IN ENGLISH

The examiner is the highest authority when it comes to setting the grades, which means you cannot appeal the decision. However, students have the right to request a reassessment of the decision, where it is up to the examiner to decide whether the grade will be changed or not (this is regulated in the Swedish legislation, Högskoleförordningen, chapter 6). The student should then describe which questions or parts of the exam that they want to have reassessed, and motivate why they should be awarded more points on these questions in particular. Use the student email adress to write to your examiner. Corrections of grading decisions can occur in either positive or negative direction when there have been obvious errors in writing or counting, or in the reporting into LADOK. A grade can be reassessed in a positive direction if it is clearly erroneous. This type of change will be made by the examiner. A grade of Pass can be changed into Fail if cheating or otherwise misleading conduct has occurred.

Reassessment of grading decisions according to the legislation
(Rough translation into English from the Swedish legislation and the local regulations at LiU)

Högskoleförordningen (1993:100) 6 chap. 24 § If an examiner finds that a grading decision is obviously erroneous due to new circumstances or other reasons, he or she shall change the decision, if it can be done quickly and without difficulty and if it does not mean that the grade is lowered. Regulation (2006:1053).

Guidelines for education and examination for first-cycle and second-cycle education at Linköping University (Ref. No. LIU-2019-00920) Section 2.4.1. When a student requests rectification or reassessment (change) of a grade, a decision (acceptance or rejection of the request) is always to be given.

Rectifications and reassessments (changes) that are to the detriment of a student must be carried out with great care and solely when it is a question of obvious cases. Change to the detriment of a student can become relevant if a student has cheated on a test. Such change takes place with the support of Section 37, Administrative Procedure Act.

If an examiner is considering correcting or changing a decision to the detriment of a student, consultation should take place with an employee at the Legal Office. Before a decision of rectification or reassessment (change) is made, the student must be given the opportunity to make a statement.

A pass grade cannot be changed to a fail grade following a student request.

The examiner is the sole decision maker for grades and should make all decisions in the process. It is not allowed for multiple examiners to make grading decisions together. This responsibility cannot be delegated. The examiner should perform their duties as long as there is no obvious reason to step back, such as conflicts of interest or bias. The examiner has to be employed as a teacher at LiU. Co-assessors are allowed (for example teachers responsible for assessing of answers to specific questions on an exam, where the examiner is responsible for the final grade), and should be specified in the decision (in LADOK). Only the examiner can reassess a grading decision. There is no rule against having multiple examiners in one course, but only one examiner per student is allowed. After two Failed grades on the same exam, the student has the right to request another examiner, but the same co-assessor can remain.

According to the Swedish legislation HF 6 chap. 22 §, a student who has received a Fail grade on two exams (in the same course), has the right to change to another examiner, if there are no special circumstances which may hinder this. (Such a circumstance could be for example that there is no other competent teacher to assess the exam.)

Limitation of the number of exams

• The date and time for the exam shall be given at the beginning of each course/semester.
• Examination forms which are resource demanding, for example practical exams with patients and expensive laborations, have a limitation of five opportunities to take the exam. After the fifth try, no more opportunity is given. This applies regardless of any change in the course plan.
• Other forms of examinations, such as a written exam, can be taken as many times as the student needs (no limitation), if not having achieved a grade of Pass. The minimal number of exam occasions for the same course is three within one year.
• In case of not de-registrating from an exam it does not count as a completed attempt on the exam.
• The only circumstance where an extra occasion may be given for the exam is if the university has made a mistake, for example specified the wrong location or date for the exam.

Education in the workplace (SWE: VFU)/field studies or corresponding types of exams

The number of occasions for VFU is limited to two times. The time for reassessment of education in the workplace/field studies or corresponding types of exams will be assessed in each individual case, but can only be implemented when there are teachers and supervisors available.

