The additional information below provides further clarification in the context of the Common Awards programmes.
1. The Office for Students (OfS) introduced revised conditions of registration B4 and B5 in May 2022. The guidance that accompanies these conditions sets out an expectation that a provider should retain ‘appropriate records’ of assessed students’ work, including for students who are no longer registered on a course, for a period of five years after a student’s end date. This is because students’ assessed work is likely to be relevant evidence in making judgements about compliance with elements of these conditions.
2. As Durham University is responsible for granting the awards under the Common Awards Scheme, this regulatory requirement has therefore been reflected in the Standard Validation Contract between the University and TEIs – specifically in Annex 3 Allocation of Core Administrative Responsibilities.
3. To ensure compliance with this regulatory requirement, TEIs are required to retain the following for 5 years beyond a student’s completion of their programme. This is applicable for all students registered on a programme, as well as students who are no longer registered on a programme:
4. Typically, assessment types fall into the following categories:
* It is normally expected that work assessed through observation is recorded and that the video recording is retained by the TEI.
5. TEIs are advised to review their records retention policies / schedules to ensure that they are compliant with the above requirement, and ensure that the information is reflected in relevant student handbooks.
6. Retention of work in online plagiarism detection systems. Any student work may be uploaded to an online plagiarism detection system (such as Turnitin), at the discretion of individual TEIs. Work must remain in the plagiarism detection system for five years after submission, after which it should be removed from the system and destroyed.