How much of your student record will be available to other universities?
Hi, I'm currently a second-year undergraduate in Scotland (so we study 4 years instead of 3), and I study computer science and management. I have plans to study for a Master's Degree after I graduate from my Bachelor's - and I have my eyes set on Oxbridge and universities in London such as ICL and UCL. My transcript at the moment looks quite clean - all A's except for this one arts course that's completely unrelated to my degree that I chose as an optional course where I got a B in - and my average is also an A.
The problem I have lies with that arts course I chose as one of my optionals. So to keep the explanation short, basically the course took place the first semester of my first year (conveniently also the covid year), and it was graded on all coursework - two separate essay assignments we had to turn in over the course of the semester. I had chosen the course because I was genuinely interested in the content taught, but I really struggled with understanding the course contents and was just really not doing well in it. On top of that, I had frankly never taken any essay-heavy subjects during my GCSEs or my A-Levels (I stuck to the sciences and maths mostly), had no idea how to go about a formal academic essay and was terrified of it, pair that up with my usually higher-than-normal levels of anxiety (because I've had some anxiety problems in the past) and a tendency to avoid doing things I'm anxious about completely - I ended up not turning in a single thing for my first essay assignment. By the time the second essay assignment rolled about, I had taken a hard look at the coursework structure and realised I'd need something like an 85% to get a B on this course, which I really wasn't sure I was going to get. It was looking pretty much certain at this point that even if I did this second assignment, I was going to get a C or even a D as my grade for this course. But I did not want a C or a D to bring down my "average marks" on my transcript - and guess who had a brilliant idea of "I'll just not turn in this assignment and make sure I fail this course so I could trade for a better mark during the resits that will appear on my transcript!"
Naturally, at the end of that semester I got a big fat 0 as my mark for my first-sit of that course, and a fail as my grade. My "plan" did eventually work, kind of - I did end up getting a B when I did the resits for the course, the resit mark replaced my first-sit mark on my transcript, so now it only shows the resit mark I got for that course - as the final mark - and that I've attempted two sittings. But recently I have discovered this wonderful thing called student records, which records the exact mark for every single one of my graded assignments - whether they count towards the final grade or not - and it is only reasonable that the two assignments I didn't turn in that are marked 0 are recorded in it.
(I'm sorry for the sarcasm in the paragraph above - it's kind of my coping mechanism)
I've been looking through my university's data protection policies on students' personal data (student records count as personal data), but they were all very ambiguous in wording and never explicitly states if another higher education institution can request to see the student records of a prospective applicant. I am really scared that even though my first-sit mark doesn't show up on my transcript, the universities I apply to in the future will still see it somehow - and let's face it, marks of 0 are likely exponentially more disastrous than just a fail grade. Does anyone know for sure if universities can share student records like that between one another, or will the universities I apply to only know about things through documents I submit, such as my transcript?
Thanks in advance to anyone who took the time to read through this.
The problem I have lies with that arts course I chose as one of my optionals. So to keep the explanation short, basically the course took place the first semester of my first year (conveniently also the covid year), and it was graded on all coursework - two separate essay assignments we had to turn in over the course of the semester. I had chosen the course because I was genuinely interested in the content taught, but I really struggled with understanding the course contents and was just really not doing well in it. On top of that, I had frankly never taken any essay-heavy subjects during my GCSEs or my A-Levels (I stuck to the sciences and maths mostly), had no idea how to go about a formal academic essay and was terrified of it, pair that up with my usually higher-than-normal levels of anxiety (because I've had some anxiety problems in the past) and a tendency to avoid doing things I'm anxious about completely - I ended up not turning in a single thing for my first essay assignment. By the time the second essay assignment rolled about, I had taken a hard look at the coursework structure and realised I'd need something like an 85% to get a B on this course, which I really wasn't sure I was going to get. It was looking pretty much certain at this point that even if I did this second assignment, I was going to get a C or even a D as my grade for this course. But I did not want a C or a D to bring down my "average marks" on my transcript - and guess who had a brilliant idea of "I'll just not turn in this assignment and make sure I fail this course so I could trade for a better mark during the resits that will appear on my transcript!"
Naturally, at the end of that semester I got a big fat 0 as my mark for my first-sit of that course, and a fail as my grade. My "plan" did eventually work, kind of - I did end up getting a B when I did the resits for the course, the resit mark replaced my first-sit mark on my transcript, so now it only shows the resit mark I got for that course - as the final mark - and that I've attempted two sittings. But recently I have discovered this wonderful thing called student records, which records the exact mark for every single one of my graded assignments - whether they count towards the final grade or not - and it is only reasonable that the two assignments I didn't turn in that are marked 0 are recorded in it.
(I'm sorry for the sarcasm in the paragraph above - it's kind of my coping mechanism)
I've been looking through my university's data protection policies on students' personal data (student records count as personal data), but they were all very ambiguous in wording and never explicitly states if another higher education institution can request to see the student records of a prospective applicant. I am really scared that even though my first-sit mark doesn't show up on my transcript, the universities I apply to in the future will still see it somehow - and let's face it, marks of 0 are likely exponentially more disastrous than just a fail grade. Does anyone know for sure if universities can share student records like that between one another, or will the universities I apply to only know about things through documents I submit, such as my transcript?
