Contents

General Guidelines 2

Deferral Policy 2

MICA Assessment Policy

2

Assessment Structure 3

Code of Conduct 4

Assessment and Grading of Timelines 4

Guidelines for re-evaluation 5

Class Participation - Discussion Forum Process 6

Escalation Matrix 6

Appendix 7

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General Guidelines

● Every specialization course is of 6 weeks duration.

● It starts after the Base Program is over.
● A separate fee will apply if a learner chooses to opt for an additional specialization
course after the main program begins. He/she can check with the upGrad buddy about
the same.
● Certificates will be issued on completion of the base program and the specializations
that the learner has enrolled in and will be awarded to the learner for the programs
(base program and specializations) in which they have obtained at least 40%.
● In case you do not meet the minimum passing criteria, you will not be eligible for a
Completion certificate once you complete the specialisation.
● At a time, access is shared only to one Specialization course. We do not share access
to more than one specialization course.

Deferral Policy

In case of taking a break between any two specialization courses, OR in starting the 1st
specialization course, there will be a deferral fee applicable, which will be 10% of the
applicable specialization fee at that time.

MICA Assessment Policy

As a general MICA assessment policy, assessments are divided into formative and summative
without emphasizing a single evaluation. Hence, a variety of assessment formats are planned
to mirror the workplace today and global university standards.

● In-module Quizzes and individual assignments will assess participants on conceptual

clarity.
● Class participation via Discussion Forum allows one to learn faster by clearing peer
doubts and accelerating learning for the overall cohort.

The academic committee regularly deliberates on the academic structure and the
program’s grading elements, and it holds the right to change any components of it. Any
changes to the grading elements or the program’s academic structure will be
communicated to the learners in advance.

It is recommended that participants focus on learning as opposed to solely focusing on

assessment scores. Given that it is a Post-Graduate program, participants are expected to

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 do research independently during the learning process and deal with ambiguous
assessment scenarios.

Assessment Structure

Assessment Components and Respective Weights

The Post-Graduate program comprises three different assessment components. Their

distribution and weightage:

Type of assessment Subset

Quizzes – 40% weightage Graded MCQs (At the end of the session/module)

Case studies – 60% weightage Individual case studies

Please note - Specialization will be separately evaluated and graded.

To get the Specialisation certificate after the program, you must achieve an overall
percentage of 40%. You are strongly recommended to put in the effort to make sure that you
meet these criteria.

If you choose to consume content at your own pace, you will have access to content just like
your peers and will be given feedback on your submissions. You would not be eligible for the
certificate. In this case, however, you will qualify for a letter of completion if you have
completed all the modules that are part of the program and also score 40% and above in the
graded questions (MCQs). The 40% score in the graded questions is on the program’s overall
level and not restricted to any course or module.

Grade Improvement Opportunity (GIO)

We understand that in a rare scenario, due to unforeseen circumstances, one may not
meet the above criteria for passing the Program. We do not want such instances to make
a learner ineligible for receiving the certificate. In such cases, when the overall
percentage is at least 35%, a Grade Improvement Opportunity (GIO) is given to the learner
to help them get through the program and be eligible for getting the certificate.
1. A maximum of one GIO can be availed by a learner towards the end of the program.
2. If a student scores less than 50% in GIO or does not appear, they fail the Program and
become ineligible for the PG certificate.

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 3. GIO will be decided by the academic committee and will be in the form of an
assignment or any other assessment mode as deemed fit by the Academic Committee.
4. Your Grade Sheet and Certificate will be on hold till you clear the GIO.

Code of Conduct

Any form of plagiarism, cheating or collusion is strictly prohibited (definitions provided in the
Appendix on page 7).

Plagiarism in any form for any graded individual/group assessment is not acceptable.

Participants cannot request the final solution or share the solution for any graded question on
any platform. Any violation on this count will result in a zero score for that question or
assignment. If a participant violates this count a second time, the MICA Academic Committee will
decide upon the necessary disciplinary action.

Further, any form of plagiarism and impersonation, including participants presenting others’ work
as their own, sharing solutions with each other, etc., will not be accepted. The submissions by
the learners will be subjected to random plagiarism checks to ensure compliance.

Learners may also be subjected to viva in assignments by industrial experts/upGrad to ensure

that the learner has independently worked on the submissions. This viva component may or may
not have weightage (will be informed in prior). The learner should be available over
phone/video calls at the communicated time for the same.
The MICA Academic Committee has the final authority to decide upon the required disciplinary
action in case of plagiarism and impersonation.

Similarly, misbehavior on any online or offline forums will not be accepted, and participants will
face appropriate disciplinary action. upGrad does not tolerate any form of bullying and/or
harassment including but not limited to sexual harassment. If we are notified of any act of
harassment committed by a learner towards co-learners or upGrad's representative, such learner
shall have to face strict consequences, which shall be taken at the sole discretion of upGrad.

Assessment and Grading Timelines

Assessment Submission Timelines

The program is structured so that the entire cohort can experience a course together.

A calendar with all module and assignment deadlines for the upcoming course would be shared
with the learner via email. It would be visible on the platform calendar before the beginning of
that course. The deadlines for the individual assessments are non-negotiable except in dire
circumstances.

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If assignments are submitted after these stated deadlines, but within one week after the
deadline, they will be graded on 70% of the assessment’s total marks (applicable on both Quizzes
and assignments). This second deadline is also termed as the Hard deadline. Beyond the Hard
deadline, the obtained submissions will be graded and given feedback but will attract a penalty
of 100%. Feedback is given for learners’ understanding, but the marks would be considered zero
for all official purposes. E.g., If you are in London and following BST (British Summer Time),
which is UTC +1, then the deadline for you in local time would be 7:29:00 PM BST if the deadline
in India is 11:59:00 PM IST.

