Single assessment

Single assessment at the UAB

From the 2023-2024 academic year there will be the option of requesting to be assessed for certain Bachelor’s and Master’s degree subjects in a single sitting. You can consult the list of eligible subjects on the web pages of your faculty or school.

The single assessment regulation responds to the needs of students to combine their studies with their work or family life. This is enshrined in the principles of justice, equity, diversity and inclusion (JEDI), since the UAB is aware that the continuous assessment which was introduced in the European Higher Education Area involves the kind of dedication to studying that some people are simply not able to manage. The inclusion in the academic regulations of a single assessment option—already on offer in some of the other Catalan universities—is the result of the desire of the UAB to meet that demand. 

Single assessment is applicable only to those subjects with directed teaching activities and does not mean any change to the current teaching model. Teaching and assessment are therefore separate considerations. Students may continue to go to class even though they have opted for single assessment. For some of these classes attendance may, in fact, be obligatory.

Single assessment means a single assessment date but not a single assessment activity. The assessment is competence-based, meaning that students must demonstrate through the assessment activities that they are capable of carrying out the tasks programmed for the subject with the same level of rigour demanded of the continuous assessment activities. To ensure that single assessment can accredit the achievement of the learning objectives and results established for each subject it is recommended that students undertake at least assessment activities, two of which should be of a different type.

Single assessment activities may, for example, be to carry out a project, a case study, problem solving, laboratory practical, etc. These activities can be combined with others in which the students has demonstrated a degree of acquisition of concepts, such as a theory exam or a multiple choice test on conceptual aspects.

The teaching staff responsible for the subjects with the option of single assessment must adapt their assessment systems and reflect this adaptation in the Subject Guide.

Lecturers responsible for subjects with the option of single assessment must set out in the Subject Guide any required attendance on the course, the type of assessment activities and details of any resit activities that may be applicable.

Each academic year students can request single assessment in some subjects and continuous assessment in others. Students who opt for single assessment renounce the right to continuous assessment in that subject. This renouncement is made at the beginning of the teaching for each semester on the dates set by each faculty or school within the academic and administrative calendars of the UAB. To be able to set these dates, centres should bear in mind that students must be able to request the changes a few weeks into the course.

Student who opt for single assessment have the same rights as the other students. That means that their grades are not compromised, they cannot be refused attendance at classes or requests for tutorials and they cannot be refused the right to resit the subject. On the other hand they also have the responsibility to follow the teaching in the same way as the lecturing staff have established for all the other students and therefore the lecturing staff will be under no obligation to produce learning materials or activities exclusively for single-assessment students.

Each centre established the procedure for choosing the subjects that are eligible for single assessment, in agreement with the degree coordinators and the lecturer responsible for the subject. The criteria is to exclude from this assessment option only those subjects whose profile of competences does not allow assessment of this kind.  

There may be a minimum percentage of activities established for a course or by a centre that require the physical presence of the student to ensure that it is the students who have opted for single assessment- that  have carried out the activities.
Where there are subjects shared with other centres it is the centre responsible for the subject that has to decide if single assessment is possible or not for that subject and, if it is, it will be for all the degree courses in which it is included.

Calendar

Procedure	Presentation deadline	Decision deadline
Single assessment request (first and second semester) (1)	17.07.23 to 16.10.2023	23.10.2023
Within the timeframe each centre will set at least two weeks for requests, with one or more deadlines. At least one of these weeks must be included in the programme once classes begin.
Single assessment request (second semester) (2)	12.02.23 to 08.03.2024	12.03.2024
Within the timeframe each centre will set at least one week for requests. That week must be included in the programme once classes begin in the second semester.

Many of the questions we have received can be answered in the Academic Regulations approved by the Governing Council on 7.7.2022. These regulations are set out below:

Article 265. Single Assessment

1. Student may request single assessment for those subjects that allow this in terms of their content and teaching methodology, and this will be established in the teaching guide for the subject, which will also set out the system of assessment to be followed. All qualifications must offer the possibility of requesting single assessment.  
2. A request for single assessment means the renouncement of the continuous assessment option and involved the submission on a single date of the necessary number of assessable pieces of work to be able to accredit and ensure the achievement of the learning objectives and results for the subject.
3. Single assessment must be as academically demanding as continuous assessment. Students have the same rights as with continuous assessment in terms of teaching, grading and, where necessary, resits.
4. To make a request for single assessment students must present a reasoned application to their centre within the dates established for that propose and specify the subjects for which they want to make the request. The deadline for the presentation of applications is decided annually and appears on the academic and administrative calendars of the UAB. Exceptionally, in the case of unexpected and justified work or health situations, students may request single assessment outside these dates.

1. Within their responsibility for Bachelor’s and Master’s degree faculties and school centres must publish a list of the subjects that are eligible for single assessment for each course they offer. This list must be approved by the bodies of the centre on which the students are represented.
2. The centres must publish the lists of subjects eligible for single assessment before the last day of the second teaching period as established on the academic calendar of the UAB for 2022-2023.
3. Provisions on single assessment must be evaluated and reviewed and modified where necessary at the end of the first semester after they come into force.