Understanding the Revised Interim and Ongoing Assessment Regulations at HSE

The new edition of the Regulations took effect on March 1, 2024. The provisions primarily impacted the retake sessions scheduled for September 2024, following the 3rd and 4th modules of the 2023/24 academic year. Annex 11 to the Regulations, Special Features of Interim Assessments at the HSE International College of Economics and Finance (ICEF), remained effective until October 16, 2024. 1 September 2024 is the date after which the new rules had been applied to all students, except for those in their final year (approximately 20% of whom, about 5% might have arrears resulting from the third module, making up a total of 1% of the student body) regarding decisions on participation in retakes and repeated study of a course. For the 1% of students who did not cope with mastering the disciplines in their final year, and for students who must participate in the second retake of an independent exam, the new rules started to be applied from the entry into force of the Regulations on 1 March.

Yes. Students must declare the use of AI in the following ways:

• when submitting term papers and final theses, they must specify the AI used and assess its effectiveness via the LMS module, the interface of which features options to declare this use—see guidelines on how to upload student papers and theses in LMS.
• for all other written and oral assignments, which can be checked for plagiarism at the discretion of a respective course instructor, students (or a group of students) must describe their AI usage in the introduction or conclusion of their work (a dedicated section), where they have to state the purpose for using the model, identify the model by name, provide its internet URL or describe an alternative source for the model, and explain how the model was applied in the work. Faculty have the authority to grade such assignment as 'fail' if AI use is not properly declared, or if its use was explicitly prohibited.

Read more about the plagiarism policy at HSE here.

The updated text of the Regulations does not change the cumulative grading system: the weights of the accumulated grades are not adjusted during the second retake, which is convened to administer a student’s examination for the third time.

An examination is merely one of the many assessment elements considered when calculating the final or interim grade for a course. The grade for the examination may change during the first or second retake, but all other accumulated grades remain unchanged. This is aligned with the cumulative grading system at HSE University: each student earns their grade for the course by completing assessment elements, so the same rule applies to students who have not accumulated anything: a zero result is not 'reset' or adjusted during retakes—the opposite scenario would unfairly advantage students in obtaining a higher final grade at the retakes than those whose final grade is calculated including accumulated grades (cumulative grade) from all assessment elements.

This system ensures that all assessments contribute fairly to the final grade, maintaining the integrity of the cumulative grading approach. The only opportunity to improve an accumulated grade is to reschedule the second retake and repeat the study of the course after failing an exam (if this option is available to the student) or re-study the course after reinstatement at the university if failing a course leads to expulsion.

Among the assessment elements, there may be those which cannot be repeated—they constitute up to 30 percent of the total weight. If low grades are received for such elements, no improvements can be made. A typical example of a non-repetitive assessment element is attendance—only 15% of instructors use it in their courses.

Repeated study of courses for which academic failures were not cleared after the first retake will be organised according to a revised scheme starting from the autumn retake period of the 2023/24 academic year (except for final-year students and independent exams on digital competencies— for these this rule applies from March 1st). As before, the right to repeat a course will only be granted to students with academic failures in no more than two courses.

New: After the first retake, students must decide responsibly whether to participate in a second retake during the current period or postpone it to the next available retake period (taking place no later than one calendar year after the first retake).

A deferred second retake is possible after re-attending the course and passing all ongoing assessment components. A more detailed description of the process is available at the link.

When conflicts arise involving multiple exams, retakes, or classes, students can decide whether they are comfortable with multiple events scheduled on the same day. Students have the right to report such conflicts to the study office, where the programme manager will find an alternative date to avoid overlaps. Read more here.

To report a valid reason for absence, students should use an electronic service and submit an application within the specified deadline. Read more here.

The introduction of the Student Performance Assessment (SPA) has formalised long-standing rules in greater detail. SPA allows students to understand how programme managers and academic supervisors analyse their diligence in mastering the educational programme.

In simple terms, SPA is the count of courses for which a student has unsatisfactory grades.

The automation of this assessment calculation is currently being implemented, and shortly, students will be able to monitor their SPA through the Learning Management System (LMS) gradebook.