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One slight oversight like this should not be a major issue given your further clarifications above. Please do try to stop stressing!
According to my academic contactts at OBU there has always been an issue of unscrupulous mentors falsely telling students that the report is not important and their exams carry more weight for the degree and then they have written the RAP report for the student. This is a serious breach of the student regulatios because the RAP should be the student’s own work.
If a student has been properly mentored there will be several drafts that show how the report built up. There will be major differences in these drafts where the sttudent has genuinely written the report and the changes and structure have evolved , which somehow cannot be replicated. Where the mentor has written the report will be none of these genuine drafts that the student has written [because the mentor did the work] and attempts to do these earlier drafts are readily apparent.
It is impossible for genuine mentoring to be just a verbal process!
The investiagtion process usually only involves the student but where the mentor is implicated they have been instances where they have been banned. However students must accept that getting someone else to write your work but pasing it off as your own is fraud and therefore a criminal offence in the UK and a breach of the ethical standards required of an accountant.
No it does not necessarily mean that, but what it means is that if a student thinks that paraphrasing just means changing a few words here and then they are mistaken. All the words they have retained from the source used will be in coloured text and all the words in the sentences that they have changed with be in black text – making it obvious that all they have done is worrd substitution. All of the coloured text will contribute to the matching score [the higher this is, the more likely the conclusion that pligiarism has taken place]
Paraphrasing is actually about expressing ideas and concepts in your own words [often by precising] and not simply just changing a few words in passages. So word substitution does not mean you have not plagiarised and if you have reproduced a lot of work this way then yes, you may be found guilty of plagiarism
The investigation and questions will depend on the issues identified e.g. a case where survey results have been made up, is totally different from blatant copying or even where passages that are essentially the same but word substituion via a dictionary or thesaurus to change some words has been used to try to disguise the fact. Therefore there are no stock questions and exact format to the investigation as they will be related to the individual irregularities found in the work.
The ACO officers are experienced academics who have many years of interrelating with students [so have heard every excuse under the sun during the course of their investigations]. Turnitin has been refined by its devlopers and is quite accurate in identifying the original source of the passages plagiarised [and can even identify the student and University or author and dates where it first appeared] and will show the exact words that have been substituted/ changed.
A mentor will not spot plagiarism as there are millions and millions of documents worldwide – that is the reason Turnitin is used because it contains all of those sources in its repository.
Yes you are quite correct – even though you may have failed the SLS if you have passed the report the grade you achieved for the report will be carried forward. However although you do not therefore have to resubmit the report because that element was passed you still have to pay the full submission fee when you resubmit your SLS
I think any fail, whether for the SLS or lack of spreadsheet, has to go through all of the same administrative procedures as a first submission and therefore is subject to the same fee. Admittedly it would probably be an easier marking task but of the current submission fee structure, the actual monetary fee paid to the marker would only represent a very small part of that overall fee i.e. only a two figure amount out of the GBP 495.
Yes it is just like a written exam, the full submission fee has to be paid for each attempt
As far as I am aware the results will be released on schedule – by the University not ACCA. In the past students will have received an email a few weeks ago from Oxford Brookes asking them to ensure that their personal details are correct. Apparently this does not necessarily indicate that you have passed but is to ensure that should you have, that your degree certificate is sent to the correct address as if your certificate is lost in the post a duplicate cannot normally be issued.
In the past few sessions students have been informed of the result by email and these start to trickle out later today and into tomorrow [the official release date]. There seems to be no particular order in sending these unless it is by registration number since students in the same country or with the same mentor may receive theirs on different days.
Sorry to hear you are struggling with this. One of the issues with the RAP is that there are 15 topics and therefore unlike exams, the experience can vary between students and not all of the advice is applicable to all 15 topics.
Perhaps we should try to ask more students to share their experiences on the different topic heads. Possibly one problem though is that once students pass, apart from posting their result or mentor feedback they tend not to return to the OBU thread.
Good, I am glad that you have changed your topic. Topic 13 is an interesting topic so good luck with it!
There is no formal registration procedure.
You will need a mentor – a good one can be useful as if they are sufficiently experienced they will be able to read through your work and be capable of constructively criticising it and perhaps suggesting areas for improvement. You also have to do a Powerpoint Presentation to the mentor.
Once your work is complete you create an account on the OBU Submission Portal and upload your files and pay the relevant fee. Note: submissions periods are stated in the Information Pack and deadlines strictly adhered to so if you miss the deadline you can only submit 6 months later when the next submission period opens.
If you are intending to go for May 2024 you need to get on with it as it normally takes more time to do the project than most students anticipate and 8 weeks [the time now left] is ‘cutting it very fine’ in terms of getting a decent grade…..
The topic budgetary control has an abyssmally low pass rate. I would advise you to reconsider your topic selection and go for a different topic. You don’t have to use the organisation where you work and in fact topics that rely on secondary data tend to have the best pass rates.
Results start to trickle out the day before so fpr P47 you might start to hear from about mid-afternoon on Tuesday 19 March 2024 , but some people will not get their result until the actual results day. It seems to be almost random who gets theirs earlier i.e. it is not students in a particular country but it may be that the batches of results that are releaseed may be in some sort of sequence.
If the annual report runs from 1 Jan to 31 December then the year end 2023 is unlikely to be in the public domain by before 1 February 2024. So effectively the latest annual report under the 90 day rule will still be 31 Dec 2022..
