6. Penalties for Late Submission of Coursework

The Examination Regulations stipulate specific dates for submission of coursework to the examiners. This includes the Part B extended essays, BSP projects, BO1.1 extended essays and any coursework you need to complete if you take a course taught by another department.  Rules governing late submission and any consequent penalties are set out in full in the Examination Regulations (Regulations for the Conduct of University Examinations, Part 14). For 2025-26, all written assessments are to be submitted online.

If you will be prevented by illness or other urgent cause from submitting your coursework on time you should contact your college office or college tutor as soon as possible.  Your college is able to submit an application for an extension of time to the Proctors on your behalf.  

The scale of penalties agreed by the board of examiners in relation to late submissions of assessed items, without an accepted reason, is set out below:

Mathematics

Lateness Penalty, % point reduction
Up to 4 hours 1%
4-24 hours 10%
24-48 hours 20%
48-72 hours 20%
72 hours - 14 days 35%
More than 14 days  Fail

Note: The penalty will be a percentage reduction of the maximum total mark available for the work. For example, if a 10% penalty is applied to an assessment given a USM out of 100 then 10 marks would be deducted. The final mark awarded after application of the penalty cannot be below 0.  

Philosophy

Lateness Cumulative mark penalty
After the deadline but submitted on the same day -5 marks (-5 percentage points)
Each additional calendar day -1 marks (-1 percentage points)
Max. deducted marks up to 14 days late -18 marks (-18 percentage points)
More than 14 calendar days after the notice of non-submission Fail

In addition, overlong Philosophy submissions will be subject to the following penalties relating to length over the word count:

Percentage by which maximum word count is exceeded Cumulative mark penalty (up to a maximum of -10)
Up to 5% over the word limit -1 mark
Up to 10% over the word limit -2
Up to 15% over the word limit -3
Each further 1-5% over -1 further mark

Failure to submit a required element of assessment, without an accepted reason, will result in the failure of the whole of Part B. In such a case, the examiners will award a fail for each of the Part B assessments.