Deadline extension policy

As mentioned earlier, these deadlines are non-negotiable except under dire circumstances
such as a significant health issue, Acts of God, etc. In such cases, you may be given an
extension of up to 1 week at the sole discretion of upGrad and the University. This means that
you can submit your assignment up to one week after the deadline without the 30% penalty.
However, no extension shall be given beyond the hard deadline (one week after the deadline)
as the solutions are released the very next day. Here are the guidelines for the same:

1. A learner can avail a maximum of 2 extensions during the entire program period.
2. No extensions shall be given beyond the hard deadline (one week after the deadline), as
solutions are usually released a day after the hard deadline.
3. Learners can avail an extension on the learn platform. An option of “request extension”
is available on all graded modules and assignments. The extension needs to be availed
before the grades have been published.
4. Learners need to be very careful while uploading their submissions on the platform. Any
wrong file extension request post the assignment/case study’s first (soft) deadline will
attract a penalty of 30% on the revised submission. No incorrect file extension requests
will be entertained after the second (hard) deadline.

Guidelines for re-evaluation

1. The re-evaluation request (if any) should be submitted within three days of the
declaration of the results. E.g., if results were declared on 13/08/2019, then the
requests for re-evaluation made till 16/08/2019 (end of the day) will be
considered.
2. Learners will be able to place the re-evaluation request on the learning platform itself.
3. A learner may request a re-evaluation of his/her assignment, claiming discrepancy of
marks (compared with the ideal solution). In such cases, the learner should point out the
specific portion (Q. No.) of the assignment that is required to be re-evaluated plus
remarks regarding the claimed discrepancy. Requests that do not have all this
information or are very generic/vague in nature will be flagged as invalid and not be
considered. Note: If the claim for discrepancy of marks holds invalid, the learner will
be awarded a penalty of 15% points (of the total points)
4. A re-evaluation request claiming discrepancy of marks (compared with other learner’s
graded assignments) is highly discouraged and will NOT be considered for re-evaluation.

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 Note: If any such requests are made, the learner will be awarded a penalty of 15% points
(of the total points)
5. A re-evaluation request for an assignment after the above-mentioned timeline will not be
considered and is highly discouraged.
6. All re-evaluation requests will be responded to anytime up to 2 weeks after the
re-evaluation deadline.

Class Participation - Discussion Forum Process

The discussion forum is designed for participants to help create a strong learning
community. Participants are encouraged to respond to peer questions as it will also help
reinforce their learning.
Participants are requested to post only academic questions on the discussion forum.
Teaching associates (TAs) will respond to questions directly related to the program
content and assessments. They will either verify participant answers or respond to the
questions within 24 hours of being posted.
Faculty and TAs will not take any action on general posts meant to facilitate
discussion among peers. Inappropriate posts that are of no learning value will be
deleted.
Since there are no marks for Discussion Forum interaction, the learners are
advised to make the most of the platform by posting program-relevant questions
and helping their peers by answering their questions. Please do not copy-paste
answers from a website. If a learner does copy from another website, sharing
the source link is mandatory while answering the question.

Escalation Matrix
In case the student support team is unable to provide you with a resolution to the issue within
a TAT of 24hrs and you also do not receive an ETA on the same, please make use of the
escalation matrix mentioned below. Based on the kind of queries, three levels have been
defined in the Escalation Matrix as follows:

Type of Query Point of Contact

Non-Academic Queries (for ex. live Your upGrad buddy

sessions, program-related queries)

Content Related Issues/Queries Click the "Report an Error" button on the

(If you have any issues/queries regarding bottom-left-corner of the session page
the content in a session)

If you are not satisfied with the resolution [email protected]

provided, write to -

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Appendix

Definitions:

Plagiarism: Plagiarism is an act of Academic Misconduct that is deemed to cover deliberate

attempts to gain an unfair advantage in assessments. This includes attempts to cheat, plagiarise,
unauthorised collusion or any other deliberate attempt to gain an unfair advantage in
summatively assessed work. Summative assessments include all forms of written work (including
in-class tests), e-assessments, presentations, demonstrations, viva voices, recognition of prior
learning portfolios and all forms of examination.
It includes the representation of the work, artefacts or designs, written or otherwise, of any
other person, from any source whatsoever, as a student's own. Examples of plagiarism include (a)
the verbatim copying of another's work without clear identification and acknowledgement,
including the downloading of materials from the Internet without proper referencing of
materials; (b) the paraphrasing of another's work by simply changing a few words or altering the
order of presentation without clear identification and acknowledgement; (c) the unidentified and
unacknowledged quotation of phrases from another's work; (d) and the deliberate and detailed
presentation of another's concept as one's own.

Cheating: The falsification of data, the presentation of another's data as one's own and any other
forms of misrepresentation to gain an advantage; the submission of work for assessment that has
already been submitted as all or part of the assessment for another course; and the submission of
material purchased or commissioned from a third party, such as an essay-writing, project
completion service, as one's own.

Collusion: The conscious collaboration, without official approval, between two or more students
in the preparation and production of work that is ultimately submitted by each in an identical or
substantially similar form and/or is represented by each to be the product of their individual
efforts; and instances where there is unauthorised cooperation between a student and another
person in the preparation and production of work that is presented, as the student's own.