Program Closure - IE Business School Operations

Final Exam

General Final Exam Policies

See below in the document section the established final exam policies for undergrad and master programs for the academic year of 2022-2023.

Before

Appointment of Professors

The appointment of professors will take place throughout the year, with the objective of planning the panels for the next academic year.

Moreover, Program Management will provide the Planning Department with the forecast of groups that will present their projects (based on Admissions data), as well as the date of the final exam.

The Planning Department will be responsible for the appointment of professors, taking the following into account:

The panel will be composed of three members from different areas (ideally, one of the three won’t have taught the students to ensure impartiality).
Every panel will have a maximum duration of three hours, thus being able to evaluate a maximum of six groups in that period of time.
It is desirable a balance between associate professors and internal professors, but not mandatory.
Tutors may not be part of the panels to prevent a single professor from having too much influence on the final grade of the students.
In the case of projects that include one representative of a company in the evaluation panel, the other two members will be academics.

Panel Planning

Once the previous phase has been completed, the Planning Department will schedule the appointment on the calendars of the designated professors and will send the information about the composition of the panels (including the name and area of the designated members) to Program Management.

Once the plan has been received, the professors must inform Program Management if they have a laptop or if they will need to borrow one for the day of the panel. Likewise, they will have to inform Program Management in case they need training in order to use the digital evaluation sheet.

Program Management may modify the composition of the panels (respecting the dates and the rules for the appointment of professors) to ensure, if possible, that the members of the panel have knowledge about the industries/areas/sectors relevant for the presentations they will have to evaluate.

Information for Professors

One month before the exam date, Program Directors will contact the members of the panel to:

Confirm the time, day and classroom as well as the names and areas of the members of the panel.
Indicate the numbers of groups to evaluate and which groups the professor will be in charge of as Panel Secretary.
Indicate the types of projects to be evaluated and the needs or particularities of the group.
Send them the guidelines and tasks of the panel.
Provide training to use the digital sheets.
Request a laptop or iPad for each professor that needs to borrow one.

A week before the panel date, Program Management will send the panel members the order of entry of the groups, with a reminder about the distribution of secretaries and the executive summary of the projects to be evaluated.

During

During the three hours of the panel, the Program Management team will supervise its progress.

Students’ Prior Tasks

Students will deliver:

A copy in digital format that will be stored on the virtual classroom desk before the exam session begins.

Program Management’s Prior Tasks

Before the start of the panel, Program Management sends the Executive Summary in digital format for each member of the panel one week before the exam, and must ensure that:

The classroom is prepared and ready for evaluations (laptops, evaluation sheets in digital format and evaluation sheets on paper for back-up).
Program Management introduces the members of the panel and areas to the students once they enter the classsroom.
Students have uploaded a digital copy of their presentation to the classroom desk.
Professors have signed the attendance record.

Evaluation

Each member of the panel will have to evaluate each candidate, indicating their performance with respect to each one of the criteria, using numbers (from 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest possible score).

In the case of Part-time programs, the numbers to evaluate each candidate performance is from 1 to 10, because the Final Exam is part of the course “Entrepreneurial Final Project”, and the professors use that scale to combine Course + the Final Exam.

After

Publication of Grades

The members of the panel may leave the classroom only once the Program Management team has reviewed and agreed that all digital sheets have been completed and stored correctly.

Program Management will be in charge of registering the grades in the corresponding IE platform.

Feedback Appeal

In the event that a group requests feedback, the steps established in the Evaluation System Protocol will be followed (section: Master’s Final Exam).

Preservation of Documents

Program Management will be responsible for:

Collecting evaluation and attendance records as well as the evaluation instruments (final exams and final projects documents).
Completing the final exam registration according to administrative requirements.

All documents will have to be kept to comply with administrative requirements until the end of the next academic year.

Graduation

Upon graduation, a grades transcript for each graduating student must be prepared. Please, see the related document “Handbook for the Credit Transfer in Dual Degrees” for special instructions on how to create the documents for Dual Degrees students.

Additionally, a list of all graduating students must be sent to Nacho Mateo, specifying who has failed to comply with the English Requirement.

Moreover, special arrangements must be made in relation to the following recognitions:

Dean's List

The most outstanding students will obtain the recognition of being part of the “Dean’s List”. Those students, who in their graduation are among the 10% best in their class, will be included in the “Dean’s List”, recognition that they will receive on the day of their graduation and that they can reflect on their résumés. This nomination is based on the GPA accumulated during the program including the qualification obtained in the Final Master’s Project.

Note: Dual Degree students and outgoing Long Exchange students who have not completed their coursework at the time of graduation are also considered for the Dean’s List; however, the GPAs for those students are calculated separately (only including grades for completed terms to date).

The top 10% among those collectives is then identified, and if their GPAs meet or exceed the lowest GPA in the Dean’s List of their non-DD/non-LE peers, their names are added to the general Dean’s List.

In this way, academically outstanding Dual Degree and outgoing Long Exchange students may be recognized without taking away slots from graduating students who have completed all their coursework.

Each Program Experience team may consult the Program Experience Innovation Office if doubts arise regarding these procedures.

Beta Gamma Sigma

The Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society (BGS) is an organization that awards top students enrolled in Business School programs accredited by AACSB International – The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.

The top 20% of the class are eligible for lifetime membership in BGS in recognition of their outstanding academic performance at IE Business School.

The following procedure needs to be followed to organize the BGS ceremony:

* Qualifying students criteria per Program: Undergraduates in the top 10% of their class. Top 20% of master´s students after completing at least half of their program.

** It is advised to set (In BGS’ platform) an earlier ceremony date (2 weeks earlier than the real date) to have enough time to collect signatures upon the reception of the certificates. The list must have a specific format (4 columns: First name, Last name, e-mail, type of program i.e. “Masters”)

*** BGS’ Representative e-mail: iccordova.mbap2010@alumni.ie.edu

(i) BGS’ Portal

To keep in mind:

BGS sends brochures to be displayed the day of the ceremony and key lapel pins for the students receiving their certificates.
Each program should define if and when to send out reminders to students that have not registered/paid.

Best Professor

Graduating students of each program are invited to vote for who they consider to be the best professor. He or she receives an award during the graduation ceremony. Each program is responsible for publishing the invitation and for setting a reminder to vote on Blackboard Ultra.

You can click here to see the document which contains the instructions to create the best professor survey on Blackboard Ultra.

Cuqui Cabanas will define the deadline and will inform Program Management to make the arrangements needed.

Download Forms

Final Exam Documentation