Guidelines for MSAFP Students

Prescribed Books and Unit Readings

Students are required to purchase all the prescribed texts for each Unit.  Unit readings and prescribed books are available from the Van Schaik bookshop on our campus and the purchase of these texts is considered important for the academic success of the student.

Attendance

Attendance at all classes is compulsory with register taken at the beginning of sessions.  An 85% attendance is mandatory to be eligible to sit examinations in any unit.  Mutual respect and good classroom habits are expected.

Assignments and Tutorials

All tutorials and assignments with related assessment criteria are detailed in the relevant unit guides.  Unless otherwise specified, assignments are to be Word processed.  Specific conventions for the presentation and submission of assignments are clearly stipulated in the student handbook.  It is worth noting that correct referencing is always expected.  It is also important to remember to keep an up-to-date electronic and hard copy database of all submitted assignments to safeguard against the loss of work through accident or error.

Plagiarism, Cheating and Collusion

A very dim view is taken on plagiarism, as this is a severe offence in an academic institution.  There are specific policies that deal with plagiarism, cheating and collusion, which are all referenced in the student handbook and elsewhere.

Monash South Africa and Monash University are actively committed to preventing plagiarism, cheating and collusion for the protection of its reputation and standards for current and future students.

Severe penalties may be imposed on students who engage in, or who support other students engaged in, activities which seek to undermine the integrity of the unit assessment process.

Plagiarism – means to take and use another person’s ideas and/or manner of expressing them and to pass them off as your own by failing to give appropriate acknowledgement.

Cheating - means seeking to obtain an unfair advantage in an examination or in other written or practical work required to be submitted or completed by a student for assessment.

Collusion – is the presentation of work which is the result in whole or in part of unauthorised collaboration with another person or persons.

Due Dates and Extensions

The due dates for the submission of assignments are given in the unit guides. All assignments must have an assignment cover stapled to them. If extensions are granted, in exceptional cases, a late assignment submission penalty of 5% per day will be incurred.

Where medical reasons exist for late submission of work required, a medical certificate, issued by a registered medical practitioner, is required.

Late Assignments

If you are late in applying for an extension or you don’t have a good reason, you should still submit the work, but 5% of the total marks available for that assessment component will be deducted for each day late.

Consultation

Teachers will be available for individual or group consultation with students each week.  Their available times will be communicated to students during the second week of teaching.   Students may not see their teachers outside of consultation time unless requested by the teacher.

Consultation with teachers gives students the opportunity to clarify concepts, do revision, help with assignments and reinforce learning.  A teacher may ask a student to attend consultation for enrichment or remediation purposes.

Lines of communication and support for students

Liaison with your relevant teacher regarding any academic issues relating to the particular unit is required while  all other academic issues must be directed to the Head of the MSAFP. 

Any personal challenges may be discussed confidentially with the Mentor Programme Leader.

Any issues relating to enrolment or fees should be put forward to Student Services.

Student tutor-mentors are available for consultation on academic and social areas of concern and class representatives are also elected to provide a further channel of communication.  The class representatives attend regular meetings with the academic staff in which both parties can raise issues of importance.

Continuous Improvement

Monash is committed to ‘Excellence in education’ and strives for the highest possible quality in teaching and learning.

To monitor how successful we are in providing quality teaching and learning Monash regularly seeks feedback from students, employers and staff. One of the key formal ways students have to provide feedback is through Unit Evaluation Surveys.

Over the past few years the Monash South Africa Foundation Programme has made a number of improvements to its courses as a result of unit evaluation feedback. Some of these benefits include a more co-ordinated approach to teaching and learning, clarification of assessment criteria and consistent assignment submission and return procedures.

MSAFP shared drive 

The MSAFP staff use this facility, which accessible from anywhere on campus, to communicate important subject-specific information to students.

Teachers may place information on the shared drive and may ask students to print notes from this drive.  Note – no handouts are given to students.  Any notes required for printing are the student’s responsibility.

Teachers will also make use of Moodle as a learning and communication portal during the semester.

Library Access

The Monash University Library site contains details about borrowing rights and catalogue searching.  To learn more about the library and the various resources available, please go to http://www.lib.monash.ac.za/

Tutorials

Attendance at tutorial sessions is compulsory. Weekly tutorials are assessed and will contribute to the final semester result.

Teaching and Learning Method

At the University we try to avoid a “top-down” approach in lectures so there is a lot of two-way interaction during the lectures every week.  As a student you are expected to participate actively in lectures, having done your prescribed pre-reading in advance of the lectures for each week.  The content for each week is dealt with in the lecture sessions.

Class sizes for tutorials are smaller and give you the opportunity to work closely with your teacher and peers. Written exercises, debate, discussion, question and answer and analysis are common features of tutorials. Team work through learning circles, individual work, pair work and sharing understandings and challenges related to course work are some of the methods of teaching and learning in tutorials.

Mentoring 

The demands of being at university often highlight a wide range of social, academic and personal issues that combine to produce feelings of stress or anxiety within oneself.  Many students experience difficulties with such issues and have problems organising themselves and their time efficiently.  There are many commitments which can be overwhelming, and while it is not possible to reduce the number of these commitments, it is possible to redefine the way you approach them and the manner in which you deal with problems.

The MSAFP Mentoring Programme has been established to help students cope with new situations and any challenge they may experience.  All MSAFP students are encouraged to make use of this service.  MSAFP staff and undergraduate tutor-mentors aim to help students settle in to university campus life and achieve academic success. 

Assessment

Although mark allocations will differ from unit to unit all assessments across the board are standardised in terms of their weightings.  Summarised assessment weightings per unit in the MSAFP:  CASS (continuous assessment) – 50%; Exam 50%