types of assignment policy

Assignment in Insurance Policy | Meaning | Explanation | Types

Table of Contents

• 1 What is Assignment in an Insurance Policy?
• 2 Who can make an assignment?
• 3 What happens to the ownership of the policy upon Assignment?
• 4 Can assignment be changed or cancelled?
• 5 What happens if the assignment dies?
• 6 What is the procedure to make an assignment?
• 7 Is it necessary to Inform the insurer about assignment?
• 8 Can a policy be assigned to a minor person?
• 9 Who pays premium when a policy is assigned?
• 10.1 1. Conditional Assignment
• 10.2 2. Absolute Assignment

What is Assignment in an Insurance Policy?

Assignment means a complete transfer of the ownership of the policy to some other person. Usually assignment is done for the purpose of raising a loan from a bank or a financial institution .

Assignment is governed by Section 38 of the Insurance Act 1938 in India. Assignment can also be done in favour of a close relative when the policyholder wishes to give a gift to that relative. Such an assignment is done for “natural love and affection”. An example, a policyholder may assign his policy to his sister who is handicapped.

Who can make an assignment?

A policyholder who has policy on his own life can assign the policy to another person. However, a person to whom a policy has been assigned can reassign the policy to the policyholder or assign it to any other person. A nominee cannot make an assignment of the policy. Similarly, an assignee cannot make a nomination on the policy which is assigned to him.

What happens to the ownership of the policy upon Assignment?

When a policyholder assign a policy, he loses all control on the policy. It is no longer his property. It is now the assignee’s property whether the policyholder is alive or dead, the assignee alone will get the policy money from the insurance company.

If the assignee dies, then his (assignee’s) legal heirs will be entitled to the policy money.

Can assignment be changed or cancelled?

An assignment cannot be changed or cancelled. The assignee can of course, reassign the policy to the policyholder who assigned it to him. He can also assign the policy to any other person because it is now his property. We can think of a bank reassigning the policy to the policyholder when their loan is repaid.

What happens if the assignment dies?

If the assignee dies, the assignment does not get cancelled. The legal heirs of the assignee become entitled to the policy money. Assignment is a legal transfer of all the interests the policyholder has in the policy to the assignee.

What is the procedure to make an assignment?

Assignment can be made only after issue of the policy bond. The policyholder can either write out the wording on the policy bond (endorsement) or write it on a separate paper and get it stamped. (Stamp value is the same, as the stamp required for the policy — Twenty paise per one thousand sum assured). When assignment is made by an endorsement on the policy bond, there is no need for stamp because the policy is already stamped.

Is it necessary to Inform the insurer about assignment?

Yes, it is necessary to give information about assignment to the insurance company. The insurer will register the assignment in its records and from then on recognize the assignee as the owner of the policy. If someone has made more than one assignment, then the date of the notice will decide which assignment has priority. In the case of reassignment also, notice is necessary.

Can a policy be assigned to a minor person?

Assignment can be made in favour of a minor person. But it would be advisable to appoint a guardian to receive the policy money if it becomes due during the minority of the assignee.

Who pays premium when a policy is assigned?

When a policy is assigned normally, the assignee should pay the premium, because the policy is now his property. In practice, however, premium is paid by the assignor (policyholder) himself. When a bank gives a loan and takes the assignment of a policy a security, it will ask the assignor himself to pay the premium and keep it in force. In the case of an assignment as a gift, the assignor would like to pay the premium because he has gifted the policy.

Types of assignment

Assignment may take two forms:

• Conditional Assignment.
• Absolute Assignment.

1. Conditional Assignment

It would be useful where the policyholder desires the benefit of the policy to go to a near relative in the event of his earlier death. It is usually effected for consideration of natural love and affection. It generally provides for the right to revert the policyholder in the event of the assignee predeceasing the policyholder or the policyholder surviving to the date of maturity.

2. Absolute Assignment

This assignment is generally made for valuable consideration. It has the effect of passing the title in the policy absolutely to the assignee and the policyholder in no way retains any interest in the policy. The absolute assignee can deal with the policy in any manner he likes and may assign or transfer his interest to another person.

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Understanding Life Insurance Assignments: Your Complete Guide

A life insurance assignment allows you to transfer the rights of your policy, either temporarily or permanently.

Learn how collateral and absolute assignments can be used for loan collateral, estate planning, and other financial purposes.

Medicaid Planning

What is a collateral assignment.

Collateral assignments are used to secure a lender’s financial interest in your policy in exchange for lending you money.

If you die, the collateral assignment allows the lender to collect your policy’s death benefit up to the amount of the outstanding loan balance.

How Do Collateral Assignments Work?

A typical scenario involves taking out a business loan .

The lender may require a life insurance policy as collateral.

The type of life insurance policy used, whether a term, whole life, or universal life doesn’t matter.

The insurance policy will pay off the balance if you die while the loan is outstanding.

One of the most common uses for collateral assignments is with SBA loans , especially if you do not have other assets to post as collateral.

The collateral assignment applies to the entire policy, including any life insurance rider benefits that may be included.

The Collateral Assignment Process: A Step-by-Step Guide

The process is similar whether you are adding the assignment to an existing policy or buying new coverage.

There are two parties to a collateral assignment.

• Assignor – Is the owner of the life insurance policy
• Assignee – Is the lender

Life insurance companies have standardized forms used for this purpose.

• The owner completes the form and sends it to the lender for review and signature.
• Once completed by the lender, the form is sent to the insurance company.
• The insurance company records the assignment and confirms to the owner and lender that it is complete.

This may all seem confusing if you haven’t used an assignment before, but the reality is that most life insurers make it pretty easy to complete.

Releasing a Collateral Assignment

When you pay off your loan, you have the right to have the collateral assignment released.

It’s a simple process :

• The policy owner completes the form and sends it to the lender.
• The lender signs off on the release. Many companies require a notary as a witness. The lender may return the form to the owner or the insurance company.
• Once completed and returned to the insurance company, the release is recorded, and all parties are notified.

Companies typically complete this process in about a week, and it’s a good idea to confirm everything with the home office to avoid potential issues.

Your agent can help with this.

What Happens to a Collateral Assignment if You Die?

How do collateral assignments work when you die?

Your beneficiary will file a death claim with the life insurer at some point.

Collateral Assignment Tip # 1

If your beneficiary is a loved one, it’s a good idea to let them know that your policy has a collateral assignment so they are not surprised when they file the claim.

Here’s an example of how a death claim with a collateral assignment works:

• Policy Face Amount = $5,000,000
• Beneficiary = Your Spouse
• Original Bank Loan = $200,000
• Outstanding Loan Balance at Death = $100,000

What happens next?

• Your beneficiary will file the death claim with the life insurance company.
• The life insurance company will review the claim and see a collateral assignment attached to your policy.
• The life insurer contacts the lender for an updated payoff figure.
• Payoff amounts are sent directly to the lender.
• Your beneficiary receives the balance of the policy death benefit .

For the above example, your lender would receive $100,000, and your beneficiary would receive the remaining $4,900,000.

Collateral Assignment Tip # 2

NEVER name your lender directly as a beneficiary. If you do, the lender will receive the entire death benefit, and your intended beneficiary will have to go through the lender to receive their share.

Collateral Assignments and Health Issues

While lenders may want a life insurance policy as collateral, obtaining life insurance can sometimes be difficult if the insured has substantial health issues .

If you have an existing life insurance policy in effect, you can use that for the assignment.

Another option that exists in some states is contingent coverage.

Contingent coverage is a one-year policy that you can renew.

The policy will exclude death from the known health issue but provide coverage for new health issues that develop or from accidental deaths .

Many lenders accept this coverage when it’s the only option available. And we’ve also seen lenders waive the collateral assignment requirement at times.

What is an Absolute Assignment?

An absolute assignment is a change of ownership of the policy.

When you want to permanently relinquish your rights to the life insurance policy, an absolute assignment is used.

Examples where absolute assignments are used include:

Life Insurance Settlements

1035 exchange, gifting life insurance to charities, irrevocable life insurance trusts (ilit), business insurance planning.

With this transaction, you are selling your life insurance policy to a third party.

If it is a term policy, you would convert a term policy to permanent insurance before it is sold. In some cases, a company will buy the term policy.

Another example may involve admitting seniors to a nursing home, where the nursing home may take over the policy you have.

A 1035 exchange is a tax-free transfer of cash value from universal life or whole life policy to another similar policy.

You can use absolute assignments to transfer your policy to your favorite charity.

You use absolute assignments to transfer your policy to an ILIT permanently.

An example would be a survivorship policy you and your spouse own that you are transferring to the trust.

Many other potential issues may arise with transfers to an ILIT that are beyond the scope of this article.

If you purchase key person life insurance on an employee, absolute assignments transfer ownership to the employee.

Many times, this happens if the employee leaves the company or retires.

You may have a policy permanently assigned to a nursing home or assisted living facility to help with long-term care expenses.

How Do Absolute Assignments Work?

Life insurance companies have forms used for Absolute Assignments.

Absolute assignment forms require:

• Current owner name, address, and tax ID information.
• New owner name, address, and tax ID information.
• Relationship to the proposed insured.
• Spousal consent in some states and situations.

The completed forms are submitted to the insurance company, recorded, and confirmations are sent to all parties.

Frequently Asked Questions About Life Insurance Assignments

You may have questions about your life insurance assignment and how it works.

The following are general guidelines, as each situation is uniquely different.

Can the collateral assignment change the beneficiary?

No, the collateral assignment does not change the beneficiary.

The life insurance assignment gives the lender the right to receive proceeds equal to their outstanding loan balance.

Can a business be a beneficiary in a collateral assignment of life insurance?

A business can be the beneficiary of a life insurance policy that is collaterally assigned.

Final Words

Life insurance assignments are common for absolute and collateral assignments.

What is most important is that you understand what is involved with this process.

That’s where we’ll help you make the best decision for your life insurance.

There is never any pressure or obligation with our life insurance service.

Please take a few minutes to submit your quote request today. Thank you.

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• Policy Assignment
• Assign Policy to New Owner

Assign policy to new owner

Assigning a policy to a new owner, also called an absolute assignment, is a transfer of ownership from the assured (assignor) to another person or company/institution (assignee). 

The assignee becomes the new policy owner and assumes full legal rights over the policy. All proceeds, including surrender, maturity, and claims will be payable to the assignee.

A policy can be assigned if both assignor and assignee are of sound mind, not bankrupt or under duress, and if the policy is:

• Not using CPF/SRS funds for premium payments
• Not effected under trust
• Not used to be exempted from CPF Board's Home Protection Scheme (HPS)
• Allowed to be assigned under the plan

Additionally, the assignor must be at least 18 years old. For policies issued on or after 1 March 2009, the assignee must be at least 18 years old. For policies issued before 1 March 2009, the assignee must be at least 21 years old.

How to assign a policy to a new owner

Both the assignor and assignee must come to our Customer Service Centre at the following address with their NRICs:

1 Pickering Street Great Eastern Centre #01-01 Singapore 048659

If the assignment is made between spouses, parent and child, or siblings, and relationship can be established by producing a marriage or birth certificate, they need not be present at our Customer Service Centre. You can call our Customer Service Officers at 1800 248 2888 for assistance in making the assignment.

Questions and Answers

No. Once a policy is absolutely assigned, the policy ownership will belong to the assignee. However, the policy ownership can be transferred back to you provided the assignee agrees to it. A new assignment will need to be done.

You can still assign the policy if the nomination made is a revocable nomination. The revocable nomination will be automatically revoked once the policy is assigned. If the policy has a trust nomination, the trust nomination will have to be revoked before you make an assignment.

What Is a Life Insurance Assignment?

More articles.

