09 July 2024

What are academic reviews?

Academic reviews are only available for applications at a desk with academic review enabled.

Academic reviews are requested when it is unclear whether an applicant is suitable for a course based on the information in their application. For example, to assess the applicant's qualifications, to check a portfolio of work, decide whether an audition is required, and so on.

Staff who undertake reviews are invited to view applications and make recommendations in the Academic Reviews app. Staff can also be asked to delegate reviews to other reviewers. Recommendations made by reviewers are then used to make decisions on applications.

Applications to a theatre with innovation course must be reviewed to ensure that the applicant's experience and qualifications are suitable for the course. At least one reviewer from the performing arts department must recommend that an offer should be made to the applicant.

Start application and credit reviews

After determining that an application needs to be reviewed, start an academic review and choose the review type as follows:

  • Academic review: to start an application review to receive a recommendation towards the suitability of an application. If unsure on who should review the application, choose to delegate the task to an academic reviewer.

  • Credit review: to receive a recommendation towards the eligibility of a credit offer.

For each application you send for review or delegation, you must define the following:

Reviewers

Staff that review applications or delegate reviews to other staff are defined by person collections with the academic review staff remit. Staff that are asked to delegate reviews are typically senior department members with knowledge of the areas of expertise of the other reviewers. The collection of reviewers is added to each course. The entry point, which is linked to the course, defines the number of required recommendations for the course. If the required staff member is not in the list, you can search for staff with the academic review staff remit.

Deadline
The deadline indicates the preferred date and time for receiving a recommendation. Reviewers can make recommendations after the deadline if the review has not been completed. If no recommendations are received before the deadline, the applicant overview summary is updated. For example, Academic review ended on 10/06/2023 No recommendations.
The deadline includes weekends and non-working hours, therefore if you set a three-day deadline at 09:00 on Friday the deadline expires on Monday at 09:00.
Note
Add a note to clarify why the review is being requested. For example, Does the theatre and production experience detailed in the personal statement meet the requirements of the course?.

Starting an application review does the following:

  • Updates the review status to Awaiting.

  • Moves the application to the Academic review in-progress folder. Note that the default folder name can be changed in reference data.

  • Sends an email to the selected reviewers using the template Notify staff of academic review delegation, Notify staff of academic review request, or Notify staff of credit review request as appropriate.

  • For delegated reviews, a banner on the review indicates that the review is awaiting delegation to reviewers.

For each review that is in progress, you can add or remove reviewers. For example, to remove a reviewer who is on annual leave and then add a replacement reviewer.

You can also cancel a review. For example, if an application has been sent for review in error, new information is received from the applicant, and so on. When cancelling a review, you must choose the folder that the application moves to, such as Ready for decision. The status of any outstanding reviews is updated to Not required. The review is also removed from the Academic Reviews app.

Only one review can be in-progress at a time. However, a new review can be started after a review has been completed or cancelled. For example, if new information is received that may change the recommendations. Previous reviews can be viewed on the application.

To help manage reviews, the actions of desks shows the application and credit reviews that are awaiting review or the recommendation to be reviewed. Application reviews also have the reviews that are awaiting delegation.

View recommendations

When a reviewer makes a recommendation in the Academic Reviews app, the status of the review is updated with their recommendation and the application moves to the Academic review complete folder. Note that the default folder name can be changed in reference data.

Academic reviews

For academic reviews, the status describes the recommendation for the application as detailed in the table Recommendations – Application review.

Recommendations – Application review
Status Description
Offer Conditional or unconditional offer.
Reject Reject the application.
Alternative Conditional or unconditional offer for an alternative course.
Interview Interview to determine the applicant's suitability.

For each recommendation, you can then select the review to view the full details of the recommendation, including the reason for the recommendation, such as This applicant is suitable for the course providing they get the required grades, as shown in the image Offer recommendation.

Offer recommendation
Image showing a recomendation for a conditional offer

Credit reviews

For credit reviews, the status describes the recommendation as detailed in the table Recommendations – Credit review.

Recommendations – Credit review
Status Description
Recommend Recommend the credit offer.
Reject Reject the credit offer.

For each recommendation, you can view the reason for the recommendation, such as This application is eligible for a credit offer that results in anew entry point, as shown in the image Credit recommendation. However, the units and unit levels of the credit offer are detailed on the Selection and credit tab.

Credit recommendation
Image showing a recomendation for a credit offer

Complete an academic review

After the minimum number of recommendations are received, you can complete the review. If you have received different recommendations, you should follow the institution's policies to decide which recommendation should be used.

On completing the review, the status of any outstanding reviews is updated to Not completed as shown in the table Statuses after completion. After completing the review, no more recommendations can be made and the review is removed from the Academic Reviews app.

Statuses after completion
Reviewers Assigned date Completion date Status
Arlo Littel 21/08/2023 None Not completed
Bessie Runte 21/08/2023 21/08/2023 Interview
Daisy Bogan 21/08/2023 22/08/2023 Offer
Idella Dach 21/08/2023 21/08/2023 Offer

Demonstration

The video Academic review demonstration shows the review process for an application delegation and application review. Credit reviews follow the same process as application reviews with the differences described above. The process for academic reviews is as follows:

  1. Start an academic review
  2. Choose a delegator
  3. Choose reviewers
  4. Reviews and recommendations
  5. Complete an academic review
  6. Complete video (academic reviews)

Academic review demonstration