At my uni (or maybe just one my course) I just needed to pass a year on average in order to move onto the next one.
If you failed a year overall you could resit any exams from individual modules you failed (with a maximum of the pass mark of 35% being awarded to ensure you didn't do any better than people who passed first time).
This counted for all years except the final year. You didn't have to pass this year on average, but to get your degree you just needed to have a pass on average over all your years.
After three years I hadn't failed a module, but in my final year, knowing I'd got a 2:1 in the bag easily I didn't try as hard as I should have and ended up failing one module narrowly by about 5%.