> Don't most UK universities let undergraduate students resit exams they've failed, within reason?
I've attended 3. Two of them made students retake the entire year if they needed to resit an exam. The other one based students' entire grade on one set of final exams at the end of the 3 years and had no provision for resits at all.
I believe the first two are typical in the UK.
> And a degree consists of a good number of courses, each of which will have its own exams - so if you do poorly in one or two exams, there are plenty of chances to bring your average back up
That's true, but it's also true that a more lenient system would be more compassionate (student mental health is a huge topic for universities) whilst simultaneously being a better measure of student's true abilities.
I've attended 3. Two of them made students retake the entire year if they needed to resit an exam. The other one based students' entire grade on one set of final exams at the end of the 3 years and had no provision for resits at all.
I believe the first two are typical in the UK.
> And a degree consists of a good number of courses, each of which will have its own exams - so if you do poorly in one or two exams, there are plenty of chances to bring your average back up
That's true, but it's also true that a more lenient system would be more compassionate (student mental health is a huge topic for universities) whilst simultaneously being a better measure of student's true abilities.