Copyright exceptions for educational purposes

Unlimited manual copies of literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works may be made for the purposes of instruction. This means, for example, that a diagram may be re-drawn on a whiteboard and hand copied by students. This exception does not cover any sort of reprographic copying, e.g. photocopying, although this may be possible under licences held by the University.

For more information visit:

• Copyright Licensing Agency Licence: multiple copies of print resources
• Creating a course pack
• Copying from newspapers
• Copying Crown and Parliamentary copyright materials

Any work, save printed music for performance, may be copied for the purposes of setting and answering questions for an examination or equivalent assessed work. An appropriate acknowledgement of the material copied must be included unless this is impractical, e.g. the student is required to identify the source of the material.

Visit:  Copyright and examinations

Literary, dramatic and musical works may be performed and sound recordings, films and broadcasts may be played or shown to staff and students on University premises for educational purposes only. This exception would not extend to a performance open to members of the public, even if they were simply the parents of students.

Recordings of broadcasts not covered by the ERA (Educational Recording Agency) Licence, or the OU (Open University) Broadcast Licence, may be made for non-commercial educational purposes and shown to staff and students on University premises only.

Sound and videorecordings and broadcasts may be copied for the making of a film or film sound-track by students and/or academic staff involved in the course of instruction, or of preparation for instruction, in the making of films or film sound-tracks. Note, this copying may only be done by the tutor(s) or the student(s) involved in the course.

Visit:  Copyright and sound and video recordings

These are the educational exceptions established by copyright law. Remember, there are other ways in which it is possible to copy and /or use copyright material under the various licences held by the University.

For more information visit:

• Copyright Licensing Agency Licence: multiple copies of print resources
• Creating a course pack
• Copying from newspapers
• Copying Crown and Parliamentary copyright materials
• Copyright and sound and video recordings