The planning of teaching and exams

At the start of the timetabling period, the timetabling department obtains information from the academic environment regarding possible limitations for timetabling the teaching. The individual faculty themselves determine the method, communication channels and practice for this.

The teaching planning takes the following constraints into account:

Restrictions in relation to the student's course:

• Student groups with limited time/availability, e.g. postgraduate and further education students

Academic constraints:

• Need for special rooms

• Days/hours between activities

• Order of teaching activities (within a week or throughout the semester)

• Full days (must either be taken off or booked for professional reasons)

• Possible dependencies in relation to other courses in the same semester

In addition, the department or faculty management can decide on restrictions regarding the availability of lecturers.

An essential prerequisite for the curriculum-based planning to work and provide stable and predictable timetables is, on the one hand, that the number of changes to the timetables is minimized, and that, on the other hand, there is sufficient flexibility to handle changes that are unavoidable such as changes due to illness and resignation.

• Change requests are made to the planning department. Each faculty determines a process for submitting change requests, including channel (functional mailbox, form, telephone, etc.) and approval flow (course manager, head of studies, etc.).
• The starting point is that a fixed and quality-assured schedule does not change, and that planned teaching activities take precedence over meetings, conference participation, etc.
• Exceptions may, however, be change requests due to:
  • Personnel conditions - changes due to resignation, illness, new hires, etc.
  • Very special events and circumstances that could not be foreseen.
• The timetabling departments at the faculties register the extent of change requests, including rejected and accepted requests. Once a year, the LGU and the UVAEKA forum discuss the statements to assess opportunities for improving process and practice. The education committee is informed.

The sharing of rooms is carried out according to common rules:

• All faculties are involved in a binding collaboration to timetable teaching across AU. In the initial division of rooms (window 1), the rooms at AU are considered a common zone.
• The sharing of rooms is based on data-supported analysis of problems and solutions.
• The planning must aim at establishing as good a timetable as possible for as many students as possible – that is, timetables that support a coherent course of study, professional learning and a good physical and social study environment.
• At the same time, teaching planning must aim to continuously optimise the use of AU's teaching rooms.
• The room sharing model is evaluated annually

Planning of teaching:

• The head of education – in practice the study administrative unit at the faculty's administration center – is responsible for planning the teaching
• The planning takes place in close dialogue with the institutes and the course managers.
• In case of doubt regarding handling of schedule changes and restrictions, the decision is made by the head of the faculty's planning department in dialogue with the responsible academic leader for the program in question.
• In matters of principle, the vice-dean for education and the head of education are involved.

Room sharing:

• The task of sharing rooms is handled by the heads of the planning departments with assistance from AU Education. The room sharing meetings are chaired by the deputy director for education.
• The Deputy Director of Education convenes and leads meetings, respectively. end of January and end of June
• The heads of the planning departments prepare and submit requests to share rooms. The critical pool of rooms is continuously defined by the faculties' planning departments based on local planning challenges.
• Matters that cannot be resolved in ongoing dialogue and at the meetings are escalated to the Deputy Director, who involves relevant members of the LGU and the Education Committee.

The timing of exams

• As far as possible, exams will be scheduled early in the the day.
• The first exams will be scheduled to start at 9:00.
• After this, exams will be scheduled as required throughout the day. For students taking exams under standard conditions, as far as possible, exams will be scheduled to end no later than 19:00.
• As a rule, a two-hour interval will be scheduled between exams in the same room.

Evening and weekend exams

• As far as possible, written exams will be scheduled on weekdays, and the exam day will be kept as short as possible.
• While we cannot completely avoid scheduling some exams in the evenings and on weekends, we will make every effort to keep evening and weekend exams to a minimum.
• When exams are scheduled on weekends, we will make every effort to schedule them to end before 15:00

Scheduling separate exams in the same room at the same time

More than one exam can be held in the same room at the same time. The following principles will apply in such cases:

• The exams must begin at the the same time.
• As far as possible, the exams must have the same duration.
• If exams that end at different times are held in the same room, the shortest exams will be placed closest to the doors.

Guidelines for submitting exam scheduling requests to the Exam Office

• The faculties’ planning teams must submit three possible days on which each written on-site exam can be held. The faculties should indicate which of the three days is preferred.
• It is not possible to request specific time slots during the day.

Deadlines

• Exam scheduling requests must be submitted in September. The deadline for submitting exam scheduling requests for the winter exam period has not been set yet.
• As as rule, the schedules for on-site exams will be ready about 14 days after the deadline.
• The faculties’ planning teams can submit requests for changes after the schedules have been announced.

It’s up to the faculties to decide whether and how teaching staff can submit exam scheduling requests to their faculty’s planning team.

Principles for allocating time slots and rooms

If there is high demand for certain days and rooms, the exams will be scheduled according to the following priorities:

• First-year students take priority over other students.
• Ordinary exams take priority over re-exams, in order to provide the best possible exam schedule for the greatest possible number of students.

• As a rule, students who have been granted extra time to complete their exams will take their exams in the same room as their fellow examinees. However, they should be seated in a location that minimises disruption.
• Students who have been granted more than 25% extra time may be seated in other rooms than their fellow examinees.