomplishments at the assessments, according to the principles below:

  1. the performance level (score) required for a pass (2) grade cannot be higher than 50% of the level (score) that can be gained by the complete and excellent performance in the case of written tests.
  2. the student’s performance can be marked as: “unfulfilled” if the student did not participate even in one of the assessment activities and did not make up for it on the retake options or the student’s absence exceeded the amount that is determined in the course syllabus (course requirements).

(14) If at least 50% of the assessed students were unable to complete for the first time the compulsory subject announced in the appropriate semester according to the model curriculum in the given examination period, then an investigation may be requested by the Students’ Union, and conducted by the Vice-Rector for Educational Affairs, and in case the complaint is justified, the Vice-Rector initiates an investigation on the possible remedy to any non-compliances. Based on the results of the investigation, the proposed measure can be applied during the following academic year. If the investigation gives rise to a reasonable suspicion of an ethical misconduct, the Vice-Rector for educational Affairs initiates the proceedings of the Committee Competent in Disciplinary Affairs and simultaneously informs the educational-research unit concerned.

(15) The Vice-Rector for educational affairs may request a statistical analysis about a given time period from the educational-research units concerning the specific characteristics of the work of those instructors’ who were conductiong examination in the given time period, based on indicator(s) of their educational and examinational activities.