•   1. What Is the Collateral Assignment of a Life Insurance Policy?
•   2. What Is the Assignment of Insurance Benefits?
•   3. Absolute Assignment of Life Insurance Policies

Although the basic element of a life insurance policy is financial security protection in the event of a premature death, the variety of products available in the marketplace provides you with many financial planning options. A life insurance assignment is a document that allows you to transfer the ownership rights of your policy to a third party, transferring to that third party all rights of ownership under your policy, including the rights to make decisions regarding coverage, beneficiary and investment options. The two kinds of life insurance assignments are conditional and absolute.

Conditional Assignment

With a conditional assignment, although you transfer your life insurance policy’s ownership rights to another party, the assignment stipulates that if a certain specified event occurs, the assignment can be suspended or revoked in whole or in part. The event in question cannot be something that you can cause to happen. If you assigned your life insurance policy to a business partner, for example, with the explicit agreement that on the death of that business partner the assignment is revoked, that assignment is deemed conditional.

Absolute Assignment

When you make an absolute assignment, the rights, title and interest in the life insurance policy pass on to another party without the possibility of reversal. The assignment provides security to the assignee in that you can no longer make decisions regarding the policy that would jeopardize it, such as taking out a policy loan or withdrawing cash values.

Secured Loan

If you own a business, and you wish to take out a loan for your business, the lender may require you to purchase life insurance on your own life as security for the loan. Initially you make the request for the insurance. Once the policy is approved and issued, you make an assignment to the bank. The bank now controls the decisions and can make changes to the policy, including naming itself as beneficiary.

Collateral Loan

If you own a life insurance policy with cash values, you might wish to access those cash values to increase your income flow. Withdrawals from life insurance policy cash values can result in taxes due and might reduce your death benefit. An alternative is to assign the life insurance policy to a lender in exchange for a line of credit or regular loan payments. These loans are generally not taxable, and you can typically borrow up to a stated maximum percentage of the cash value. Since the policy is assigned to the bank, your failure to pay the premiums on the policy will cause the bank to call the loan, cancel the insurance policy and use the cash values as payment of the loan. If you maintain the policy in force until your death, the bank is generally the beneficiary of the tax-free policy proceeds up to and including the outstanding amount of the loan, with any remaining policy proceeds paid tax free to your named beneficiary.

• AXA Life: Know Your Insurance

Philippe Lanctot started writing for business trade publications in 1990. He has contributed copy for the "Canadian Insurance Journal" and has been the co-author of text for life insurance company marketing guides. He holds a Bachelor of Science in mathematics from the University of Montreal with a minor in English.

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In the life insurance industry, assignment refers to the transfer of ownership of a life insurance policy from the policyholder to another party, such as a creditor, a family member, or a business partner. The process of assignment allows policyholders to assign their rights and benefits under the policy to a third party, typically in exchange for some form of consideration.

Types of Assignment

There are two main types of assignment in the life insurance industry: absolute assignment and collateral assignment.

Absolute assignment is the complete transfer of ownership of a life insurance policy to another party. The assignee becomes the new owner of the policy and assumes all the rights and obligations associated with the policy. Absolute assignment is typically used in cases where the policyholder wants to permanently transfer ownership of the policy, such as when gifting the policy to a family member or selling the policy to a third party.

Collateral assignment, on the other hand, is a partial transfer of ownership of a life insurance policy. In a collateral assignment, the policyholder assigns a portion of the policy’s benefits to a third party, such as a creditor, as collateral for a loan or debt. The assignee does not become the owner of the policy, but rather has a right to the policy’s benefits only to the extent necessary to satisfy the debt.

Process of Assignment

To assign a life insurance policy, the policyholder must first obtain the necessary forms from the insurance company. The forms typically require the policyholder to provide the name of the assignee, the type of assignment (absolute or collateral), and the percentage of the policy’s benefits to be assigned.

Once the forms are completed and signed by both the policyholder and the assignee, they must be submitted to the insurance company for processing. The insurance company will then update its records to reflect the new ownership of the policy, and the assignee will receive a copy of the assignment agreement.

Assignment is an important tool in the life insurance industry that allows policyholders to transfer ownership of their policies to other parties. Whether it is an absolute assignment or a collateral assignment, the process of assignment involves a legal transfer of rights and benefits from the policyholder to the assignee. It is important for policyholders to understand the implications of assigning their policies, and to consult with a qualified insurance professional before making any decisions.

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Assignment of insurance policies and claims | Practical Law

Assignment of insurance policies and claims

Practical law uk practice note w-031-6021  (approx. 19 pages).

• Peterborough

How to Write a Policy Assignment

What is a policy assignment, policy critique.

• Policy Brief/Briefing Note

Reading and Analyzing Policy

Writing policy assignments, research and writing process.

Understanding, evaluating, and writing policy documents are important competencies to develop as undergraduate students in a wide range of fields, spanning from Health Care to Environmental Science to Education. Policy is informed by strong research and accurate evidence, often compiled and presented by government and non-governmental organizations. Public policies include formal legislation, official plans, and regulations created by various levels of government. Each of these can act as guiding principles for governmental decision making and program delivery. Non-governmental and para-governmental organizations publish policy briefs, commission reports, and fact sheets to inform policy makers and recommend policy change.

Course instructors often ask students to analyze policy documents to better understand issues and policy alternatives, and students in many disciplines must write policy documents, including critiques and briefs or briefing notes. This guide offers steps to reading policy and keys for effective policy writing.

Types of Policy Assignments

In a policy critique, students are expected to read and critically analyze one or more policy documents that address a common issue. The goal of this assignment is to present an overall assessment of current or proposed policies and their efficacy or potential considering both scholarly theory and real-world, practical application with consideration of environmental, social, or economic contexts.

Proposed structure

• Issue: what is the policy in question?
• Background: where did it emerge? What problem does it try to address?
• Application: so far, based on evidence, how effective has it been?
• Limits: what are limits with the policy? How has it been adapted? What questions remain?
• Evaluation/potential: based on concepts and theories from course materials, what is the potential for this policy to address particular issue/problem?

Policy Brief (Briefing Note)

Policy briefs or briefing notes are documents written by governmental and non-governmental organizations to propose evidence-based policy solutions to a well-defined social, environmental, or economic issue. Briefs present findings from academic and grey literature to demonstrate the scope of an issue and to analyze its context and background. The brief is organized with clear headings and short sections, which are supported by figures or tables.

• Executive Summary: similar to an abstract, briefly explains the goal, findings, and recommendations. Although it is placed first in the document, it is written last.
• Issue Definition: identify and explain the key issue and its scope and significance.
• Policy Background: synthesize evidence to explain the context of the issue – its origins, key stakeholders, overlapping issues, and potential barriers – and any existing policy.
• Best Practices: describe relevant policies from other jurisdictions and introduce specific examples of policy and best practices that reinforce the argument your briefing note presents.
• Policy Options: synthesize your research to present a few policy options; for each option, describe the approach and present advantages, challenges, and potential barriers. Present one policy recommendation from these options.
• References: divide references into sections (e.g., academic sources, grey literature, policy documents etc.)

Each policy document is focused on a specific issue and establishes particular goals; when you read any policy document, you are working to understand and analyze the issue and how the policy addresses the issue. These messages are often presented in different ways. Policy briefs are, well, brief, but other policy documents or commissioned reports can be quite lengthy, so it is important to develop a reading strategy for each new document. Generally, it is best to follow this process: preview, plan, read and take notes, and assess within course context.

Because policy documents vary significantly in form and purpose, it is essential to preview the document prior to reading it: identify its author, its purpose, and its form. Take time to read the executive summary, which presents a short explanation of the issue and purpose of the document. Understand its authorship and the interests of the individual or organizational author.

Make a plan

Identify your goal in reading the document: do you wish to better understand the issue, to identify policy alternatives, to appreciate broader context, or to determine efficacy of policy? How will this document inform your understanding of the issue you are studying? What sections will be most useful or relevant?

Read and take notes

Your preview and plan can direct your reading and notetaking. Read closely to understand the policy or issue, its context, and the evidence used to support it. Identify stakeholders and their interests, the goals of the policy and how those goals are measurable and actionable. You may find it helpful to refer to the table of contents or index (or to use the ‘find’ tool in your browser) to seek out sections that contain relevant keywords in documents spanning more than 100 pages.

Assess policy within course context

Refer to theories, frameworks, and indices that you have discussed in class to assess a policy. Consider whether it follows a particular conceptual framework or achieves particular numerical targets. Compare it to other policies in similar contexts and analyze its parts to assess its adaptability to different contexts. Evaluate its fit to the specific issue and its relevance for various stakeholder needs or values.

Reading an Official Plan

An official plan is often a lengthy document that covers many topics and issues within a set of overarching goals for an organization, like a university, hospital, or municipality. Your aim should be to understand the overarching goals of the plan and its broader context, which are likely laid out in the executive summary and introductory sections. Then you may need to seek out references to a particular topic, issue, or stakeholder; the index, table of contents, or “find” tool can be helpful for this.

Reading a Policy Brief

The goal of a policy brief is to inform and persuade policy makers, so your aim should be to understand the issue the brief identifies and to analyze the policy it proposes. The structure and design of the policy brief will guide your reading. Take time to understand the context of the issue and the policy: who are the stakeholders, what are the goals, what is the process, and what are the barriers? Analyze the policy within the disciplinary concepts you’re learning in class; how does the policy fit particular frameworks, theories, or indices you’ve discussed? What is unique about this policy? How can this policy be adapted to different contexts? What is its potential to address the issue?

Successful policy assignments are focused, well-researched, analytical, organized, and concise. Therefore, it is important to take time to define the issue, understand the context of the issue, and seek out policy alternatives prior to identifying a recommended course of action.

• Focused Issue
• Using Research
• Demonstrating Analysis
• Organized, Concise, and Clear Writing

Focused issue

It is essential that you present a focused and clear issue, and that issue must be at the scale of policy action. For example, policy briefs can address ER wait times or agricultural pesticide use, but issues such as access to health care or the sustainability of food production are too complex for you to address in a short policy assignment. Often, course material and core concepts provide useful direction for you to narrow your issue.

In policy assignments, an issue is clearly defined and contextualized with evidence from scholarly and grey literature. It is important for you to explain how scholars, governments, or NGOs have discussed the issue, and numerical data or figures can demonstrate the scale of an issue or its projected trajectory. Provide details about the issue in its context: be specific about place, time, and stakeholders, and acknowledge any overlapping economic, environmental, or social issues.

Example: Effective issue definition 1

Age-friendly municipalities foster solidarity among generations within communities and reach out to older people at risk of isolation by making them feel socially included and involved (WHO, 2007). It is well documented that these trends are happening across Canada, and evidence suggests that local governments have a key role in enabling older people to live longer. It is unclear to what degree Aurora’s municipal government is prepared to support its expanding ageing population. It is essential to continue to examine new approaches to housing and transportation infrastructure within Aurora in order to improve public policy matters in regards to their ageing population.

• Issue is grounded by focused concept and evidence; writer demonstrates value of municipal policy to address the issue
• Writer precisely identifies the issue to be discussed in brief and the goals of the report

Example: Ineffective issue definition 1

In addition to the infrastructure issue in Peterborough, there is also an issue regarding how spread out the community is. The city is too big for residents to be able to walk the entire city. Amenities are also very spread out; it is unlikely that pedestrians would be able to access the required amenities within walking distance from their house. Ultimately, the main issues surrounding the walkability in the City of Peterborough are the lack of infrastructure and maintenance, as well as the lack of available activities near to peoples’ residences.

• Not grounded in conceptual framework or theory; writer needs to explain why walkability is an issue that a municipality should address
• Lack of precision or evidence to support claims about the size of the city or accessibility to amenities

Using research

Policy is informed by evidence from scholarly literature, government data, and research by various stakeholder organizations. Effective policy assignments synthesize evidence from academic and grey literature to create an accurate account of the issue and policy options. Common forms of evidence in policy writing include numerical and financial data, figures such as graphs and maps, excerpts from existing policies, recommendations from NGOs, and conceptual frameworks.

