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Research Assessment Portal

Terms of Use

Last updated 29 October 2026 · Applies to every account on the OS Digital Education Research Assessment Portal (RAP).

1. About these terms

The Research Assessment Portal ("RAP", "the portal") is operated by OS Digital Education ("the institution") to manage research supervision: topic proposals, chapter and stage submissions, supervisor reviews and corrections, discussions, files, approvals and grading. By signing in you agree to these terms and to the Privacy Policy. These terms sit alongside the institution's own academic regulations, examination rules and ICT policies; where they conflict, the institution's regulations prevail.

2. Accounts and sign-in

  • Accounts are created by the research office or, where permitted, by a supervisor for their own students. There is no public self-registration.
  • You sign in with your e-mail address or your Matriculation Number / Staff ID. Accounts created by import or by an administrator may start with a default password, which you must change at your first sign-in.
  • Keep your password secret and do not share your account. You are responsible for activity carried out under your account. Tell the research office immediately if you suspect misuse.
  • After 5 failed sign-in attempts the account is locked for 15 minutes. An idle session ends after 30 minutes.
  • "Remember me" keeps you signed in on that device until you have been inactive for 30 days or you sign out. Use it only on a personal device. Changing your password signs out every remembered device.
  • The institution may suspend, deactivate or archive an account, for example when a student graduates or leaves, or when these terms are breached.

3. Roles and what each can do

  • Students propose research topics, upload submissions and corrected versions, take part in project discussions and follow the progress of their own project. In group projects, the Super Admin decides which members may submit and start discussions.
  • Supervisors review topics and submissions of the projects they are assigned to, request corrections, approve stages, assign topics, keep a personal research topic bank, grade completed projects and, where enabled, add and manage their own students and send e-mail to the students they supervise or manage.
  • Administrators manage students, supervisors, the academic structure, projects and supervisor assignments, and see institution-wide reports.
  • The Super Admin controls the portal settings, administrator accounts, content moderation, data clean-up and portal-wide announcements.

Each person sees only the records their role and assignments allow. Do not try to reach records you are not entitled to see.

4. Research work, submissions and reviews

  • Every submission is kept as a numbered version. Earlier versions, review decisions, corrections and approvals stay in the project history so that progress can be verified later.
  • Supervisor decisions follow the approval policies set by the institution (for example, lead supervisor only, all supervisors, or a set number). A recorded decision can be changed only through the portal's re-opening process, which keeps the earlier decision in the history.
  • Correction deadlines and review turnaround times shown in the portal are working targets set by the institution. Missing them can be reported to the research office.

5. Academic integrity

Work you submit must be your own, or your group's, except where properly acknowledged. Plagiarism, fabricated data, submitting another person's work and any other academic misconduct are dealt with under the institution's regulations. The portal keeps a timestamped record of what was submitted and when. That record may be used as evidence in any academic integrity process.

6. Acceptable use

You must not:

  • post abusive, discriminatory, threatening or unlawful content in discussions, comments or e-mails;
  • upload malware, or files you have no right to share;
  • attempt to get around access controls, download data in bulk without authorisation, or disrupt the service;
  • use broadcast e-mail for anything other than academic and administrative communication with the people you supervise or manage.

7. Files and uploads

  • Only the file types allowed by the institution can be uploaded, up to 25 MB per file. Files are checked for type and integrity.
  • Files are stored privately and can be downloaded only by signed-in users who are allowed to see the project.
  • You keep the intellectual property in your work. By uploading it you allow the institution to store, copy and display it within the portal for supervision, assessment, moderation and record-keeping.

8. AI-assisted features

The portal includes optional AI features (topic critiques, topic analysis, topic-bank suggestions and suggested grades). They are currently switched off. If the institution switches them on, they will run only when a user asks for them, their output will be advice only, and supervisors will remain responsible for every academic decision.

9. Grades

After a project is completed, each of its supervisors may record an overall score from 0 to 100. The grade shown is the average of the scores recorded so far. It is provisional until confirmed through the institution's examination process. Grades are visible to supervisors and administrators. Students are told their results through the institution's normal channels.

10. E-mail notices and broadcasts

The portal sends e-mails about your account (invitations, password resets) and your research work (decisions, comments, deadlines). You can adjust some notification preferences on your profile, but essential account and workflow messages are always sent. The Super Admin, administrators and supervisors may also send broadcast e-mails to the users they are responsible for.

11. Moderation, records and deletion

  • The Super Admin may edit or remove content that breaks these terms. Removed content goes to a recycle bin and can be restored or permanently deleted. Moderation actions are recorded in the audit log.
  • Accounts with research history are archived rather than erased, so that academic records stay complete. Research records are kept for 7 years, unless the law or the institution's regulations require otherwise.
  • To free storage, the Super Admin may permanently delete old housekeeping data (such as notifications, e-mail logs, AI outputs and files of closed projects) within a chosen date range. Every clean-up is recorded in the audit log.

12. Availability and changes

The institution aims to keep the portal available and secure but does not guarantee uninterrupted service. Keep your own copy of important work. These terms may change when the portal changes; the date at the top shows the latest version. If you keep using the portal after a change, you accept the updated terms.

13. Contact

Questions about these terms? Contact the research office: Send mail.