Calculating credits#

The level of credit, awarded in nominal hours, for different activities is summarised below.

  • Undergraduate lectures: Credit is awarded to cover the preparation and delivery of the lecture, including uploading material to Blackboard; preparing and maintaining weekly problems. From academic year 2026-2027 setting, vetting and marking of exam questions are credited separately. The first year receives more credit than the following years. The difference in class size is accounted for in the scaling of credit awarded for marking.

    Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 and beyond
    Lecture 13 5 5 5

  • Postgraduate lectures: Credit for postgraduate lectures is not tapered. The credit is higher for MSc courses (e.g., Miscada) given the more formal examination requirements on these courses.
    The credit is:

    MSc courses Other PGT
    6 hours/lecture 5 hours/lecture

    (where PGT is used here as a catch-all for taught postgraduate courses, outside of MSc courses, which in Physics are predominantly given in the initial stages of PhD studies.)

  • Laboratories: Laboratory credit are divided into two parts: the actual presence in the lab and marking. When crediting presence, the number of hours in the lab is multiplied by 2 to account for preparation and additional out-of lab hours support. The marking of lab reports is accounted separately, and can scale with the number of students. Laboratory presence is expected to be:

    Lab credits
    Level 1 discovery skills 1 afternoon $\equiv$ 3 hours contact (6 hours credit) per week for 9 weeks, in either Michaelmas or Epiphany term
    Level 2 bridge project 24 hours credit per group
    Level 2 lab skills & electronics 1 afternoon $\equiv$ 3 hours contact (6 hours credit) per week for 6 weeks, in each of the skills lab, electronics lab and research-led investigation
    Level 3 labs (excl. astrolab) Lab leaders - 4 hours (8 hours credit) per week for 9 weeks per term; lab supervisors 3 hours contact (6 hours credit) per week for 9 weeks per term
    Team project 1 contact hour per week per group for 9 weeks, plus 6 hours credit under `organisation’ (see below) per group

    L3 lab leaders are likely to spend more time in the lab in the initial part of the term, and less later, the credit is an average ofver the term.

    Astrolab has different hours per week for supporting evening observing sessions, again split amongst more than one member of staff.

    L3 lab leaders receive separate credit for their role, in addition to lab presence: 23 hours.

    Where labs are taught at postgraduate level they accrue three hours credit per contact hour of lab.

  • Workshops Our workshops at all undergraduate levels, and workshops given to support both MSc and other PGT courses, all accrue credit similarly.
    One hour is awarded per contact hour within the workshop, and two hours of preparation time are awarded per set of workshops (i.e. usually within a week, where the content is the same but the class is split into multiple groups so more than one workshop occurs).

  • Tutorials/project supervision The tariff for hours credited for tutorials differs at each level, as follows:

    Module credit
    Level 1 Foundations 20 tutorial weeks in total: 2 hours preparation per tutorial week + 1 hour per tutorial given + 1 hour per week for weekly problem marking per tutorial group
    Level 2 Physics in Society 10 hours total per tutorial group for tutor meetings and digital media project marking (including 4 contact hours)
    Level 3 BSc project 15 hours total credit per student for meetings and assessment (which includes 7 contact hours)
    Level 3 Computing project 54 hours credit per group/week, including marking of reports
    Level 4 project 44 hours credit per student for preparation, supervision and examining (including 22 contact hours)

  • Advisees Advisers receive a nominal credit of 1 hour per student, set at the start of the year.
    Note that this is not tracked closely through the year, so any changes in advisee numbers do not propagate through SWAMP quickly.

  • Moderating Level 4 project moderators receive a credit of 35 hours for their moderation duties, including attending the moderators’ meeting after the student interviews have concluded.

  • Organisation All other credit associated directly with teaching appears under `organisation’, which generally covers management within individual modules but can also cover specific tasks e.g. the Foundations of Physics 1 Tutorial Team (maintaining & improving tutorial questions, and writing the conceptual examination), or marking the short essay-style tests in Physics in Society.
    The credit is a direct allocation of a number of hours, specific to that task.

  • Postgraduate student supervision This is tariffed at a rate of 50 hours credit per student per year while they are conducting their PhD (or Masters by Research, where applicable).
    An exception is for particle physics students, who undertake full time taught work for half their first year, and so a reduced 25 hours credit is awarded to their supervisors on this basis. Once the registration status of the student changes at the end of their PhD, this is halved to 25 hours per year, and awarded on a pro-rota basis if the student finishes within the year.
    (Information on research student registration and supervision is drawn directly from the Physics database.)

  • Administration The administration jobs are credited as per the organisation jobs, with the direct allocation of a specific number of hours dependent upon the size and complexity of the job.

Last updated 2026/03/29