In policy writing, your goal is to present research both accurately and accessibly, as decision-makers in government and business may not be familiar with terminology or concepts presented by scholars. Make efforts to paraphrase the evidence you use and be sure to include citations in the form requested by your professor (footnotes or author-date systems are common).

One of the key factors in Municipal Cultural Planning is increasing cross-sectoral strategies by building new partnerships “…between the municipality and its community and business partners” (Municipal Cultural Plan, toolkit, 2011, p.21) for long term sustainability. Therefore, municipal cultural planning “…does not look at policy sectorally” (Gollmitzer, 2008, p.18), but instead strengthens and integrates “…cultural resources across all facets of government planning and decision making” (Municipal Cultural Plan Toolkit, 2011, p.21). Building new networks are supported by leveraging the sense of place within a community. Adopting a place-based planning approach allows “…government, community organizations and citizens to explore, measure and asses the values, resources and assets of the community” (Huhtala, 2016, p.66), in order to leverage them for economic prosperity.

• Writer synthesizes academic and grey literature to demonstrate how concepts are applied in policy.
• Writer also demonstrates analysis of evidence and its relevance to the brief’s focused issue.
• Use of direct quotation can feature the language of a policy if the writer wishes to analyze discourse; however, this excerpt relies too heavily on direct quotation, and it would be stronger if this evidence was paraphrased.

Demonstrating analysis

The quality of your policy assignment is closely tied to your analysis of the issue and the policy options you present. It is important to evaluate policy options as you research and to critically analyze how those options address the issue within its particular context. Take time to examine specific factors and parties involved in an issue and consider how these factors may facilitate or challenge each policy option; furthermore, you should also assess the advantages and disadvantages of each policy option and its impacts on these factors or parties.

You may find it valuable to consider theories, concepts, or frameworks from your course to develop your argument and to establish coherence throughout your assignment. If you assess all policy options through the same critical lens or theory, then your message will be clear and consistent throughout your document.

Integrating senior housing into the fabric of the inner core communities could make housing developments viable and situate seniors in settings where they can access these services by foot or nearby transit (Fang, 2013).  This concept can allow seniors, who may be considering downsizing, to remain within their community where they can keep active, live within easy access to medical and community services, and stay close to their support network that they have spent their lives establishing. However, the growing demand for these developments could put major pressure on the municipality.  City officials would have to amend current zoning by-laws to allow commercial and residential uses to be a part of mixed-use development and appropriate provisions need to be provided to ensure compatibility and to minimize potential negative impacts. 

• Writer presents both advantages and challenges of policy option within common concept of healthy aging communities.
• Writer also includes potential impacts and barriers of policy option, which demonstrates their consideration of the issue and its context.

Organized, concise, and clear writing

Policy writing should be well-organized and easy to follow. Use headings and subheadings to create structure and to support your reader. It is common to number sections and subsections to further clarify the order of your ideas. In addition, good paragraph structure also supports organization and clarity, so we encourage you to use specific topic sentences to introduce the main idea of a paragraph.

Well-written policy assignments employ a formal writing style and use third-person voice (e.g., they) rather than first-person (e.g., I, we) or second-person (e.g., you) voice. Further, they avoid jargon, but use specific and clear language. When you revise your draft, take time to consider each sentence and remove repetitive or redundant phrases and words.

Finally, it is important to pay attention to the details. Label any figures or tables in your document; make reference to these figures or tables in the text of your work (e.g., see Figure 1). Also be sure to follow assignment instructions for referencing evidence in your text (e.g., footnotes or author-date system) and in your list of sources, which is often categorized by type of source (e.g., academic, government, NGOs).

There are many ways to approach a policy assignment, but it is important to take time to research and analyze issues and policy options thoroughly prior to writing. Consider the following steps to complete your policy assignment:

• Read assignment instructions closely
• Preliminary research: review course materials, brainstorm, conduct environmental scan or site visit, consider current issues relevant to course concepts
• Define issue: consider questions and frameworks
• Research issue and context
• Research and evaluate policy alternatives in other places
• Analyze policy alternatives and consider fit for current issue and context; select policy options to present
• Outline sections: what evidence goes where? How does evidence work together?
• Write sections (leave Executive Summary until last)
• Revise for organization, analysis, and use of evidence. See Strategies for Revision and Proofreading.
• Edit for clarity, concision, and grammar
• Complete final proof of document
• These examples are not to be reproduced in whole or part. Use of the ideas or words in this example is an act of plagiarism, which is subject to academic integrity policy at Trent University and other academic institutions.

The Mercer Mobility Exchange website and its divisional websites may be translated for your convenience using translation software powered by Google Translate, a free online language translation service that can translate text and web pages into different languages. Reasonable efforts have been made to verify the reliability of the translation service, however, no automated translation is perfect nor is it intended to replace human translators. Mercer does not guarantee the accuracy of the translated text. Some pages may not be accurately translated due to the limitations of the translation software. Text in images, PDF files, Word documents or other document types cannot be translated. The official text is the English version of the website. Any discrepancies or differences created in the translation are not binding and have no legal effect for compliance or enforcement purposes. If any questions arise related to the accuracy of the information contained in the translated website, please refer to the English version of the website which is the official version

Assignment segmentation

Why does it matter.

The expatriate mobility landscape is fast evolving and companies find it increasingly difficult to have only one policy covering all international assignments. More and more, employers are segmenting their expatriation policy, not just by assignment duration (long-term versus short-term) but also by expatriate assignment purpose (strategic assignment versus developmental moves or moves requested by the employees themselves.)

Policy segmentation is a way to:

• Address the limitations of the one-size-fits-all types of policies
• Reconcile the cost control versus international expansion dilemma in a context of budget constraint by shifting budget from less essential moves to assignment that are critical to the business
• Present business cases / options to management to understand the cost and business implications of sending expatriates
• Manage effectively exceptions into well-defined framework and process as opposed to one-to-one ad-hoc deals
• Reconcile talent management and reward / expatriate management

How Mercer can help

Based on the output from mobility stakeholders’ interviews, benchmarking analysis and assignee surveys, and taking into consideration the company’s business priorities, Mercer will provide recommendations regarding the segmentation of assignment policies, to achieve better alignment between the mobility programs and the business/talent needs of the organization.

Mercer will analyze the company’s mobility segmentation needs along three dimensions to determine the optimal number of policies required, bearing in mind the administrative implications:

• By assignment duration and pattern
• By purpose or strategic impact
• Geographic segmentation

Click on the image to view it in a larger size.

Mercer will prepare and present a document with the analysis and recommendations as well as help design decision trees to navigate the different assignment options.

Policy segmentation benchmarking

Using the unparalleled data from the latest research, Mercer will provide you with off-the-shelf or custom benchmarking surveys and assess your mobility program using an array of precise policy benchmarking tools. We'll work with you to identify best practices for each type of assignment.

Worldwide Survey of International Assignment Policies and Practices

This is a comprehensive survey covering all aspects of international assignment management and has the largest participant base in the market with more than 1000 global companies participating. Learn more .

Alternative International Assignment Policies and Practices (AIA) Survey

This survey is a deep-dive into policies and practices, and examines trends for the following types of international assignments: local plus, developmental/training, short-term, commuter, intra-regional, and global nomad. Learn more .

Rotator Assignments Survey and Services

Rotators are critical to the success of many companies to support challenging projects in a vast range of locations worldwide, particularly in the energy, mining, engineering and construction industries. Mercer's extensive competitive data and expertise in global mobility can help support our clients' international rotator programs. Learn more .

Local Plus and Location-specific Surveys

An in-depth look at policies and practices in several locations where local plus packages are prevalent, the Local Plus Surveys expand on our recent research into alternative assignment types. Learn more .

Flexibility in mobility policy As mobility programs grow and new situations arise, companies may need to be flexible on their approach to compensation, even within a policy that includes assignment segmentation. Our whitepaper outlines the considerations, benefits, and drawbacks involved.

Being strategic Linking mobility strategy and talent management is essential when trying to segment mobility policies.

2022 Expatriate Management and Talent Mobility Conference 4-5 April 2022 | Virtual event Join our virtual conference to learn, network and get ready to embrace the new realities of talent mobility.

Mobility events and training Mercer conducts webcasts on timely topics in global mobility throughout the year, as well as training programs for mobility professionals. Find a session near you!

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What does it mean when an insurance policy is assigned?

Assignment — a transfer of legal rights under, or interest in, an insurance policy to another party . In most instances, the assignment of such rights can only be effected with the written consent of the insurer.

What does policy assigned mean?

What does has this insurance been assigned mean.

Assignee in an Insurance Policy In the context of a life insurance policy, interest in a policy can be transferred from the policyholder to a lender or relative by assignment of the policy. In this case, the policyholder is the assignor and the person in whose favor the policy has been assigned is called the assignee.

What happens when you assign an insurance policy?

Assignment of a Life Insurance Policy simply means transfer of rights from one person to another . The policyholder can transfer the rights of his insurance policy to another for various reasons and this process is called Assignment.

Who pays premium when a policy is assigned?

In the case of an assignment against a loan the assignor can continue to pay the policy premiums and claim the Section 80C tax benefit on them as the policy is on his life and he is the person paying the premiums.

Assignment of Insurance Policy. | Transfer of Insurance Policy | Lectures on Insurance Law.

What is the effect of assignment to the policy owner?

In insurance the assignment means assignment of rights under the contract. An assignee for all purposes becomes the owner of the policy and enjoys all rights thereunder . However, by assignment no change is made in the subject matter insured by the policy and it remains unaltered.”

Does assignment cancel nomination?

The assignment may lead to cancellation of the nomination in the policy only when it is done in favour of the insurance company due to a policy loan . Assignment for all insurance plans except for the pension plan and the Married Women's Property Act (MWP), can be done.

Is assignee the same as beneficiary?

When you fill out a collateral assignment form, that assignment supersedes your beneficiaries' rights to the death benefit. If you die, the life insurance company pays the lender, or assignee, the loan balance . The remainder of your death benefit — if there is one — goes to your beneficiaries.

What is the meaning of assignee in insurance?

Definition: A person, an entity or a trust who receives the rights, ownership and benefits of an insurance policy or a contract is the assignee.

What is the procedure for assignment in life policy?

Assignment of a life insurance policy may be made by making an endorsement to that effect in the policy document (or) by executing a separate 'Assignment Deed' . In case of assignment deed, stamp duty has to be paid. An Assignment should be signed by the assignor and attested by at least one witness.

Why would you assign a life insurance policy?

A life insurance assignment is a document that allows you to transfer the ownership rights of your policy to a third party , transferring to that third party all rights of ownership under your policy, including the rights to make decisions regarding coverage, beneficiary and investment options.

What are the two types of assignments in life insurance?

• An absolute assignment is typically intended to transfer all your interests, rights and ownership in the policy to an assignee. ...
• A collateral assignment is a more limited type of transfer.

Who is appointee life insurance?

Appointee is the person to whom the proceeds/benefits secured under the Policy are payable if the benefit becomes payable to the nominee and the nominee is minor as on the date of claim payment .

What happens when the assignee dies?

If the assignee dies, the assignment does not get cancelled . The legal heirs of the assignee become entitled to the policy money. Assignment is a legal transfer of all the interests the policyholder has in the policy to the assignee.

What you mean by assignment?

Definition of assignment 1 : the act of assigning something the assignment of a task. 2a : a position, post, or office to which one is assigned Her assignment was to the embassy in India. b : a specified task or amount of work assigned or undertaken as if assigned by authority a homework assignment.

What are the rights of the assignee?

An assignee usually receives the contract rights and obligations directly from an original party to the contract . An assignee can be an individual, a group, or a business. In our scenario, I assign my right to receive benefits to Green.

Who is called assignee?

Assignee is a person to whom a right is transferred by the person holding such rights under the transferred contract (the “assignor”). The act of transferring is referred to as “assigning” or “assignment” and is a concept found in both contract and property law.

