The University of Manchester
POLICY ON ANONYMOUS MARKING
All examination scripts are to be marked anonymously.
The purpose of anonymous marking is to eliminate any bias which might exist on the part of examiners and to reassure students of the impartiality of the marking process. The University’s scheme of anonymous marking enhances objectivity and has been found by many staff to genuinely obscure the identity of candidates.
Instructions for staff on the procedures to be followed are given below.
It is the responsibility of the Department to inform students taking its courses that their examination scripts will be marked anonymously, and what procedures they (the students) must follow during and at the end of the examination (see below). All academic staff in the Department, obviously, need to know themselves what procedures they must follow.
Candidates ensure that their University registration number is written on the front cover of each examination answer book they have used and their name (and degree programme, year and signature) written in the box in the top right-hand corner of the cover. This box is then folded and stuck down at the end of the examination, thus obscuring the candidate's name. Invigilators are required to carry out a simple check that the total number of scripts for the anonymously marked examination which are collected match the number of candidates given on the attendance list supplied (allowing of course for any absentees). It is not possible, obviously, for invigilators to check scripts against names on the attendance list, nor for the scripts to be collated in alphabetical order, which is the procedure which would have been followed for scripts not marked anonymously. Invigilators should require students to remain seated at the end of the examination until all the answerbooks are collected as, in an anonymous-marking system, this is a valuable means of preventing answerbooks being mislaid.
Examiners will receive a sealed package of scripts, with corners stuck down obscuring students’ names, together with the normal mark/attendance list. Once the marking has been completed by the examiner, and by the second examiner if the scripts are double-marked, the batch of scripts (and the mark list) is handed over to another person (eg an academic colleague, or departmental secretary) who unfolds (or slits open) the top-corners of each of the scripts allowing the transfer of marks to the mark sheet by name (and not by registration number). Anonymity ends at this point. Departments must assure themselves that there is a mechanism for checking that marks have been accurately transferred from scripts to mark grids.
It is left entirely up to individual Departments as to whether they wish to carry the anonymity of the process further, but the University’s requirement is simply that anonymity should extend to the point of completion of marking. Some Departments take candidate anonymity through to Examiners’ Meetings, but this is not a requirement of the University’s scheme. Where this is done, it is recommended that mark sheets should be drawn up which have the student’s number alongside the name. The top-corners of the scripts should be opened so that the marks can be transferred to the mark sheets by name and the mark sheets should then be folded or trimmed so that only the numbers are visible to members of the Examination Board.
Under the University’s scheme of anonymous marking staff in Departments are required to unfold the top-corners of scripts and put the scripts in alphabetical order. (Previously this latter task would of course be undertaken by the invigilators in the examination room for non-anonymously marked examinations.) Processing of marks can be carried out in exactly the same way as it would have been done for non-anonymously marked examinations.
For Departments choosing to extend the anonymity of the scheme further, it is most important that great care is taken in transferring marks from scripts to mark lists or grids using students’ registration numbers. It is essential, of course, to avoid errors. Similarly, great care is needed in Examiners’ Meetings during discussion of borderline candidates or candidates with special circumstances or medical evidence, if names are not mentioned and the anonymity of the process is being continued.
The University has adopted a standard answer book of 8 pages for use in all examinations. The covers of these books are available in 5 different colours, to allow random variation from one examination to another, as a security measure.
Staff may wish to know that the University has produced an ‘Examined Coursework Cover Sheet’ for students’ assessed coursework and these are used in a very similar way to the examination room answer book. Students attach a cover sheet to their essay (or other work), complete the details in the box in the top right-hand corner of the sheet and fold and stick the corner down before handing their work in. It is important that students do not write their name on any of the pages they attach to the cover sheet (so that proper anonymity is preserved), but that they do write their registration number on each sheet (in case pages should become detached from the cover sheet for any reason). Supplies of these cover sheets are available on request from the Awards & Examinations Office.