Coronavirus Guidance: Part Time and HE (Higher Education) Students
Published Tuesday 21 April 2020:
Dear Students,
Welcome back after your Easter break and I hope you are ready to re-engage with your online/distance learning following the extension of the lockdown by the Government.
I know many of you will want confirmation about how your HNC/HND qualification is going to be awarded and may have seen news that these will be awarded through calculated grades.
However the guidance from Pearsons/BTEC states:
“We recognise that some providers around the UK are continuing their Higher National delivery online and are continuing to teach and assess where they can. As such, in some situations it will be possible for certification to continue through remote sampling by our External Examiners. Where there are units or learning outcomes that are unsuitable for online delivery, advice and guidance will be provided regarding ways to adjust assessments or how to select suitable alternative units.
If it is not possible for assessment to continue using the above approaches, we will ask tutors to calculate grades using their professional judgment and supporting evidence. We will make guidance available to centres on the process to follow in terms of grade calculation.”
Currently Pearson’s are encouraging completion of units on your assessment schedule or selecting alternative units suitable for online delivery with calculated grades only as a very last resort.
The specifics for each qualification title will not, therefore, be confirmed until a few weeks after Easter. As soon as the college has absolute confirmation about each specific qualification we will be in contact with each cohort of learners.
We appreciate that this is very unsettling but until the specifics are confirmed we do not want to provide incorrect information so we will be in contact as soon as we have definite answers.
It is, therefore, important in the meantime that you should continue to engage with and complete the assessments set by the course teams.
Yours faithfully,
Dr Karen Morris
Vice Principal Curriculum and Quality
Gloucestershire College