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. Such a request is reviewed by the examiner, who will decide whether the grade should be changed or not (according to the Swedish legislation, Högskoleförordningen, chapter 6). 

You must include which and why some questions or parts of the exam should be reassessed within the request. Remember to use your student email address when writing to your examiner. Obvious errors such as incorrect writing or counting, or in the reporting into LADOK can be corrected in either positive or negative direction. 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 role of the examiner is described in Högskoleförordningen (1993:10) and is assigned by LiU as the sole decision maker for grades. This makes it impossible to appeal the examiner's decisions. Multiple examiners cannot make grading decisions together. It’s allowed to recruit co-assessors, responsible for specific sections or questions in an exam. Co-assessors should be specified in the decision (in LADOK). 

An appointed grade can only be reassessed by the examiner. After failing two exams the student is allowed to request another examiner, the co-assessors may remain.

After receiving two fail grades on the exam, students have the right to request a different examiner. This may be prevented in special circumstances such as lack of other competent teachers within the same area of expertise.

(according to Swedish legislation HF 6 chap. 22§.)

Limitation of the number of exams must be specified in the course plan. Students should be informed of the date of exam at the beginning of each semester/course. Exams requiring a large amount of resources may be limited. Limitations are regulated by the Swedish legislation HF 6 chap. 21§

• opportunity to take the exam at least 5 times
• at least 2 attempts on education in the workplace (SWE: VFU) or other practical performance at the workplace

Limitations at LiU: 

• Resource-demanding examinations, for example practical exams such as patient interactions are limited to 5 attempts. 
• Other exams such as writing exams lack limitations. Students must be offered at least 3 separate examinations per year. 
• Education in the workplace (SWE: VFU)/field studies or other practical performance at the workplace are limited to 2 attempts.

Students may take the same semester twice, while the limitations stand.

1. Högskoleförordningen 1993:100 (Swedish legislation)
   https://www.riksdagen.se/sv/dokument-lagar/dokument/svensk-forfattningssamling/hogskoleforordning-1993100_sfs-1993-100
2. Guidelines for education and examination for first-cycle and second-cycle education at Linköping University
   found at “LiU regelsamling” -> “innehållsförteckning” -> “Utbildning på grund och avancerad nivå” -> “examination”.
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

Students should receive information about the examination at least two weeks before the beginning of the course. Other relevant information such as course objectives, assessment criterias and form of examination should be presented at the beginning of the course. All necessary information should be included in the course plan, for example rules regarding alternative forms of examination. 

All information can be found in the “Guidelines for education and examination for first-cycle and second-cycle education at Linköping University”.

Encouragements when scheduling exams are set on weekdays, though it’s allowed to schedule on weekends. Religious holidays should be respected. 

Written exams are allowed at another location during special circumstances.

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.

Rules should be clarified within the course plan regarding submission, as well as the consequences.

The rules for this type of situation are 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 late submission of the thesis shall be included 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.

Grading time is set at 15 workdays and at least 10 work days must pass between receiving the grade and the re-exam. 

More information is found in the “Guidelines for education and examination for first-cycle and second-cycle education at Linköping University”.

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.

Grading can only be done by the examiner, a thesis which has been approved by the supervisor won’t automatically pass. 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 try to prevent such situations from occurring.

The maximum limitation of performing education at the workplace (VFU) is set at two times. If failing twice a third chance may be approved when motivated with good reason, require you to send a request to the Faculty Board of the Medical Faculty. The board will then decide whether a third chance will be allowed or not. 

The request should include factors such as

• 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 if all written exams get lost) students should be offered a new opportunity to perform the exam. Time and date for such an occasion should be set within 3 weeks and if possible decided in common with the student or students who have been affected.The examiner can not give a student the grade of pass if the only reason is that the exam has been lost.

Assessment should be done within 15 working days from the date of the exam, including the time for reporting the result into LADOK. If the examiner needs more time (longer than 15 days) all students should be informed about the new date and reason for the tardiness.

LiU encourages all examiners to organize an opportunity for reviewing the exam. Such an opportunity should take place at least 10 days before the re-exam. More often feedback is presented as written drafts to each question. 

When having failed both the ordinary exam and re-exam students have the right to seek support. The need for extra support should be requested from the board of the program.

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.

Most of the programmes at the faculty of Medicine and Health Science have the educational profile “PBL'' (problem based learning) and a lot of responsibility is put on students' individual study time. The amount of scheduled hours is regulated by the educational/course plan and is often explained in the study guide.

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 are less than often included in the course plan, but are when given regarded as guidelines rather than the rule. These limits may change between different semesters. When studying for an exam it’s recommended to go through and understand the meaning of the course objectives and their taxonomy.

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.

Students must always sign up before an exam, both written on paper and online. The opportunity to sign up opens 30 days before and closes 10 days before the exam, and is done either at the “student portal” or at “LiU-appen”. For those students who have not signed up, the request to enter upon arrival will be rejected.

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.