Thanks in advance to anyone who took the time to read through this.
Postgraduate universities will usually only want to see your transcript and an academic reference (or 2).
And even if they did ask for more - a non submission in an optional course in 1st year during covid isn’t going to be a problem.
And even if they did ask for more - a non submission in an optional course in 1st year during covid isn’t going to be a problem.
Your marks will be with you for life so you have done a very silly thing. Absolutely when you apply for masters for PhD at another institute they will ask your present uni for your marks and if your present uni advises that they do not have permission from you to share the marks then that is a huge red flag. Your current uni has to provide a transcript of all your marks. It's not different to your GCSE marks - the certificate has to list all GCSEs sat and the grade.
Original post by mike23mike
Your marks will be with you for life so you have done a very silly thing. Absolutely when you apply for masters for PhD at another institute they will ask your present uni for your marks and if your present uni advises that they do not have permission from you to share the marks then that is a huge red flag. Your current uni has to provide a transcript of all your marks. It's not different to your GCSE marks - the certificate has to list all GCSEs sat and the grade.
Thank you for your reply and advice. But the thing is, I can see what my own academic transcripts look like from the uni's student portal, and if you're talking about the transcripts and the marks on the transcripts, the results from my first sit don't show up on my academic transcript at all. My university's transcripts only show the course name, the number of times the exam is attempted, and the final mark and grade of the course (which in my case is my resit mark and grade); the results of my first sit is only shown on my internal student records held by the university - it doesn't appear on my transcripts at all. My question is when I apply for a postgraduate degree at another institute, would they ask for further information from my university than what's shown on the transcripts? (such as stuff like the first-sit marks from the internal student records)
Original post by PQ
Postgraduate universities will usually only want to see your transcript and an academic reference (or 2).
And even if they did ask for more - a non submission in an optional course in 1st year during covid isn’t going to be a problem.
And even if they did ask for more - a non submission in an optional course in 1st year during covid isn’t going to be a problem.
Thank you for your reply and your advice!
Original post by Oswald3
i think they record you over the years and send it to the feds to get you put in a camp. if you have Mr mcaughey he will probably look up your skirt
uhhhh don't really understand a thing (but I'm sensing some sort of sarcasm here) but uh thanks for taking the time to write a reply?
Just to echo PQ’s comment, unis only see what’s on your final transcript and a stray/missing mark in an unrelated module isn’t going to be of any concern at all.
Original post by Admit-One
Just to echo PQ’s comment, unis only see what’s on your final transcript and a stray/missing mark in an unrelated module isn’t going to be of any concern at all.
Thank you for your advice.
Sorry, I'm still a bit confused here as I'm getting conflicting answers from you and another user above - so if it doesn't show up on my transcripts then the uni I apply to won't be able to see my first-sit results at all? Can't they ask my current uni to see my full student academic records though?
Original post by Anonymous
Thank you for your advice.
Sorry, I'm still a bit confused here as I'm getting conflicting answers from you and another user above - so if it doesn't show up on my transcripts then the uni I apply to won't be able to see my first-sit results at all? Can't they ask my current uni to see my full student academic records though?
Sorry, I'm still a bit confused here as I'm getting conflicting answers from you and another user above - so if it doesn't show up on my transcripts then the uni I apply to won't be able to see my first-sit results at all? Can't they ask my current uni to see my full student academic records though?
Usually your uni will issue a single final transcript, often as a standardised HEAR report. You’d have to check with them whether this module will appear in there.
The uni won’t provide any other information to a third party without your express permission.
Even if this module appears, other unis won’t care about it. They care about your overall grade/classification and your performance in relevant modules.
I did 2 undergraduate degrees at the University of the West of Scotland before applying for MSc study elsewhere. The formal transcript I needed to request from them to apply for the MSc included all grades - including a 0 for a missed exam that I later got 80% in and it also included any modules I'd started and dropped.
(edited 2 years ago)
Original post by Admit-One
Usually your uni will issue a single final transcript, often as a standardised HEAR report. You’d have to check with them whether this module will appear in there.
The uni won’t provide any other information to a third party without your express permission.
Even if this module appears, other unis won’t care about it. They care about your overall grade/classification and your performance in relevant modules.
The uni won’t provide any other information to a third party without your express permission.
Even if this module appears, other unis won’t care about it. They care about your overall grade/classification and your performance in relevant modules.
Thank you for your help! For my uni we can view our own HEAR transcripts through the student portal, and when I access my HEAR transcripts the transcripts don't show my first-sit marks for that optional module, just the final resit marks and the number of attempts made (which is 2 - indicating that I have done a resit exam). But I will double-check with my uni just to make sure it really does not appear on my final official transcripts. Thanks again for all the kind help and advice!
Original post by 1582
I did 2 undergraduate degrees at the University of the West of Scotland before applying for MSc study elsewhere. The formal transcript I needed to request from them to apply for the MSc included all grades - including a 0 for a missed exam that I later got 80% in and it also included any modules I'd started and dropped.
Thank you for the insight. I'm not sure if it's because of the differences in the way each individual university handles things, but as far as I can see, since I can access my official HEAR transcript through the university's student portal, only the resit marks and grades show up there for my course and the first-sit marks are omitted completely?
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