Codes of Practice, Policies and Guidance

Supplementing the Regulations, there are a number of academic and academic-related Codes of Practice, Policies and Guidance documents. These set out the procedures to be followed in specific areas.

As per Regulation 9:

  • Codes of Practice: are mandatory and apply to all Staff and students. Breach of a Code of Practice may result in a disciplinary offence for both Staff and students.
  • Policies: Staff and students are expected to comply with policies, and their breach may result in a disciplinary offence for both Staff and students.
  • Guidance and other advisory documents: may set out best practice in terms of procedures, but are advisory only, whether for Staff or students.

The Codes of Practice, Policies and Guidance documents that apply to you, as a student, will depend upon the year in which you started your studies, this is referred to as Cohort Legislation and is explained below. Links to the relevant documents can be found in the 'Cohort Legislation' section below, or by clicking an appropriate link from the menu on the right hand.

If you have any queries about Codes of Practice, Policies or Guidance documents please email legislationqueries@contacts.bham.ac.uk

Cohort Legislation

The University introduced ‘cohort legislation’ in 2017-18. This means that the Legislation (i.e. Codes of Practice, Policies and Guidance) that applies to you throughout your Programme of study depends upon your entry cohort, i.e. the year in which you started your studies. If you entered the first year of your Programme in the:

  • 2016-17 academic session or prior to this, you will be subject to the 2016-17 legislation. This legislation will apply to you for the duration of your Programme of study. 
  • 2017-18 academic session you will be subject to the 2017-18 legislation.  This legislation will apply to you for the duration of your Programme of study.
  • 2018-19 academic session you will be subject to the 2018-19 legislation.  This legislation will apply to you for the duration of your Programme of study.
  • 2019-20 academic session you will be subject to the 2019-20 legislation. This legislation will apply to you for the duration of your Programme of study.
  • 2020-21 academic session you will be subject to the 2020-21 legislation. This legislation will apply to you for the duration of your Programme of study.
  • 2021-22 academic session you will be subject to the 2021-22 legislation. This legislation will apply to you for the duration of your Programme of Study
  • 2022-23 academic session you will be subject to the 2022-23 legislation. This legislation will apply to you for the duration of your Programme of Study
  • 2023-24 academic session you will be subject to the 2023-24 legislation. This legislation will apply to you for the duration of your Programme of Study
  • 2024-25 academic session you will be subject to the 2024-25 legislation. This legislation will apply to you for the duration of your Programme of Study

Please note, if you are entering directly into a later year of a Programme, or transferring from one Programme to another, you will normally be subject to the same legislation as other students in your year. For example, if you enter directly into the 2nd year of a Programme in 2022-23 you will normally be subject to the 2021-22 legislation, so that you are subject to the same legislation as the majority of your peers (who will have entered in the 2021-22 session).

If a document is listed as "Non-Cohort Legislation" then this means the same document applies to all students, regardless of the academic session they started in.

Cohort Legislation also applies to University Regulations. Please visit the Regulations page for more information.

Changes to Legislation

University Legislation may need to be amended from time to time, either to reflect external requirements (for example, those of professional or accrediting bodies) or because a change to policy or practice has been agreed internally.  Consideration will be given to whether any proposed change should apply to all legislation or to a specific cohort, and students will normally be consulted about or informed of the change, depending on its nature. For more details of how this may happen please refer to the 'Policy on Consultation with Students'.

Information is published when any significant changes are made to University Legislation, this is done through a 'Changes to University Legislation for the XXX Cohort' document that is available on each of the cohort legislation pages.

Archived Legislation

The University has two categories of 'archived legislation'. The first category of archived legislation is cohort legislation that could still be in use (due to students from that entry cohort remaining registered with the University), but because criteria being met, is no longer updated. The second category of archived legislation is for legislation that is no longer being used.

Further detail, along with all archived legislation, can be viewed on the Archived Legislation page.

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