Can Term Plan be assigned?

Given that you already have coverage of ₹30 lakh, you could take an additional term plan of ₹20 lakh. Both these plans could be assigned to the bank . Additionally, you could buy term insurance equal to 19 times of your income. Such plan need not be assigned to the bank.

Is an assignee a third party beneficiary?

Assignees ( outsiders who acquire rights after the contract is made ) Delegatees (outsiders who acquire duties after the contract is made) Third-party beneficiaries (outsiders who acquire rights when the original contract is made)

Are life insurance policies assignable?

You can freely assign your life insurance policy unless some limitation is specified in your contract (your insurance company can furnish the required assignment forms). Through an assignment, you can transfer your rights to all or a portion of the policy proceeds to an assignee.

What is the difference between assignment and nomination in insurance?

Nomination and Assignment serve different purposes. The nomination protects the interests of the insured as well as an insurer in offering claim benefits under the life insurance policy. On the other hand, assignment protects the interests of an assignee in availing the monetary benefits under the policy.

What is difference between assignee and nominee?

The person thus chosen legally by the policy holder is called 'Nominee'. The word assignment means the legal transfer of all the rights and benefits of the policy to the person to whom the policy holder has assigned it. Here the person assigned by the policy holder through a legal procedure is called the 'Assignee' .

What happens if a nominee dies before the maturity of insurance?

What happens if the nominee dies before the policyholder? If the nominee dies before the policyholder, the proceeds are payable to policyholder or his heirs or legal representatives or holder of succession certificate .

What is difference between assign and transfer?

When used as verbs, assign means to set apart or designate something for a purpose while transfer means to pass or move from one person, place, or thing to someone or someplace else .

Can a life insurance policy owner revoke an absolute assignment?

Nope. Absolute assignments are permanent and cannot be revoked .

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Gen ed writes, writing across the disciplines at harvard college.

• Types of Assignments

Gen Ed courses transcend disciplinary boundaries in a variety of ways, so the types of writing assignments that they include also often venture outside the traditional discipline-specific essays. You may encounter a wide variety of assignment types in Gen Ed, but most can be categorized into four general types: 

• Traditional academic assignments include the short essays or research papers most commonly associated with college-level assignments. Generally speaking, these kinds of assignments are "expository" in nature, i.e., they ask you to engage with ideas through evidence-base argument, written in formal prose. The majority of essays in Expos courses fall into this category of writing assignment types.  
• Less traditional academic assignments include elements of engagement in academia not normally encountered by undergraduates. 
• Traditional non-academic assignments include types of written communication that students are likely to encounter in real world situations. 
• Less traditional non-academic assignments are those that push the boundaries of typical ‘writing’ assignments and are likely to include some kind of creative or artistic component.

Examples and Resources

Traditional academic.

For most of us, these are the most familiar types of college-level writing assignments. While they are perhaps less common in Gen Ed than in departmental courses, there are still numerous examples we could examine.

Two illustrations of common types include: 

Example 1: Short Essay  Professor Michael Sandel asks the students in his Gen Ed course on Tech Ethics to write several short essays over the course of the semester in which they make an argument in response to the course readings. Because many students will never have written a philosophy-style paper, Professor Sandel offers students a number of resources—from a guide on writing in philosophy, to sample graded essays, to a list of logical fallacies—to keep in mind. 

Example 2: Research Paper In Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Cares?, a Gen Ed course co-taught by multiple global health faculty members, students write a 12–15 page research paper on a biosocial analysis of a global health topic of their choosing for the final assignment. The assignment is broken up into two parts: (1) a proposal with annotated bibliography and (2) the final paper itself. The prompt clearly outlines the key qualities and features of a successful paper, which is especially useful for students who have not yet written a research paper in the sciences. 

Less Traditional Academic

In Gen Ed, sometimes assignments ask students to engage in academic work that, while familiar to faculty, is beyond the scope of the typical undergraduate experience. 

Here are a couple of examples from Gen Ed courses: 

Example 1: Design a conference  For the final project in her Gen Ed course, Global Feminisms, Professor Durba Mitra asks her students to imagine a dream conference  in the style of the feminist conferences they studied in class. Students are asked to imagine conference panels and events, potential speakers or exhibitions, and advertising materials. While conferences are a normal occurrence for graduate students and professors, undergraduates are much less likely to be familiar with this part of academic life, and this kind of assignment might require more specific background and instructions as part of the prompt. 

Example 2: Curate a museum exhibit In his Gen Ed class, Pyramid Schemes, Professor Peter Der Manuelian's final project offers students the option of designing a virtual museum exhibit . While exhibit curation can be a part of the academic life of an anthropologist or archaeologist, it's not often found in introductory undergraduate courses. In addition to selecting objects and creating a virtual exhibit layout, students also wrote an annotated bibliography as well as an exhibit introduction for potential visitors. 

Traditional Non-academic

One of the goals of Gen Ed is to encourage students to engage with the world around them. Sometimes writing assignments in Gen Ed directly mirror types of writing that students are likely to encounter in real-world, non-academic settings after they graduate.

The following are several examples of such assignments: 

Example 1: Policy memo In Power and Identity in the Middle East, Professor Melani Cammett assigns students a group policy memo evaluating "a major initiative aimed at promoting democracy in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)." The assignment prompt is actually structured as a memo, providing context for students who likely lack experience with the format. It also outlines the key characteristics of a good memo, and it provides extensive advice on the process—especially important when students are working in groups. 

Example 2: Letter In Loss, Professor Kathleen Coleman asks students to write a letter of condolence . The letter has an unusual audience: a mother elephant who lost her calf. Since students may not have encountered this type of writing before, Professor Coleman also provides students with advice on process, pointing to some course readings that might be a good place to start. She also suggests a list of outside resources to help students get into the mindframe of addressing an elephant. 

Example 3: Podcast  Podcasts are becoming increasingly popular in Gen Ed classes, as they are in the real world. Though they're ultimately audio file outputs, they usually require writing and preparing a script ahead of time. For example, in Music from Earth, Professor Alex Rehding asks students to create a podcast in which they make an argument about a song studied in class. He usefully breaks up the assignments into two parts: (1) researching the song and preparing a script and (2) recording and making sonic choices about the presentation, offering students the opportunity to get feedback on the first part before moving onto the second. 

Less Traditional Non-academic

These are the types of assignments that perhaps are less obviously "writing" assignments. They usually involve an artistic or otherwise creative component, but they also often include some kind of written introduction or artist statement related to the work.

The following are several examples from recently offered Gen Ed courses: 

Example 1: Movie Professor Peter Der Manuelian offers students in his class, Pyramid Schemes, several options for the final project, one of which entails creating a 5–8 minute  iMovie making an argument about one of the themes of the course. Because relatively few students have prior experience making films, the teaching staff provide students with a written guide to making an iMovie as well as ample opportunities for tech support. In addition to preparing a script as part of the production, students also submit both an annotated bibliography and an artist’s statement. 

Example 2: Calligram In his course, Understanding Islam and Contemporary Muslim Societies, Professor Ali Asani asks students to browse through a provided list of resources about calligrams, which are an important traditional Islamic art form. Then they are required to "choose a concept or symbol associated with God in the Islamic tradition and attempt to represent it through a calligraphic design using the word Allah," in any medium they wish. Students also write a short explanation to accompany the design itself. 

Example 3: Soundscape In Music from Earth, Professor Alex Rehding has students create a soundscape . The soundscape is an audio file which involves layering sounds from different sources to create a single piece responding to an assigned question (e.g. "What sounds are characteristic of your current geographical region?"). Early on, as part of the development of the soundscape, students submit an artist's statement that explains the plan for the soundscape, the significance of the sounds, and the intention of the work. 

• DIY Guides for Analytical Writing Assignments

• Unpacking the Elements of Writing Prompts
• Receiving Feedback

Assignment Decoder

How to assign a life insurance policy

​What is meant by assigning?

Interest in a life insurance policy can be transferred from the policyholder to a lender or relative by assignment of policy. Here the policyholder is known as the assignor and the person in whose favour the policy has been assigned is called assignee.

​Types of assignment

There are two types of assignment: Conditional assignment: This is done when the insured wishes to pass benefits of the policy to a relative in case of early death or certain conditions. The rights of the policyholder are restored once the conditions are fulfilled. Absolute assignment: This is done as a part of consideration for a loan in favour of the lender/bank/lending institution. In such an assignment, the insured loses his rights in the policy and the absolute assignee can deal with it independently.

​Notice of assignment

The insured needs to either endorse the policy document or make a deed of assignment and register the same with the insurer. A form prescribed by the insurers must be filled and signed. In case of conditional assignment, your reason needs to be mentioned as well.

​Documents required

Proof of income. Self attested copy of photo ID and address proof. Self attested copy of PAN card.

Fees and stamp duty

If the assignment is made by endorsement on the policy document, it is exempt from stamp duty. However, in case of a separate deed, stamp duty is payable.

​Acceptance and the right to reject

If the insurance company decides to register the assignment, it will record it and inform the assignor. On paying a fee, the assignee can obtain an acknowledgement. The insurer also has a right to reject if it believes that the assignment is not bona fide or against the interest of the policyholder or public interest or for the purpose of trading the insurance policy. (Content on this page is courtesy Centre for Investment Education and Learning (CIEL). Contributions by Girija Gadre, Arti Bhargava and Labdhi Mehta.)

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Types of Assignments

Cristy Bartlett and Kate Derrington

Introduction

As discussed in the previous chapter, assignments are a common method of assessment at university. You may encounter many assignments over your years of study, yet some will look quite different from others. By recognising different types of assignments and understanding the purpose of the task, you can direct your writing skills effectively to meet task requirements. This chapter draws on the skills from the previous chapter, and extends the discussion, showing you where to aim with different types of assignments.

The chapter begins by exploring the popular essay assignment, with its two common categories, analytical and argumentative essays. It then examines assignments requiring case study responses , as often encountered in fields such as health or business. This is followed by a discussion of assignments seeking a report (such as a scientific report) and reflective writing assignments, common in nursing, education and human services. The chapter concludes with an examination of annotated bibliographies and literature reviews. The chapter also has a selection of templates and examples throughout to enhance your understanding and improve the efficacy of  your assignment writing skills.

Different Types of Written Assignments

At university, an essay is a common form of assessment. In the previous chapter Writing Assignments we discussed what was meant by showing academic writing in your assignments. It is important that you consider these aspects of structure, tone and language when writing an essay.

Components of an essay

Essays should use formal but reader friendly language and have a clear and logical structure. They must include research from credible academic sources such as peer reviewed journal articles and textbooks. This research should be referenced throughout your essay to support your ideas (See the chapter Working with Information ).

If you have never written an essay before, you may feel unsure about how to start.  Breaking your essay into sections and allocating words accordingly will make this process more manageable and will make planning the overall essay structure much easier.

• An essay requires an introduction, body paragraphs and a conclusion.
• Generally, an introduction and conclusion are approximately 10% each of the total word count.
• The remaining words can then be divided into sections and a paragraph allowed for each area of content you need to cover.
• Use your task and criteria sheet to decide what content needs to be in your plan

An effective essay introduction needs to inform your reader by doing four basic things:

Table 20.1 An effective essay

An effective essay body paragraph needs to:

An effective essay conclusion needs to:

Common types of essays

You may be required to write different types of essays, depending on your study area and topic. Two of the most commonly used essays are analytical and argumentative .  The task analysis process discussed in the previous chapter Writing Assignments will help you determine the type of essay required. For example, if your assignment question uses task words such as analyse, examine, discuss, determine or explore, you would be writing an analytical essay . If your assignment question has task words such as argue, evaluate, justify or assess, you would be writing an argumentative essay . Despite the type of essay, your ability to analyse and think critically is important and common across genres.  