However you would still be expected to report upon any significant events that may have happened since then up to 1 February (E.g. the introduction of any major new products, the significance of recent changes in the business environment etc.) predominantly though your report will be substantially the same as before. If you were not to submit in May 2024 you would need to include the 2023 Annual report figures and results and any further updates.
This is an interesting topic and involves a combination of theory and practice and financial analysis. The actual models may depend upon how impactful the change will be on the organisation. The suggestions in the Information Pack propose conducting a pre-change SWOT analysis [so at the beginning of the analysis and evaluation] and a post-change SWOT – so probably the last section before your conclusions. Alongside this you would be using ratio analysis to illustrate some of the key changes in the financials as a consequence of the changes.
You might also consider some aspects of change management theory
This is an interesting topic and involves a combination of theory and practice and financial analysis. The actual models may depend upon how impactful the change will be on the organisation. The suggestions in the Information Pack propose conducting a pre-change SWOT analysis [so at the beginning of the analysis and evaluation] and a post-change SWOT – so probably the last section before your conclusions. Alongside this you would be using ratio analysis to illustrate some of the key changes in the financials as a consequence of the changes.
You might also consider some aspects of change management theory
What you need to be aware of is that the normal university year runs from September through to May and work is marked in June so transcripts can be issued in time for September intakes for Masters.
Unfortunately for you P48 work will be marked in July and moderated in August 2024. There is then a further process that effectively means that results will not be confirmed until about a week before they are finally released in the 3rd week of September. Brookes is just not geared up to sending out transcripts any earlier than the end of September.
If you use a mentor who is an academic and has professional standing (i.e. has worked in an accredited university or educational establishment) they might be able to provide an academic reference to support your application based on their experience of your capabilities as a mentee
Reports take longer than a month to prepare so unless this is already half-written no legitimate mentor is likely to take you on at this late stage and you should go for May 2024
You don’t get this information – why would anyone want it anyway if they passed?
It is possible that if you make a formal subject data access request under GDPR regulation (for which there is a nominal charge), they may give the overall score to you but that would not extend to getting a copy of the actual Turnitin report This is because all submissions worldwide (not just OBU’s) are given a system ID number and does not contain your name or any identification that could identify you personally in the public domain and therefore would not constitute ‘personal information’ as defined in the GDPR.
The overall Turnitin score on its own is pretty useless – as with many things the ‘devil is in the detail’ and comes down to what has actually been matched E.g. directly cited legislation forms part of the matching score picked up by Turnitin but is ignored by markers. The actual Turnitin report used by Universities is key but you have no legal grounds IMO to demand this for the reasons I have given above.
What is there justification for asking for this? If they reviewed your work then they already have earlier versions of your work and therefore it does seem odd that they now want the final version.
You would be wise to refuse to give them this because if your work is replicated by another student you could be contacted over potential plagiarism. Obviously your work will have been submitted first and therefore the other person is more likely to be suspected but it could cause you unnecessary stress proving your innocence.
Basically the mentor should not be retaining copies of students’ work after the submission without the students’ full permission – so are at liberty to point this out and refuse their request unless you are satisfied with their motive.
You cannot just appeal because you failed i.e. that you disagree with academic judgement. It is necessary to show that the feedback / reasons for the fail are wrong such as the marker says you failed to include something when this was included.
You do not say what sections you failed. Fail in the Analysis and Evaluation is the hardest area to overturn. This section requires you to use the information you found and draw inferences and explain the significance of it. Very often students just describe the trends and calculate ratios without putting them into a relevant context and therefore although there night be basic analysis this does not reach the standard set out in the Assessment Criteria for a pass
This is true for most students i.e. they have never done any academic work before and are overwhelmed. A good place to start is the OBU mentoring website as they have lots of resources there.
You will need to find an appropriate mentor. Not all mentors are equal when it comes to expertise and experience – word of mouth is a good way of finding one and alternatively we have two recommended mentors. Although a good mentor is not cheap they may save you money overall as if you fail each submission costs GBP 495 currently (so using a less experienced mentor can be a false economy). Also beware of any ‘mention’ who offers to write the report for you and telling you this is standard practice. It most certainly isn’t – it is fraud (and therefore a criminal offence) under UK law as is using a writing service and can result in you being barred from submitting again.
Although you should show the source of all graphs, charts and diagrams as long as your in text referencing is good and your reference list is appropriate it may be overlooked. As you can do nothing about it now, stop worrying!
1. They have to complete the Oxford Brokes online mentoring course by about 25September to be eligible for the November submission period. However unless the person you are electing to use has a good academic background I would recommend that you reflect on their suitability to guide you through the academic process. Pass standards are quite high these days and the submission fee is GBP 495 so using a line manager or similar may be a false economy. Should you fail your first attempt not only can it be upsetting and frustrating, but you will have to pay this amount again for your resubmission and your pass grade subsequently will be restricted to a C grade pass. You are allowed a maximum of 3 attempts to pass.
2. There is additional info on the Oxford Brookes mentoring website about the different topics including YouTube videos. Generally those requiring only secondary data tend to have higher pass rates as students are usually unskilled at conducting adequate interviews and formulating questionnaires (I.e. primary data collection). Try to choose a topic that interests you or may broaden your skill set. It is an opportunity to broaden your horizons!
3. Eligibility can be checked by emailing acca@brookes.ac.uk
The work has to meet all 9 assessment criteria for a pass. Analysis and evaluation is the most commonly failed area along with referencing and presentation of the data. These are areas where a more experienced mentor (as opposed to a novice) could help you overcome your weaknessesOverall there is no communication with the University -again a reason to choose your mentor wisely as an experienced one will ‘know the ropes’.
