Coursework is an integral part of the degree programme. Coursework is designed to help you apply knowledge associated with a course and to practice certain skills. This means that regardless of the assessment weighting associated with it, you are strongly advised to apply yourself to the work you are set.

For computer science subjects coursework is often a significant component of the assessment for most courses. You can find out how much of the assessment for a particular course is associated with coursework from links to course syllabi. For some courses it is considered essential that you make a serious attempt at the coursework to be eligible to sit for examination in that course. This information is also available for each course on its syllabus description.

All students are expected to be able to organise their time and behave professionally towards their studies. This means that deadlines for courseworks are firm deadlines, the department operates a consistent policy of penalties for late submission of coursework. The rules for late submission of coursework are described here.

If you are experiencing difficulties with any of your work for personal, health or other serious reasons you should inform the lecturer concerned as early as possible or discuss matters with your personal tutor or the course director in confidence. Medical certificates or other appropriate documentation must be submitted where deferred submission of work is sought.

Plagiarism is treated with the utmost seriousness at UCL generally, including here in the Department of Computer Science.  You should note that UCL has now signed up to use a sophisticated detection system (JISC Turn-It-In) to scan work for evidence of plagiarism, and the Department intends to use this for assessed coursework.  This system gives access to billions of sources worldwide, including websites and journals, as well as work previously submitted to the Department, UCL and other universities. It is your responsibility to make sure you understand our procedures, if you have any doubt at all as to what we might construe as plagiarism in a particular situation you should discuss your work with the lecturers concerned or with your personal tutor.

Further detailed information about coursework is given on the Teaching Matters web page.