This page does not apply to those students who are on a scheme without an integrated industrial placement - e.g. joint honours, or major/minor with business. For these students, there is no assessment, as it does not contribute to their degree.

Industrial Year Assessment

Your placement is assessed in two ways: firstly, by a report you write on your year, and secondly by a form that your employer will fill out for us at the end of the year. Each of these two parts contribute equally towards the assessment.

How much does this contribute towards my degree?

Being a full year, it is worth 120 credits. But it is weighted 1/4 on the cascading system. For details on how this affects your degree mark, see the official information on the cascading system.

Your Report

As a result, the report you write contributes around 2% of your degree (somewhat less for MEng). This is a lot of marks, considering the size of the report (guideline 5000 words). So it is worth putting effort into it. You don't need to include everything you did; make it a good read, and leave out things which were trivial or might not be interesting to a reader. Include diagrams and pictures to help tell your story. Don't assume the reader knows about the technologies you used, even at a relatively basic level. But most importantly, follow the guidelines and assessment criteria.

Your employer has the right to see the report before you hand it in, to make sure no confidential information is included. In practice, most employers do not ask to see your report, however. If your employer is concerned, you can offer to mark the front page of your report "CONFIDENTIAL"; it will then only be read by your supervisor and examiners, and will not be made available to anyone else to read. Remember to leave plenty of time for your employer to approve the report if this is necessary. Try to avoid including technical or other details that might be obviously be considered company confidential - it is usually possible to talk about what you did in a way that the company will not see as problematic. Talk to your Academic Supervisor and line manager at an early stage if you believe there may be any issues of this nature.

The Employer Assessment Form

You can see the assessment form we ask the employers to fill out;. It would be helpful if you could point your employer to this at the end of your placement. Doing so yourself, rather than us having to chase them for it, might also make them feel more kindly disposed towards you when they fill it out!

This page is maintained by Neal Snooke (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).