Assessment and Feedback

The LSE Academic Code, developed in partnership with LSE Students’ Union, sets out what we do to deliver a consistent student experience across the School and clarifies what students can expect from their LSE education.

LSE is committed to putting students first, and the Academic Code helps us deliver on our commitments to enhancing student experiences. The Academic Code includes expectations around assessment and feedback and we encourage you to read it here: https://info.lse.ac.uk/current-students/lse-academic-code

Formative Assessment: these are assessments set within your class by the course convenor or class teacher. Formative marks do not count towards your final degree classification, but are a compulsory part of your learning and all students are expected to complete them. Completing formative assessments and receiving feedback is designed to prepare you for the summative assessments.

Summative Assessment: these are assessments that count towards your degree classification, and must be completed. Individual courses may be assessed by one piece of summative assessment, or by a combination of different types of assessment.

Types of Assessments: LSE uses a diverse range of assessments, including in-person exams, individual and group presentations, essays, projects and dissertations. Each has its own merits and our programmes will employ a variety of assessment types to assess you.  

All Sociology course guides will publish information on their formative and summative assessments, and you will also find information about your assessments and their deadlines on the individual course Moodle page.

You should receive feedback on all formative assessments, which may be via email, via a formative feedback form or verbally, depending on the type of formative assessment. Feedback on formative tasks will normally be returned to students within three term weeks of the submission deadline, where students submit their work on time.

For summative work submitted in Autumn or Winter term, you can expect to receive qualitative feedback on a summative feedback form via email within five term weeks of the submission deadline, where students submit their work on time. For other summative assessments:

• Feedback on January exams will normally be provided within six term weeks following the end of the exam period. Where given, exam feedback will be in the form of collective feedback, with an overview of each question from the markers, not as individual feedback. 
• Feedback on Spring Term assessments and exams will normally be provided within four term weeks of the following Autumn term, for continuing students only (1st and 2nd year undergraduate students). Apart from dissertations, feedback for graduating students is not usually provided, in line with LSE's Academic Code. 
• Feedback on dissertations and capstone projects will normally be provided within four term weeks of the final mark being made available to students.

BSc Students

The department follows LSE's BSc classification scheme, which is available to all students here. 

You can find the department's BSc marking criteria used by markers for summative assessments here. If a summative assessment has its own marking criteria, this will be published on the course Moodle page.  

MSc Students

The department follows LSE's MSc classification scheme, which is available to all students here. All MSc students should also be aware of the department's local rules, which are available here. 

You can find the department's MSc marking criteria used by markers for summative assessments here. If a summative assessment has its own marking criteria, this will be published on the course Moodle page.  

 All our BSc and MSc programmes are required to undertaken a 10,000 word dissertation. 

The dissertation is an integral part of the your programme. It is an opportunity to study in depth a topic of special interest to you and to apply the knowledge and skills that you have gained during your programme. You will receive dedicated workshops during the academic year focused on your dissertation.

MSc Disseration Supervision
Dissertation supervision will only take place until the end of Spring Term, so you should plan your work accordingly. Disseration supervisors will be unavailable to review drafts or provide further office hours once Spring Term has ended. 

Assessments must not exceed their applicable word count, which can be found in the submission guidance and on the course guide. 5 marks can be deducted for assessments over the word count, and examiners are not required to read any material in excess of the word count. Unless otherwise stated in the submission guidance, the word count DOES include footnotes and endnotes, but DOES NOT include the title, sub-title, contents page, bibliography and appendices.

The department does not have a formal penalty for writing under the word count, but we ask you to consider that a word count has been set as an indication as to the amount of work that is expected.

Correct citing and referencing is an important academic skill. It demonstrates that you have read widely and have gathered evidence to support your arguments. The Department does not require students to use a specific referencing system, but all students must reference and cite their sources correctly. Whichever referencing system you do choose must be used consistently throughout your assessment.

We strongly encourage you to learn to correctly reference and cite your sources before starting your assessments. Support and training is available here. 

Moodle time and date stamps all submissions, and this will be used to indicate whether your submission is on time or late. Where work is submitted late, a previous on-time submission or a screenshot or photo that shows when a document was last edited will not be accepted as proof of an on-time submission.

For coursework based assessments (such as essays, projects, reading diaries, dissertations, presentations) that are submitted after the deadline, they will be subject to the following penalties:

• 5 marks out of 100 will be deducted for assessments submitted within 24 hours of the deadline.
• A further 5 marks will be deducted for each subsequent 24-hour period (inclusive of weekend and bank holiday days) until the assessment is submitted. After 7 days, the department may not accept any further submissions and students will be required to seek the permission of the Chair of the Sub-Board of Examiners to have their assessment accepted for marking.  
• Submissions later than 7 days may not be accepted for marking and may result in a zero-absent mark. A student will be ineligible for graduation with a zero-absent mark and will be required to resit their work in the relevant resit assessment period in order to become eligible for graduation.   

For take-home assessments that are submitted after the deadline, they will be subject to the following penalties:

• For the first 24 hours after assessment submission deadline: a penalty of 5 marks for every half-day (12 hours), or part, late. This will result in a maximum penalty of 10 marks for the first 24 hours.  
• For beyond the first 24 hours after assessment submission deadline: the above penalty for the first 24-hour period and then a penalty of 5 marks per day (normal days not working days), or part, thereafter.  
• Submissions later than 7 days may not be accepted for marking and may result in a zero-absent mark. A student will be ineligible for graduation with a zero-absent mark and will be required to resit their work in the relevant resit assessment period in order to become eligible for graduation.   

Students who receive a fail mark on summative coursework and are required to resit this element may revise the original submission and are not required to submit a wholly new piece of work. Your Programme Manager will advise you if you are able to revise and re-submit your resit assessment. 

The following exceptions to this policy apply to:

• Students returning from interruption;
• Students receiving repeat teaching;
• Students found to have committed plagiarism through the School’s assessment misconduct regulations who must resubmit as a result of the applied penalty.

Paragraph 1 of the School’s Regulations on Assessment Offences: Plagiarism states:  

  “All work for classes and seminars (which could include, for example, written assignments, group work, presentations, and any other work, including computer programs) must be the student's own work. Direct quotations from other work must be placed properly within quotation marks or indented and must be cited fully. All paraphrased material must be clearly acknowledged. Infringing this requirement, whether deliberately or not, or passing off the work of others as the student’s own work, whether deliberately or not, is plagiarism.” 

 By submitting your summative work to us, you confirm that: 

• You have not used any unauthorised form of generative artificial intelligence tool in working on this summative assessment.  

• You have read and understood the Department regulations about appropriately referencing the work of other as well as your own.  

• You have read and understood the School’s Regulations on Assessment Offences. 

For further details on the School’s regulations on assessment offences, please see: 

Regulations on Assessment Offences: Plagiarism and Regulations on Assessment Offences: Offences other than Plagiarism