Analytical essays

These essays usually provide some background description of the relevant theory, situation, problem, case, image, etcetera that is your topic. Being analytical requires you to look carefully at various components or sections of your topic in a methodical and logical way to create understanding.

The purpose of the analytical essay is to demonstrate your ability to examine the topic thoroughly. This requires you to go deeper than description by considering different sides of the situation, comparing and contrasting a variety of theories and the positives and negatives of the topic. Although in an analytical essay your position on the topic may be clear, it is not necessarily a requirement that you explicitly identify this with a thesis statement, as is the case with an argumentative essay. If you are unsure whether you are required to take a position, and provide a thesis statement, it is best to check with your tutor.

Argumentative essays

These essays require you to take a position on the assignment topic. This is expressed through your thesis statement in your introduction. You must then present and develop your arguments throughout the body of your assignment using logically structured paragraphs. Each of these paragraphs needs a topic sentence that relates to the thesis statement. In an argumentative essay, you must reach a conclusion based on the evidence you have presented.

Case Study Responses

Case studies are a common form of assignment in many study areas and students can underperform in this genre for a number of key reasons.

Students typically lose marks for not:

• Relating their answer sufficiently to the case details
• Applying critical thinking
• Writing with clear structure
• Using appropriate or sufficient sources
• Using accurate referencing

When structuring your response to a case study, remember to refer to the case. Structure your paragraphs similarly to an essay paragraph structure but include examples and data from the case as additional evidence to support your points (see Figure 20.5 ). The colours in the sample paragraph below show the function of each component.

The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) Code of Conduct and Nursing Standards (2018) play a crucial role in determining the scope of practice for nurses and midwives. A key component discussed in the code is the provision of person-centred care and the formation of therapeutic relationships between nurses and patients (NMBA, 2018). This ensures patient safety and promotes health and wellbeing (NMBA, 2018). The standards also discuss the importance of partnership and shared decision-making in the delivery of care (NMBA, 2018, 4). Boyd and Dare (2014) argue that good communication skills are vital for building therapeutic relationships and trust between patients and care givers. This will help ensure the patient is treated with dignity and respect and improve their overall hospital experience. In the case, the therapeutic relationship with the client has been compromised in several ways. Firstly, the nurse did not conform adequately to the guidelines for seeking informed consent before performing the examination as outlined in principle 2.3 (NMBA, 2018). Although she explained the procedure, she failed to give the patient appropriate choices regarding her health care. 

Topic sentence | Explanations using paraphrased evidence including in-text references | Critical thinking (asks the so what? question to demonstrate your student voice). | Relating the theory back to the specifics of the case. The case becomes a source of examples as extra evidence to support the points you are making.

Reports are a common form of assessment at university and are also used widely in many professions. It is a common form of writing in business, government, scientific, and technical occupations.

Reports can take many different structures. A report is normally written to present information in a structured manner, which may include explaining laboratory experiments, technical information, or a business case.  Reports may be written for different audiences including clients, your manager, technical staff, or senior leadership within an organisation. The structure of reports can vary, and it is important to consider what format is required. The choice of structure will depend upon professional requirements and the ultimate aims of the report. Consider some of the options in the table below (see Table 20.2 ).

Table 20.2 Explanations of different types of reports

Reflective writing

Reflective writing is a popular method of assessment at university. It is used to help you explore feelings, experiences, opinions, events or new information to gain a clearer and deeper understanding of your learning. A reflective writing task requires more than a description or summary.  It requires you to analyse a situation, problem or experience, consider what you may have learnt and evaluate how this may impact your thinking and actions in the future. This requires critical thinking, analysis, and usually the application of good quality research, to demonstrate your understanding or learning from a situation. Essentially, reflective practice is the process of looking back on past experiences and engaging with them in a thoughtful way and drawing conclusions to inform future experiences. The reflection skills you develop at university will be vital in the workplace to assist you to use feedback for growth and continuous improvement. There are numerous models of reflective writing and you should refer to your subject guidelines for your expected format. If there is no specific framework, a simple model to help frame your thinking is What? So what? Now what?   (Rolfe et al., 2001).

Table 20.3 What? So What? Now What? Explained.

The Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle

The Gibbs’ Cycle of reflection encourages you to consider your feelings as part of the reflective process. There are six specific steps to work through. Following this model carefully and being clear of the requirements of each stage, will help you focus your thinking and reflect more deeply. This model is popular in Health.

The 4 R’s of reflective thinking

This model (Ryan and Ryan, 2013) was designed specifically for university students engaged in experiential learning.  Experiential learning includes any ‘real-world’ activities including practice led activities, placements and internships.  Experiential learning, and the use of reflective practice to heighten this learning, is common in Creative Arts, Health and Education.

Annotated Bibliography

What is it.

An annotated bibliography is an alphabetical list of appropriate sources (books, journals or websites) on a topic, accompanied by a brief summary, evaluation and sometimes an explanation or reflection on their usefulness or relevance to your topic. Its purpose is to teach you to research carefully, evaluate sources and systematically organise your notes. An annotated bibliography may be one part of a larger assessment item or a stand-alone assessment piece. Check your task guidelines for the number of sources you are required to annotate and the word limit for each entry.

How do I know what to include?

When choosing sources for your annotated bibliography it is important to determine:

• The topic you are investigating and if there is a specific question to answer
• The type of sources on which you need to focus
• Whether they are reputable and of high quality

What do I say?

Important considerations include:

• Is the work current?
• Is the work relevant to your topic?
• Is the author credible/reliable?
• Is there any author bias?
• The strength and limitations (this may include an evaluation of research methodology).

Literature Reviews

It is easy to get confused by the terminology used for literature reviews. Some tasks may be described as a systematic literature review when actually the requirement is simpler; to review the literature on the topic but do it in a systematic way. There is a distinct difference (see Table 20.4 ). As a commencing undergraduate student, it is unlikely you would be expected to complete a systematic literature review as this is a complex and more advanced research task. It is important to check with your lecturer or tutor if you are unsure of the requirements.

Table 20.4 Comparison of Literature Reviews

Generally, you are required to establish the main ideas that have been written on your chosen topic. You may also be expected to identify gaps in the research. A literature review does not summarise and evaluate each resource you find (this is what you would do in an annotated bibliography). You are expected to analyse and synthesise or organise common ideas from multiple texts into key themes which are relevant to your topic (see Figure 20.10 ). Use a table or a spreadsheet, if you know how, to organise the information you find. Record the full reference details of the sources as this will save you time later when compiling your reference list (see Table 20.5 ).

Overall, this chapter has provided an introduction to the types of assignments you can expect to complete at university, as well as outlined some tips and strategies with examples and templates for completing them. First, the chapter investigated essay assignments, including analytical and argumentative essays. It then examined case study assignments, followed by a discussion of the report format. Reflective writing , popular in nursing, education and human services, was also considered. Finally, the chapter briefly addressed annotated bibliographies and literature reviews. The chapter also has a selection of templates and examples throughout to enhance your understanding and improve the efficacy of your assignment writing skills.

• Not all assignments at university are the same. Understanding the requirements of different types of assignments will assist in meeting the criteria more effectively.
• There are many different types of assignments. Most will require an introduction, body paragraphs and a conclusion.
• An essay should have a clear and logical structure and use formal but reader friendly language.
• Breaking your assignment into manageable chunks makes it easier to approach.
• Effective body paragraphs contain a topic sentence.
• A case study structure is similar to an essay, but you must remember to provide examples from the case or scenario to demonstrate your points.
• The type of report you may be required to write will depend on its purpose and audience. A report requires structured writing and uses headings.
• Reflective writing is popular in many disciplines and is used to explore feelings, experiences, opinions or events to discover what learning or understanding has occurred. Reflective writing requires more than description. You need to be analytical, consider what has been learnt and evaluate the impact of this on future actions.
• Annotated bibliographies teach you to research and evaluate sources and systematically organise your notes. They may be part of a larger assignment.
• Literature reviews require you to look across the literature and analyse and synthesise the information you find into themes.

Gibbs, G. (1988). Learning by doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods. Further Education Unit, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford.

Rolfe, G., Freshwater, D., Jasper, M. (2001). Critical reflection in nursing and the helping professions: a user’s guide . Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Ryan, M. & Ryan, M. (2013). Theorising a model for teaching and assessing reflective learning in higher education.  Higher Education Research & Development , 32(2), 244-257. doi: 10.1080/07294360.2012.661704

Academic Success Copyright © 2021 by Cristy Bartlett and Kate Derrington is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Assignment scopes and excluded scopes

• CSV Assignment Parameters
• Policy Exemptions

Policy Assignments

This chapter describes how Policy Assignments are handled by EPAC. Policy Assignments are the actual assignments of Policies and Policy Sets to scopes in Azure

Assignment JSON structure

Assignment JSON is hierarchical for efficient definitions, avoiding duplication (copy/paste) of JSON. Each branch of the tree is cumulative. Each tree node must include a nodeName - an arbitrary string exclusively used by EPAC to display an error location. EPAC concatenates a leading / and the nodeName entries encountered in the tree to create a "breadcrumbs" trail; therefore, we recommend that you use / to help separate the concatenated nodeName . The following partial and invalid assignment tree would create this error message.

JSON Schema

The GitHub repo contains a JSON schema which can be used in tools such as VS Code to provide code completion.

To utilize the schema add a $schema tag to the JSON file.

• Every tree branch must accumulate a definitionEntry (or definitionEntryList ), Assignment naming ( name and displayName ) and scope element.
• The elements parameters , overrides , resourceSelectors , notScope , enforcementMode , metadata , userAssignedIdentity , managedIdentityLocations , additionalRoleAssignments and nonComplianceMessages are optional.
• For Policy Sets with large numbers of included Policies you should use a spreadsheet (CSV file) to manage effects (parameterized or effect overrides ), parameters and optional nonComplianceMessages . We recommend the CSV approach for Policy Sets with more than 10 included Policies.
• EPAC continues to support deprecated elements initiativeId , initiativeName and ignoreBranch , Consider using their replacements policySetId , policySetName and enforcementMode instead.
• Role Assignments for user-assigned Managed Identities (UAMI) are not managed by EPAC, and will not generate a roles-plan.json file.
• additionalRoleAssignments are used when a resource required is not in the current scope. For example, a Policy Assignment that requires a Event Hub to be managed in a subscription not contained in the current management group.

The tree is not required to be balanced. The number of levels is not restricted; however, anything beyond 3 levels is unnecessary in real scenarios and would be difficult to read and manage as the depth increases.

Assignment Element and Metadata

Each Assignment is required to have a name which is used in it's resource id. EPAC also requires a displayName . The description is optional. For the allowed location assignment you specify the component with:

Multiple assignment naming components in a tree branch are string concatenated for each of the three fields.

Azure has a limit of 24 characters for the concatenated name string. EPAC displays an error if this limit is exceeded.

Defining metadata

metadata is sometimes used to assign categories for changes. Do NOT specify EPAC-reserved elements roles and pacOwnerId . For the final metadata EPAC creates the union of instances in the entire tree branch.

Not recommended : Adding assignedBy to the metadata overrides the deployedBy value from the global-settings.jsonc file normally used for assignedBy . It defaults to "epac/$pacOwnerId/$pacSelector" .

Metadata for Role Assignments

Role assignments do not contain a metadata field. Instead, the description field is used to populate the deployedBy value. The description field is populated with the Policy Assignment Id, reason and deployedBy value. This is useful for tracking the source of the Role Assignment.

Reasons is one of:

• Role Assignment required by Policy - Policy definition(s) specify the required Role Definition Ids.
• additional Role Assignment - from filed "additionalRoleAssignments" in the Policy Assignment file.
• additional cross tenant Role Assignment - from filed "additionalRoleAssignments" with crossTenant set to $true in the Policy Assignment file.

Assigning Policy Sets or Policies

Assigning a single policy or policy set.