Number of attempts at a particular semester

The student is allowed to go through a particular semester two times. If the student attempts the same semester twice, and the number of exam opportunities is limited, the number of exam occasions will still be a maximum of five in the cases where the number of attempts at the exam is limited.

1. Högskoleförordningen (Swedish legislation)
2. Guidelines for education and examination for first-cycle and second-cycle education at Linköping University
3. Course plans – not allowed to do anything with the course that goes against the course plan, for example adding extra learning goals without changing the course plan via the Course plan committee.
4. Study guides – are also defined as a legal document, containing the practical aspects of how to follow the course plan

In the Guidelines for education and examination for first-cycle and second-cycle education at Linköping University it is written:

”Each course at LiU is to be accompanied by other supplementary and relevant course information, in addition to the course syllabus, such as a study guide/course description or equivalent. The study guide/course description or equivalent and the times of all ordinary examination occasions should be available two weeks before the start of a course. It is appropriate at LiU to use Lisam to store this course information. The students are to be informed at the start of the course about:

• the course objectives, assessment criteria and forms of examination
• the course evaluation from the previous years and any measures that have been taken
• the following information about examinations:
  • whether, and if so the extent to which, collaboration between students is permitted at the examination
  • whether, and if so the extent to which, aids may be used at the examination.”

It is normally allowed to schedule exams during weekends even though it should be avoided if possible. Religious holidays should be respected. A written exam at another location (another town) should be allowed only when special circumstances exist.

Anonymous exams shall be used at LiU (not a requirement in Swedish law, but local guidelines) in the following cases:

• Written exams
• Other cases where it is practical, as well as economically and pedagogically justifiable
• The anonymity shall be broken before the grade is decided

In other words, the student is anonymous only during the correction of the exam.

The rules for this type of situation is often clarified in the study guide for the course. Deadlines can be set freely as long as they follow what is written in the course plan.

The rules for this type of situation is often clarified in the study guide for the course. Deadlines can be set freely as long as they follow what is written in the course plan. The consequences of not handing in the thesis on time shall be incuded in the study guide.

At the time of the first exam, at the latest, you should have been given the date for the re-exam.

According to the Swedish Higher Education authority, the time between the information about the grade of the first exam and the re-exam, should be at least 10 work days or two weeks.

No, because the moment you hand in the exam the case is pending and if a student asks their examiner to get their exam recalled the request should be denied.

The examiner sets the grade on a course. However, it should not be the case that an examiner demands very big changes in order for the thesis to be awarded the grade of pass, after the supervisor has approved it. There are no particular rules for this, but clear criteria for the assessment and a good dialogue between supervisor and examiner are actions which can prevent this problem. The universities usuallu try to prevent that such a situation arises.

As a student you are allowed to go through the same VFU a maximum of two times. If you believe there are good reasons why you should be granted a third chans, you can send a request to the Faculty Board of the Medical Faculty. Then it is up to them to decide if you will be given a third opportunity to finish the VFU. In your request, describe clearly if there have been any cases of irregular conduct, lack of support from the programme/VFU placement, if new circumstances exist which may make a third opportunity favourable.

The documents that are drawn up in association with educational affairs, such as course plans, study guide, and examinations. The EXCEPTION is if the document can be viewed as working material (for example a written exam under construction or a question bank for exams) or if it is regarded as confidential. In such cases, the examiner is advised to write a formal decision stating that the documents are not openly accessible documents, register the decision, and hand out copies of this decision to students who ask for the exam documents. The principle of making documents openly accessible does not mean that everything has to be freely available, for example online, it only means that the university, when asked, shall give out a copy of the document.

According to the regulations, the examination (in any form) shall verify that students have reached the learning goals of the course. The examiner has ”the last and only word” regarding whether a question should be included in the exam or not, and is also responsible for controlling the level and content of the questions. This means that the exam can include questions about facts even if they have not been brought up during lectures or other teaching parts of the course. However, you can not examinate something that is not included in the course plan.

