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In response to recent reportage on its student assessment scheme, VTC made the following statements:
The VTC has a rigorous mechanism to ensure the quality of its courses. Each course has its Board of Examiners, comprising independent professionals as external examiners. External examiners are responsible for scrutinizing assessment papers and marking schemes to ensure that the course requirements and standards are met, and that the assessment was done in a fair and equitable manner. All assessment results will eventually be passed to the respective Discipline Academic Committees for approval.
To safeguard the interests of students, and to ensure fair and just assessment, a review mechanism is in place. In special cases such as marginal pass or great disparity in distribution of assessment marks, the marks will be reviewed to ensure that assessment was done according to the marking scheme and without any miscalculation.
There is no pre-set passing rate for all VTC courses. The assessment results of students are not considered a factor in staff appraisal. Staff performance is governed by a number of factors, which include teaching and non-teaching aspects.
A recent report that in student assessment, the score mark of 38.1 was adjusted upwards to a pass mark of 40 was untrue. The VTC had considered the pros and cons of various conversion methods in setting the assessment criteria. Since decimal places also contribute to the overall assessment scores, all marks containing decimal places will be rounded up to the next integer place. Here we must make it clear that the marks will only be adjusted once, and no further adjustment will be made to the integer. In other words, the score mark of 39 will not be adjusted to a pass mark. And the mark adjustment will be processed by the computer system.
The VTC attaches great importance to staff views on our assessment scheme and student standards. The VTC does not rule out the possibility that individual staff members may not understand or execute the corporate policy fully. We will therefore initiate a follow-up of the matter. If the allegation is found true, the VTC will definitely take serious action to remedy the situation. We will also conduct timely reviews of our assessment system and enhance the communication with colleagues to alleviate staff misunderstanding and worries.
Media enquiries: 2836 1046 / 2836 1714
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