Each assignment assigns either a Policy or Policy Set. In EPAC this is done with a definitionEntry or a definitionEntryList . Exactly one occurrence must exist in any collated tree branch. For each entry, you need to specify one of the following:

• policyName - custom Policy. Specifying just the name allows EPAC to inject the correct definition scope.
• policySetName - custom Policy Set. Specifying just the name allows EPAC to inject the correct definition scope
• policyId - resource id for builtin Policy.
• policySetId - resource id for builtin Policy Set.

displayName is an optional field to document the entry if the Policy name is a GUID. Builtin Policies and Policy Sets use a GUID.

Assigning multiple Policies or Policy Sets

Using definitionEntryList allows you to save on copy/paste tree branches. Without it, the number of branches would need to be duplicated as many times as the list has entries.

Each entry in the list creates an Assignment at each leaf of the tree. Since assignments must have unique names at a specific scope, the Assignment naming component must be amended for each list entry. In this sub-component you can decide if you want to concatenate the string by appending or prepending them by specifying append boolean value.

In the above example one of the children (leaf node) has the following Assignment name.

This example generates two assignments at the "prod" leaf per scope:

• /providers/Microsoft.Management/managementGroups/ Contoso-Prod /providers/Microsoft.Authorization/policyAssignments/ pr-asb
• displayName = "Prod Azure Security Benchmark"
• description = "Prod Environment controls enforcement with Azure Security Benchmark Initiative."
• /providers/Microsoft.Management/managementGroups/ Contoso-Prod /providers/Microsoft.Authorization/policyAssignments/ pr-nist-800-53-r5
• displayName = "Prod NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5"
• description = "Prod Environment controls enforcement with NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 Initiative."

scope is required exactly once in each tree branch. Excluded scopes ( notScope ) are cumulative from global-settings.json and the entire tree branch; however, once a scope is defined notScope may not be defined at any child node.

Both scope and notScope are specific to an EPAC Environment using the pacSelector name , e.g., epac-dev and tenant .

notScope works the same. In addition "*" means all EPAC Environments.

Managed Identities and role assignments

Policies with a DeployIfNotExists or Modify effect need a Managed Identity (MI) and role assignments to execute remediation task. EPAC calculates the necessary role assignments based on the roleDefinitionIds in the Policy definition. By default EPAC uses a system-assigned Manged Identity. The team maintaining EPAC recommend system-assigned identities; however, your organization may have role assignment reasons to use user-assigned Managed Identities.

Defining managedIdentityLocations

Policy assignments requiring a Managed Identity (system-assigned or user-assigned) require a location managedIdentityLocations . You must specify the location based on EPAC Environment or use "*" to use the same location for all of the EPAC Environments. You can specify them in global-settings.jsonc or at any node in the tree. The last (closest to the leaf node) is the one chosen if multiple managedIdentityLocations entries are encountered in a tree branch.

Defining optional additionalRoleAssignments

In some scenarios you will need additionalRoleAssignments ; e.g., for diagnostics settings to Event Hubs, the target resource might be in a different Management Group and therefore the Managed Identity requires additional role assignments. You must specify the additionalRoleAssignments based on EPAC Environment or use "*" to use the same additionalRoleAssignments for all of the EPAC Environments. If the pacEnvironment under deployment is specified in the additionalRoleAssignments, the "*" assignments will be ignored.

If the additional assignment is to made to a managing tenant in the sceenario where the pacEnvironment under deployment is a manganged (lighthouse) tenant, you must specify ""crossTenant": true" for that assignment. Ensure all necessary ABAC permissions are in place for the executing SPN.

User-assigned Managed Identities

Azure Policy can use a user-defined Managed Identity and EPAC allows you to use this functionality. You must specify the user-defined Managed Identity based on EPAC Environment or use "*" to use the same identity for all of the EPAC Environments (only possible in single tenant scenarios). Within each EPAC Environment entry, you can specify just the URI string indicating to use the same identity even if we are using a definitionEntryList , or in the case of a definitionEntryList can assign a different identity based on the definitionEntryList by specifying a matching policyName , policyId , policySetName or policySetId .

Defining parameters , overrides and nonComplianceMessages

Utilizing a csv file to define parameters , overrides and noncompliancemessages.

Assigning single or multiple security and compliance focused Policy Sets (Initiatives), such as Microsoft cloud security benchmark, NIST 800-53 R5, PCI, NIST 800-171, etc, with just JSON parameters becomes very complex fast. Add to this the complexity of overriding the effect if it is not surfaced as a parameter in the Policy Set . Finally, adding the optional nonComplianceMessages further increases the complexity.

To address the problem of reading and maintaining hundreds or thousands of JSON lines, EPAC can use the content of a spreadsheet (CSV) to create parameters , overrides and optionally nonComplianceMessages for a single Policy assignment definitionEntry or multiple Policy definitions ( definitionEntryList ).

This approach is best for large Policy Sets such as Azure Security Benchmark, NIST 800-53, etc. Smaller Policy Sets should still be handled with JSON parameters , overrides and nonComplianceMessages .

Implement these steps as documented in Managing Policy Assignment Parameters with a CSV file .

• Generate the CSV file form your already deployed Assignment(s) or Policy Set(s).
• Modify the effect and parameter columns for each type of environment types you will use.
• Modify the Policy Assignment file to reference the CSV file and the column prefix.
• Update the CSV file with the new effect and parameter values.

Defining parameters with JSON

parameters have a simplified JSON structure. You do not need the additional value indirection Azure requests (EPAC will inject that indirection).

Too enable definitionEntryList , parameters not present in the Policy or Policy Set definition are quietly ignored.

Advanced Elements

Defining overrides with json.

overrides are in the same format as documented by Azure . They are cumulative in each tree branch. The selectors element is only used for Assignments of Policy Sets. They are not valid for Assignments of a single Policy.

If using definitionEntryList , you must add the policyName , policyId , policySetName or policySetId as used in the definitionEntryList item.

Defining nonComplianceMessages with JSON

Assign a non-compliance message to the assignment, or individual non-compliance messages if the assignment is for an Policy Set. This value is an array of objects - each containing a message, and in the case of an initiative a policyDefinitionReferenceId. See this link for details.

If you use single definitionEntry , place them normally. If you use a definitionEntryList place them in the respective list entry.

Defining resourceSelectors

resourceSelectors may appear anywhere in the tree and are cumulative in any branch. They follow the standard Azure Format .

Defining enforcementMode

enforcementMode is similar to the deprecated ignoreBranch ; it deploys the assignment and sets the assignment to Default or DoNotEnforce . DoNotEnforce allows a what-if analysis. enforcementMode may appear anywhere in the tree. Definitions at a child override the previous setting.

Example assignment files

Simple policy assignment (allowed locations).

In the simple case an assignment is a single node with no difference in assignment , parameters , and definitionEntry across multiple scopes. In many scenarios "Allowed Locations" is such a simple Assignment. Such Assignments do not have child nodes, just the root node. Example

• nodeName is required for error messages; it's value is immaterial. EPAC concatenates them in the current tree branch.
• definitionEntry specifies that the custom Policy Set general-allowed-locations-policy-set from our starter kit. displayName has no meaning - it is for readability and in this instance is superfluous.
• assignment fields name , displayName and description are used when creating the assignment.
• This assignment has no metadata . You don't need an empty collection. EPAC will add pacOwnerId and roles metadata . Do not add them manually.
• enforcementMode is set to default - it is superfluous.
• parameters are obvious. Note: you don't add the value layer Azure inserts - EPAC takes care of that.
• During Policy resource development (called epac-dev ) the Assignment is deployed to an EPAC development Management Group Epac-Mg-1 .
• During Policy prod deployments ( tenant -wide), it is deployed to the tenant Management Group Epac-Mg-1 .
• No notScope entries are specified.

Security-Focused Policy Assignment with JSON parameters

• In the following example we named our root node ( nodeName ) /security/ . Since it is only used in case of error messages produced by EPAC during planning it's actual value doesn't matter as long as it's unique.
• We use a definitionEntryList to create two assignments at every leaf (six assignments total).
• For assignment string concatenation we append the strings in the definitionEntryList to the strings in the child nodes. You can see this best when you look at the description string in the child nodes. It will form a sentence when concatenated by append ing the definitionEntryList assignment field description .
• The parameters specified in the children are specific to the IaC environment types and their scope . Note: a real assignment would define many more parameters. The set here is abbreviated since the actual set could easily exceed a hundred entries for each of the IaC environments. We'll see in the next example how to simplify large Policy Set parameters with a CSV file.

Inverted Policy Assignment (Tag Inheritance and Required Tags)

As mentioned above sometimes it is advantageous (to reduce the number of repetitions) to turn a definition on its head:

• Common parameters , scope , definitionEntryList (with two Policies) at the root ( nodeName is /Tags/ ).
• Start of the assignment strings ( append is defaulted to false ). Again look at description which will be a concatenated sentence.
• The children define the tagName parameter and the second part of the strings for assignment . The set of parameters is the union of the root node and the child node.
• This creates six Assignments (number of Policies assigned times number of children).

Non-Compliance Messages in a Policy Definition Assignment

Non-compliance messages in a policy set definition assignment, non-compliance messages in a policy set definition assignment with a definitionentrylist.

• Turnitin Guides
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• Welcome to Turnitin Guides

Welcome to Turnitin’s new website for guidance!

In 2024, we migrated our comprehensive library of guidance from https://help.turnitin.com to this site, guides.turnitin.com. During this process we have taken the opportunity to take a holistic look at our content and how we structure our guides.

This page is here to help you orientate yourself with these changes and update your resources

What's new?

We have restructured the content to help you navigate it more efficiently.

We are consolidating numerous pages to make our individual guides more valuable as well as removing duplicated content.

For example, our Similarity Report guidance on help.turnitin is repeated in numerous places to cater for each individual integration and license type. On guides.turnitin this content will exist in a single place to allow for users of all integrations and licenses to find it easily. We have made slight modifications to these guides to help you understand which guides are pertinent to you and your institution.

Our guidance search has greatly improved

As a result of our content restructure, the search functionality for guides.turnitin has improved. Use the search bar at the top of any page to locate the guidance you’re searching for.

Dedicated student and administrator guidance hubs

Visit the Student hub area to locate student guidance. For students who access Turnitin via an LMS or VLE, check out the subsection Submitting to Turnitin .

Visiting the Administrator hub area to locate administrator guidance and release notes. 

iThenticate and Crossref Similarity Check guidance is now located on a separate site

To improve the experience for our iThenticate and Crossref Similiarity Check customers we have move their help content onto a separate help site, guides.ithenticate.com . This will improve the search for all users.

We have also created an orientation page for this site to help users become acclimatised.

Some guidance is no longer grouped within the LMS umbrella

Some guidance which was previously provided under each LMS has been moved to sections that reflect those workflows’ outcomes. Use the table below as a cheatsheet to quickly locate guidance.

Articles in this section

• Turnitin release notes
• Integrations release notes

• Implementing Joint Venture Management

Example of Setting Up and Processing Assignment Rules

This example shows how assignment rules can be set up to assign different ownership definitions to different types of transactions in a joint venture.

In this example, a joint operating agreement includes terms for splitting costs and revenue among the managing partner and the three partners in a joint venture. Most of the expenses and revenue have the same terms for the split, except for costs related to site materials, maintenance, and labor. In the agreement, each of these types of costs has a different percentage split.

The managing partner creates a joint venture definition with the following details:

• Identification of distributable accounts.

Before creating assignment rules to assign ownership definitions to cost transactions, the managing partner sets up account sets to use in the assignment rules. The account sets identify the following accounts:

• Material accounts: 515600–515950
• Maintenance accounts: 525400–525410
• Labor accounts: 536051–536100

Next, the managing partner creates the following assignment rules, associating each account set to the appropriate ownership definition:

After activating the joint venture definition, account sets, and assignment rules, the managing partner sets up the Identify Joint Venture Transactions process to process transactions for the joint venture. The process uses the primary segment values in the joint venture definition to identify all joint venture costs and revenue for distribution. It then processes the assignment rules according to the sequence number and assigns ownership definitions to each type of cost transaction according to the details in the assignment rules.

