Prerequisites

There are some exams which students can only take if they fulfil certain prerequisites

A prerequisite can, for example, be that students must submit an assignment, get an assignment or a product approved or complete a project prior to an exam. Prerequisites always concern activities that students must complete in order to participate in an exam.

Fulfilment of a prerequisite should not be included in the assessment of your students, but is merely a criterion for participating in the exam.
If your course has prerequisites, this will be clearly stated in both the academic regulations and the course catalogue. In the academic regulations, prerequisites will be stated under the heading “Prerequisites for exam participation” in the individual exam descriptions.
Previously, many courses at Arts had prerequisites, but most of them were removed after 1 September 2023. This means that students no longer have to fulfil certain prerequisites in these courses – including students from previous year groups, regardless of whether or not they have fulfilled the old prerequisite.

Which students must fulfil the prerequisite?

All students registered for your course must fulfil the prerequisite in order to take the exam.

Most students will fulfil the prerequisite in connection with the course activities, so that they can participate in the ordinary exam. However, there will also be students who initially do not fulfil the prerequisite. Such students will have used an exam attempt and must fulfil the prerequisite later in order to be able to participate in the re-examination. You can read more about this here.

Students only have to fulfil the prerequisite once. This means that:

Once your students have fulfilled the prerequisite, they are entitled to take the exam, even if they do not take/pass the ordinary exam and have to take the re-examination.
Students who have previously attended the course and are allowed to attend the course and take the ordinary exam again do also not have to fulfil the prerequisite if it has already been fulfilled.

As a teacher, you need to know which of your students in the current semester fulfil the requirements set by you and the academic regulations, but it is not your responsibility to know whether or not a student from a previous year group has fulfilled the prerequisite. This is the responsibility of the studies administration, and they can provide the necessary information.

What happens if a student does not fulfil the prerequisite?

Students who fail to fulfil the prerequisite cannot take the ordinary exam or the re-examination.

The UVAEKA team registers the grade “DF” (failed prerequisite) for the student in question, who will thereby have used an exam attempt by not fulfilling the prerequisite. The student will receive a message from UVAEKA regarding the used exam attempt and information about how to register for the re-examination.

However, the vast majority of students who wish to take the exams do not have any problems fulfilling the prerequisites.

How to register fulfilment of prerequisites

UVAEKA will send you a list of the students who must fulfil the prerequisite. The list shows whether there are any students registered who have already fulfilled the prerequisite.
You will receive the list at the start of the semester and prior to any re-examination.
You must inform the students about when they must submit the material relevant to the fulfilment of the prerequisite. You as a teacher/course coordinator decide when during the semester the material must be submitted. If the academic regulations do not mention any specific requirements concerning the number of assignments, scope and so on, you as a teacher/course coordinator set the requirements for the semester in question.
Students must be informed about this on Brightspace at the start of the semester.
You must inform your UVAEKA team about which students have fulfilled the prerequisite and which students have not. You must do this no later than on the last day of the teaching period (unless otherwise agreed).
Special rules regarding re-examinations: Students who have to take a re-examination but have not fulfilled the prerequisite must submit the relevant material to you (typically by email) by the deadline for registering for the re-examination. Then you must report whether or not you have received the material from the student.

Do you have questions?

Please contact your usual UVAEKA team if you have any doubts about the prerequisite requirements for your course.

Revised 23.02.2024

Karoline Møller Schäfer