In general you shouldn’t examinate the same fact twice. There are some exceptions when this is okay:

• Progression in the questions/assignments even if the same learning goal is examinated.
• For example when an illness is brought up from different angles in different assignments, such as pathophysiology in one assignment and a focus on social aspects in another.
• One assignment is included in other learning goals and several goals should be put in relation to each other.

If the examination can not be carried out due to extraordinary causes (for example all the written exam papers are lost) the student has a right to a new exam opportunity. Time and date for such an occasion should if possible be decided in comon with the student or students who have been affected. As a general rule, a new test shall be scheduled at the latest three weeks after the original exam occasion. The examiner can not give a student the grade of pass if the only reason is that the exam has been lost.

The assessment normally takes up to 15 working days, including time for the administrator to report the results into Ladok. The process can only take longer than 15 days if the period includes public holidays, not if the examiner is on vacation for example. The exception is if the examiner becomes sick, then it is allowed for the process to take more than 15 days.

Students have the right to feedback, and should get the exam back 3 weeks after the exam, at the latest.

Students have the right to supportive measures after failing two attempts at the same exam in one course. The student is responsible for contacting the programme to receive the support.

There is no regulation or policy to control this. The examiner decides how this is handled. Often the examiner will look through the exam together with a ”team of teachers”, theme groups/exam groups (Medicine) or programme boards, to assess what has happened, if the level of the exam questions is correct, and if the assessment has been okay.

This is regulated in the education plan or the course plan depending on the educational activity in question. The study guide shall include explanations for these which are clear to the students.

According to Högskoleförordningen (Swedish legislation) there needs to be an education plan for any educational programme, and a course plan for each course. Courses within a programme also need to have course plans. The education plan shall specify

• Which courses are icluded in the programme
• Any prerequisites for prior knowledge and other terms besides the fundamental qualifications needed to get accepted into the programme – in other words any special qualifications, and
• Any other regulations needed.

All courses – both those given as programme courses and separate courses – need to have a course plan. The course plan specifies:

• The course designation and the level of the course (basic/first cycle, advanced level, or research level)
• The number of credits
• The principal contents of the course
• The course objectives (what you are expected to learn, understand and be able to use after finishing the course)
• Any special requirements to enter the course
• The grading scale used
• The types of examinations used to assess the performance of the students
• The number of attempts allowed per examination form (written exams, education in the workplace, etc.)
• The course literature which should be used

Point limits which are given before an exam should be followed as closely as possible. The examiner/assessor can make a ”solution template” only when they start the assessment process. What is most important will often be conveyed throughout the course or via the learning goal taxonomy (where for example ”specify” is weaker and ”explain” is stronger).

A grading decision cannot be appealed because the examiner is the highest authority and sole decision maker, but you can request a reassessment of the grading decision and it is then again up to the examiner to make the decision (see Högskoleförordningen, chapter 6). If you want to do this, you should write which questions you want to have reassessed and why you think you should have received more points for these in particular.

For written exams: A seat for a student who has not signed up cannot be guaranteed until all students who did sign up on time, both those who showed up on time for the exam and those who showed up within 30 minutes of the start of the exam, have been given their seats. The number of available seats is also controlled by the number of available personnel and exam copies. The priority among the students who forgot to sign up is commonly decided according to the order of names signed to special lists which are available outside the exam room.

For digital exams: Seats for students who have forgotten to sign up cannot be guaranteed. You have to sign up on time in order to take the exam.

The schedule for VFU shall follow Arbetstidslagen (1982:673). This meansamong other things that you should be scheduled with a diurnal resting period of sufficient length (at least 11h within 24h) and that you cannot be scheduled too many hours during one week. You should not be scheduled during Christmas and New Years weekends or on the 1st of May (national holiday). However, you can be scheduled during day, evening, night and regular weekend hours. If you are not satisfied with your schedule you should contact your VFU placement and otherwise the VFU coordinator or head of your programme.