This is a simplified scenario, but you can also set up assignment rules to accommodate more complex joint operating agreements. You can set up an assignment rule to assign a single stakeholder to a set of transactions. Or if you use Oracle Joint Venture Management with Oracle Project Costing, you can set up assignment rules to assign ownership definitions or stakeholders to transactions based on project information in transactions.

Southwest Airlines will end open seating: What you need to know

Editor's Note

Southwest Airlines is ditching open seating, one of the hallmarks of its brand over the last half-century. The Dallas-based carrier is now moving forward with plans to add assigned seating, executives announced Thursday.

The carrier is also planning to add extra-legroom seats to its cabins for the first time.

As part of the shift, Southwest will revamp its unique boarding process. The current process sees customers line up along numbered posts based on a preassigned boarding group and number.

It's a major shift for the airline — one meant to entice more customers to fly Southwest and boost lagging financial results that have plagued the company of late.

Want more airline-specific news? Sign up for TPG's free biweekly Aviation newsletter .

"Although our unique open-seating model has been a part of Southwest Airlines since our inception, our thoughtful and extensive research makes it clear this is the right choice — at the right time — for our customers, our people and our shareholders," CEO Bob Jordan said in a statement announcing the news.

Here's what you need to know about the sweeping changes unveiled Thursday by Southwest.

Southwest open seating ending

More than 50 years after unveiling its open-seating concept — a concept well-known to passengers for most of its history — the carrier is doing away with its one-of-a-kind cabin seating setup.

Going forward, Southwest plans to assign seats to all passengers, as other airlines do.

The move will spell the end of one of Southwest's best-known quirks — one that's long been a strategy subject among Southwest loyalists hoping to find the best seat.

Why is Southwest adding assigned seats?

For months, Southwest executives have discussed the possibility of shifting to assigned seats.

In a statement Thursday, the carrier claimed 80% of its customers now prefer assigned seats, citing tens of thousands of consumers certified in extensive market research conducted over the better part of a year.

Leaders said that's a major shift from just several years ago, when similar studies showed the split at closer to half.

"Customer preferences shift over time … and their travel patterns and travel behaviors shift over time," Ryan Green, executive vice president for commercial transformation, told analysts on the company's second-quarter earnings call Thursday.

"Customers are just taking fewer short-haul trips today. They're flying longer," Green explained. "And when they fly longer, the importance of an assigned seat goes up."

Also, 86% of non-Southwest loyalists prefer assigned seats, executives said Thursday; open seating is among the top reasons, Southwest studies show, that some travelers choose not to fly with the carrier.

The changes, which include new extra-legroom seats, will introduce new revenue opportunities at a time when the carrier has, like a number of its competitors, experienced lagging profits.

How will Southwest's 'premium' seats work?

As part of its seating changes, Southwest will add a "premium seating" option, which will cost extra.

Don't expect a first-class cabin with spacious recliners and premium food. Rather, picture the extra legroom seats you find in the coach cabin of major carriers; these typically have the same seats (as Southwest is planning) but a bit more legroom and often a few other perks thrown in.

"It'll be different than the rest of the cabin, but it won't be a different seat and a curtain and meals and ovens," Jordan said. "We'll do this the 'Southwest way.'"

These extra-legroom seats will likely represent about a third of the seats on Southwest aircraft, executives said Thursday.

Specific cabin layouts are still in the works, but the airline promised new details at the company's investor day in September.

Potential elite status perk

It's a likely bet these new extra legroom seats could figure into the value proposition for Southwest Rapid Rewards A-List and/or A-List Preferred elite status.

The largest U.S. airlines offer some form of complimentary access to extra legroom seats as a perk of elite status. For instance, on American Airlines, AAdvantage Gold members can select Main Cabin Extra seats within 24 hours of takeoff, and Platinum members (and above) can select those seats at booking.

Could something similar be on the way for Southwest elite members?

"I think it's safe to assume that, just like our current A-List, A-List Preferred customers, there is a boarding benefit associated with their status level, I think it's safe to assume there will be seating benefits that are associated with it," Green said on Thursday's call.

Revenue opportunities

From the airline's perspective, the addition of extra-legroom seats is a way to boost revenue opportunities. More profitable U.S. airlines — namely Delta Air Lines and United Airlines — have cited a boom in premium demand as a key to recent success.

Even JetBlue leaders recently called the carrier's Mint cabin a "shining star," and a crucial piece of the airline's plans to return to profitability.

Southwest, of course, has largely missed out on any such opportunities with its egalitarian cabins and its few ways to boost ancillary revenue beyond hiking Early Bird check-in fees , as it did earlier this year.

But that will change in the not-too-distant future.

Boarding process evolving

Changing Southwest's signature open-seating policy will require a change to its boarding process.

Currently, the airline has a unique process in which every passenger is assigned a letter and number. Passengers line up along numbered posts and then walk, single-file, onto the jetbridge.

Executives acknowledged that the process will undoubtedly have to change with the arrival of assigned seats; however, they said they hope to keep the "calm and order" the process is known for.

"Our customers that we survey really like that. So there's a lot of focus on maintaining the boarding in a form that our customers love, but doing it in a manner that it pairs with assigned seating," Jordan said.

Eliminating a stress point

One stress point the airline expects to eliminate: the pressure to check in precisely at the 24-hour mark, when the check-in window opens. An on-time check-in is typically a key to getting a prime boarding position (itself a key to getting a prime seat) on Southwest.

Green said a whopping 50% of customers today check in within 30 seconds of the 24-hour window opening. Around three-quarters of passengers check in within the first hour.

"If you're a busy family and you don't hit the window right on the nose, that causes anxiety," Green argued. "This is a way to solve a lot of those friction points in the current open seating process."

When will Southwest's open seating end?

Southwest executives said Thursday they hope to begin selling assigned seats — including the extra-legroom seats — at some point in 2025.

Beyond that, the timeline remains a bit unclear, though the carrier expects to share far more about the plans at an investor day in September.

A new seat configuration would require certification from the Federal Aviation Administration, and then each Southwest jet would have to be retrofitted to the new cabin layout. Leaders said this would be a quick process on each aircraft, but with roughly 800 planes in the fleet, Jordan said, "That will take time."

Will bags still fly free on Southwest?

Southwest announced no plans to boost revenue further by charging for checked bags.

Each customer is allowed to bring two free checked bags (and free full-size carry-on bags on every ticket). This is another hallmark of the carrier's brand — and it's one of the top three reasons travelers choose to fly with the airline, Jordan said Thursday.

"It's not something that's under consideration right now," Jordan said Thursday. "It's a big part of what attracts people to Southwest Airlines."

Bottom line

It's a time of big change at Southwest.

For decades, passengers have picked their own seats and lined up through a unique numbered boarding process.

Both practices are set to end — or at least undergo a major shift — in the not-so-distant future.

These changes come as the airline has also announced another first: the launch of red-eye flights early next year.

Also in 2025, Southwest plans to begin taking delivery of new aircraft with its new seat types .

Related reading:

• Your complete guide to maximizing Southwest Rapid Rewards
• The best Southwest Airlines credit cards
• How to quickly earn the Southwest Companion Pass
• What is Southwest Airlines elite status worth?
• Maximize your airfare: The best credit cards for booking flights
• The best credit cards to reach elite status
• How to change or cancel a Southwest Airlines flight

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National Consultant for Policy Assessment (Reintegration for Migrant Workers Project)

Advertised on behalf of.

Home Based with travel within Dhaka as required, BANGLADESH

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

01-Sep-2024

Application Deadline :

02-Aug-24 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

National Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

1st September 2024 -31 January 2025

Time left :

Languages required :.

English  

Expected Duration of Assignment :

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background/Context

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security. Placing women’s rights at the Centre of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations System efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It has been providing strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society organizations and other relevant actors. UN Women in Bangladesh works to provide policy support on gender and migration to the Government of Bangladesh, creates evidence through research, develops tools and builds capacity of key stakeholders to ensure the protection and promotion of the rights of women migrant workers. 

Bangladesh is the sixth-largest country of origin for international labour migration and one of Asia’s major labour-sending countries. Based on the official data available, it is found that during 2013 to 2022, on average 14 per cent of the Bangladeshi migrant workers were women  and 86 per cent were men. On average, approximately 650,000 Bangladeshi migrate for overseas employment every year. Most Bangladeshi women migrant workers work in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. According to BMET data for March 2024, Saudi Arabia (45.13%) is the top destination for Bangladeshi women migrant workers, followed by Oman (10.32%) and Jordan (16.72%). However, the flow of Bangladeshi women migrant workers has shifted to other destinations such as Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Italy, Japan, Mauritius, Republic of Korea, and Singapore. Primary reasons for women migrating include escaping poverty, gender-based violence and exploitation and limited domestic employment opportunities. These workers usually come from low-income rural and suburban communities and remit their earnings to support their families back home. While some migrants return home and can reintegrate smoothly, many are unable to convert their migration experience into improved income generation in their home countries. 

Returnee migrants face a variety of challenges while reintegrating into their original communities. Although many migrants return after a successful migration, many fall victims to forced return, fraud, trafficking, and abuse leaving them unable to attain their objective of migration. A failed migration can result in psychological issues, economic and social vulnerability, making reintegration difficult.  Even those with successful migration experiences can remain unemployed or may not be able to utilize the resources gained from their countries of employment due to lack of proper guidance. Challenges related to reintegration became more acute for Bangladeshi returnee workers during the pandemic. 

Migration is a gendered process, impacting women and men differently; this also applies to reintegration. Returnee women migrants are especially vulnerable due to lack of social support emanating from deep rooted social norms and stigma around migration, creating a need for social sensitization in communities of origin. Returnee women are not well accepted in society due to prevalent patriarchal norms and conservative attitude towards women’s mobility. Studies capture difference in attitudes of family members; while they are usually proud about male members of the family who migrated abroad; there is a sense of shame attached to women’s migration. Women therefore continue to face multiple barriers– within their families and communities, upon return.   Women returnee migrants often suffer from severe physical and psychological trauma due to abuse and exploitation they face in the destination country.

As most returnee migrants have worked as domestic workers, their earnings are relatively less than male migrant workers. Additionally, they have limited decision making over their own money/income, as their earnings are mostly controlled by the male members of the family. These contribute to a lack of savings upon their return to their origin country.

The Government of Bangladesh has made significant progress on safe migration, return and reintegration. In 2024, the Government of Bangladesh finalized the draft National Reintegration Policy for Migrants which sets out a framework for the country’s reintegration programming. In 2018 the Wage Earners Welfare Board (WEWB) was established to extend welfare services for returning migrants and their families.  The reintegration and wellbeing of Migrant Workers was integrated into the Ten Point Agenda for the 8th Five Year Plan. A “whole of government” is required to ensure that relevant policies, procedures, plans, and programmes are well implemented to respond to the needs and concerns of returnee migrants.

Other key policy instruments such as the National Women’s Development Policy (NWDP) 2011 has adopted a holistic approach to a Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) The National Action Plan for the implementation of the NWDP-2011 was updated in 2023.  There are two other policies including National Skills Development Policy-2020 (NSDP) and National SME Policy-2019 have critical role to play for the economic reintegration of women returnee migrant workers.  However, they did not offer any specific policy directives and strategies to address the socioeconomic needs of returnee women migrant workers. Therefore, It is crucial to strengthen the alignment of the NWDP, NSDP and SME policy with the National Reintegration Policy for Migrants -2024, once the latter is approved to comprehensively (address the socio-economic needs of women migrant workers upon return to Bangladesh.

Furthermore, there are specific policy directives in the National Reintegration Policy to address the socioeconomic reintegration needs of returnee women. However, to ensure economic reintegration of women, coordinated actions are needed from the relevant government ministries. For example, developing skills, creating employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for women migrant workers, the specific policy actions are needed to be develop and integrated in the relevant national policies. It is critical to identify other ministries roles and responsibilities to address gender differential needs of returnee women migrant workers. 

In this context, it is important therefore to analyze the National Skills Development Policy -2020 and National SME policy -2019 from socioeconomic reintegration lens. This will be key to enhancing the economic empowerment of returnee women migrant workers through coordinated interventions national and local level. 

The “Reintegration for Migrant Workers Project" supported by the Government of Switzerland aims to support the Ministry of Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment (MoEWOE) to establish inclusive and accountable frameworks for reintegration with capable institutions, systems and schemes that can provide services for sustainable reintegration to returnee migrant workers. The project focuses on strengthening the policy framework on reintegration through analysis and revision, supported by action plans to guide implementation and further work to build the capacity of concerned ministries with a view to mainstreaming reintegration into their work and ensuring coordination. The project is implemented by the ILO in close partnership with IOM and UN Women. The project seeks to support the MoEWOE to strengthen the policy framework to respond to the reintegration needs more comprehensively of returnee migrant workers. UN Women as the dedicated entity for gender equality and empowerment of women will provide technical support on gender mainstreaming.

 UN Women Bangladesh is seeking for the services of a National Consultant to conduct the policy assessment of relevant policy frameworks to ensure the needs of women returnee migrant workers are comprehensively addressed in line with the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), Global Compact for Migration (GCM) and national reintegration framework.  Gender Equality is one of the key guiding principles of Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) and in line with the Sustainable Development Goal- 5, gender equality and women’s empowerment should be mainstreamed for enhanced welfare and protection of returned migrants. These findings and recommendations will contribute to the development of the National Action Plan (NAP) for Reintegration Policy under the leadership of Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment (MoEWOE).

The national consultant will work under the   direct supervision of Programme Manager, Women’s Economic Empowerment, UN Women and in close collaboration with International Labour Organization (ILO) and International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Duties and Responsibilities

Description of Responsibilities/ Scope of Work

(1) Desk Review

• Review   existing GE policies with a focus on the NWDP- 2011 and its updated national action plan (2023) of the Government of Bangladesh to identify opportunities and gaps related to socioeconomic reintegration of women returnee from a gender perspective.
• Review the National Skills Development Policy (2020) and National SME Policy (2019) to identify opportunities and gaps to address the needs of returnee women migrant workers.

(2 ) Stakeholder Consultation

• Facilitate stakeholder workshops at the national level to gather inputs on diverse issues related to the rights of women returnee migrant workers and identify areas for stronger alignment of the existing policy frameworks and their actions plan with the draft National Reintegration Policy. The workshop will bring together relevant stakeholders from government ministries, CSOs and private sectors amongst others.

(3) Key Informant Interviews  

• Develop questionnaires and data collection tools for collecting qualitative data from relevant key ministries and other stakeholders.
• Collect qualitative data through key informant interviews; this should include Ministries of Industry, Ministry of Education, Women and Children’s Affairs and Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment.

 (4) Data analysis

Conduct a comprehensive analysis based on the secondary review and primary data, to identify opportunities/entry points for integrating the socioeconomic reintegration lens to enhance the economic empowerment of returnee women migrant workers via the three key policies (NWDP, NSDP and SME policy). This should include- Employment and entrepreneurship opportunities; access to services including psycho-social support; capacity building and training amongst others.

(5) Validation

Facilitate a multi stakeholders’ workshop for the GoB officials and relevant stakeholders including NGOs/CSOs, Employers’ organization, private sector and trade unions to share the policy recommendations for future action.

(6) Report Writing

-Based on the recommendations, finalize the report for dissemination

-Prepare an advocacy paper focusing on policy recommendations.

Deliverables:

Payment schedule

Payment will be processed as per payment schedule and deliverables for the number of days worked based on submission of progress report on tasks completed with deliverables and timesheet; accepted and certified by the contract administrator.

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

This position will be home based. However, the consultant may be requested to come to the UN Women for meetings and coordination, as required.

Travel, Logistics and DSA:

Travel arrangements for the consultant outside Dhaka should be undertaken only upon prior agreement/approval from UN Women. UN Women will organize the travel, and cover travel expenses. The Consultant/SSA shall receive per-diem or DSA and terminals not to exceed the United Nations daily subsistence allowance rate in such other location(s) and actual travel cost. 

Supervision and Performance Evaluation:

Under the overall guidance of the UN Women Deputy Country Representative, the selected consultant will work under the direct supervision of the Programme Manager – Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE).

Competencies

Core Values:  

• Respect for Diversity 

• Integrity 

• Professionalism 

Core Competencies: 

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues 

• Accountability 

• Creative Problem Solving 

• Effective Communication 

• Inclusive Collaboration 

• Stakeholder Engagement 

• Leading by Example 

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies:  

https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment/application-process#_Values 

FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES: 

• Technical credibility in migration and gender equality issues. 

• Communications skills in facilitating high level dialogue session with multistakeholder. 

• Consistent approaches to work with energy and a positive attitude. 

• Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities.  

• Ability to deliver the planned results and ensure the quality of the product. 

Required Skills and Experience

a. Education  

- Minimum master’s degree in gender and development studies, economics, public policy and governance, or other social science related subjects.

b. Experience 

• At least 10 years’ experience on migration management process and overseas employment, reintegration, welfare of migrants and familiarity with migration policy, laws, rules and regulations concerning international migration.

• Minimum 7 years of proven experience in working on gender mainstreaming and women’s rights issues   with the public and/or the private sector.

• Minimum 5 years of experience in policy advisory support to government and relevant stakeholders on the international development issues. 

c. Language Requirement

Strong Proficiency in written and spoken English and Bangla is required.

Technical Qualification Evaluation Criteria:

The total number of points allocated for the technical qualification component is 100. The technical qualification of the individual is evaluated based on the following technical qualification evaluation criteria:

Evaluation criteria:

Criteria-01 ; Academic Qualification  -  Max Point 10

Criteria-02;  Number of years of practical experience on migration management process and overseas employment, reintegration, welfare of migrants and familiarity with migration policy, laws, rules and regulations concerning international migration.   Max Point 30

Criteria-03;  Proven experience in working on gender mainstreaming and women’s rights issues   with the public and/or the private sector.  Max Point 30

Criteria-04;  Number of years of experience in policy advisory support to government and relevant stakeholders on the international development issues.  Max Point 20

Criteria-05;  Excellent communication and writing skills in Bangla and English.  Max Point 10

Interested Individual Consultants will submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications.

To be included as part of the proposal:

• Cover letter outlining relevant work experience and updated CV
• UN Women  Personal History Form(P11) ;
• Example of related previous work, such as developing training contents and knowledge product. 

NB: At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided based on qualifications, competence, integrity, and organizational need. If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check).

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Assign policies in Teams – getting started

• 9 contributors
• Applies to: Microsoft Teams

As an admin, you use policies to control the Teams features that are available to users in your organization. For example, there are calling policies, meeting policies, and messaging policies, to name just a few.

Organizations have different types of users with unique needs. Custom policies that you create and assign let you tailor policy settings to different sets of users based on those needs.

To easily manage policies in your organization, Teams offers several ways to assign policies to users. Assign a policy directly to users, either individually or at scale through a batch assignment, or to a group that the users are members of. You can also use policy packages to assign a preset collection of policies to users in your organization who have similar roles. The option that you choose depends on the number of policies that you're managing and the number of users you're assigning policies to. Global (Org-wide default) policies apply to the largest number of users in your organization. You only have to assign policies to those users that require specialized policies.

This article describes the different ways that you can assign policies to users and the recommended scenarios for when to use what.

For details on how to assign policies to users and groups , see assigning policies to users and groups . For details on how to assign policy packages , see assign policy packages .

Which policy takes precedence?

A user has one effective policy for each policy type. It's possible, or even likely, that a user is directly assigned a policy and is also a member of one or more groups that's assigned a policy of the same type. In these kinds of scenarios, which policy takes precedence? A user's effective policy is determined according to rules of precedence, as follows.

If a user is directly assigned a policy (either individually or through a batch assignment), that policy takes precedence. In the following visual example, the user's effective policy is the Lincoln Square meeting policy, which is directly assigned to the user.

If a user isn't directly assigned a policy of a given type, the policy assigned to a group that the user is a member of takes precedence. If a user is a member of multiple groups, the policy that has the highest ( group assignment ranking ) for the given policy type takes precedence.

In this visual example, the user's effective policy is the Exec Teams and HD policy, which has the highest assignment ranking relative to other groups that the user is a member of and that are also assigned a policy of the same policy type.

If a user isn't directly assigned a policy or isn't a member of any groups that are assigned a policy, the user gets the global (Org-wide default) policy for that policy type. Here's a visual example.

To learn more, see ( Precedence rules ).

Ways to assign policies

Here's an overview of the ways that you can assign policies to users and the recommended scenarios for each. Select the links to learn more.

Before assigning policies to individual users or groups, start by setting the global (Org-wide default) policies so that they apply to the largest number of users in your organization. Once the global policies are set, you'll only need to assign policies to those users that require specialized policies.

To unassign policies, you can remove assignments in bulk for all users directly assigned to a policy. To learn more, read Unassign policies in bulk .

Set the global policies

Follow these steps to set the global (Org-wide default) policies for each policy type.

Using the Microsoft Teams admin center

• In the left navigation of the Microsoft Teams admin center, go to the policy page for the policy type you want to update. For example, Teams > Teams policies , Meetings > Meetings policies , Messaging policies , or Voice > Calling policies .
• Select the Global (Org-wide default) policy to view the current settings.
• Update the policy as needed, and then select Save .

After you submit any policy operation, you'll be prompted with a pop-up dialog box to confirm it. This includes policy assignments, changing an existing policy, and creating new custom policies. You must confirm to start the policy operation, or you can cancel and go back later.

Using PowerShell

To set the global policies using PowerShell, use the Global identifier. Start by reviewing the current Global policy to determine which setting you want to change.

Next, update the Global policy as needed. You only need to specify values for the settings that you want to change.

View your policy assignments in the Activity log

When you assign policies to users in the Microsoft Teams admin center, you can view the status of those policy assignments in the Activity log . The activity log shows network record upload information, group policy operations from Teams admin center and PowerShell, and batch policy operations (for more than 20 users) from the Teams admin center, for the last 30 days.

To view your policy operations in the Activity log:

• In the left navigation of the Microsoft Teams admin center, go to Dashboard , and then under Activity Log , select View details .
• Activity : The name of the policy operation. For example: Group policy assignment
• Group name : The name of the group the policy operation was completed on.
• Policy type : The type of policy.
• Policy name : The name of the policy operation. For batch policy assignments, you can select the link to view more details. This includes the number of users the policy was assigned to and the number of assignments completed, in progress, and not started. You'll also see the list of users in the batch, and the status and result for each user.
• Submitted by : The name of the user who submitted the policy operation.
• Submitted on : Date and time the policy operation was submitted.
• Completed on : Date and time the policy operation was completed.
• Impacted : Number of users in the batch or group.
• Not started : The policy operation was submitted by the admin.
• In progress : The policy operation has started processing.
• Rolling out to users : The system has started applying the policy update to users.
• Completed : The policy update has been applied all users.
• Completed with 'x' errors : The policy operation is complete, but there are errors.

You can also get to the Activity log from the Users page. After you select Apply to submit a bulk policy assignment, you'll see a banner at the top of the page. Select the Activity log link in the banner.

This video shows the steps to view and manage the assigned and effective policies for a user.

This video is about differences between global and custom policies.

Related topics

• Assign policies to users and groups
• Assign policy packages to users and groups
• Manage Teams with policies
• Teams PowerShell Overview

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