Regulations for taught students: Section 8

SECTION 8: Consideration of Personal Circumstances Regulation

 

You should seek impartial advice and support from the Students’ Union Advice Centre if you wish to submit a claim or an appeal.

 

8.1 Regulation Introduction

8.1.1 We recognise that some personal circumstances, like illness, bereavement or change to an existing condition or disability, may have an impact on your ability to meet a deadline. If you are worried that your personal circumstances could affect your assessments, you should tell us as soon as possible, rather than waiting for your results. This regulation was previously referred to as Extenuating Circumstances, however this has been updated to Consideration of Personal Circumstances to encompass both Extenuating Circumstances and Extension requests.

8.1.2 The University allows students to request additional consideration for their personal circumstances in two ways;

• An Extension to a submission deadline
• Extenuating Circumstances (EC) claim

 

8.2 Extensions

8.2.1 These are requests for a short period of additional time to complete assessments (maximum of 10 working days) due to the impact of your personal circumstances. If approved you would be given a new submission deadline by which to submit your assessment.

8.2.2 Extension requests supported by independent evidence should be submitted prior to the assessment submission deadline.

8.2.3 You may not submit a self-certified extension request earlier than five working days prior to the assessment submission deadline, inclusive of the day of submission up to the time the work is due. These requests do not require supporting evidence. You are only able to apply for a self-certified extension request for up to two coursework assessments per academic year. This can be either;

• Two separate self-certified requests with one assessment listed per application, or
• One self-certified request with two assessments listed.

8.2.4 No extension requests will be accepted after the assessment submission deadline.

8.2.5 This procedure may be right for you if you can confirm that your circumstances:

• Are unforeseen, short-term and are having a significant impact on your ability to study or to undertake an assessment within the current deadline.

8.2.6 Extension requests are considered by your School. If you need an extension to address a short-term disruption to completing your assessment you should access the Extension System on MyHud using the Extensions tab.

8.2.7 Extensions cannot be requested for formal exams or In-class-tests (ICT’s). It may also not be possible to request an extension to submission deadlines towards the end of the academic year as there would not be sufficient time for marking and moderation to take place before the Course Assessment Board.

8.2.8 Extensions cannot be requested for assessments offered as a Tutor Re-Assessment or assessments that have been referred or deferred.

8.2.9 You may self-certify for a maximum of two coursework assessments per academic year to receive an extension of up to 5 working days. Subsequent extension requests or for an extension more than 5 days may be permitted on application to your School, with the appropriate supporting evidence.

8.2.10 For further guidance about making an extension request, please read Section 8: Procedure.

 

8.3 Extenuating Circumstances (EC) Claims

8.3.1 These are for unexpected and longer-term issues where you have been unable to meet a deadline. Where an EC is approved, the next Course Assessment Board (CAB) would receive notification that the EC has been accepted. You will normally re-take the assessment during the next resit period as a first attempt.

8.3.2 You should use these procedures to tell us about your difficulties and, if we consider your claim to be valid, the Course Assessment Board may take this into account when looking at your results.

8.3.3 This procedure may be right for you if you can provide independent evidence confirming that your circumstances:

• Happened at the time of the assessment, including where this was due to an ongoing chronic condition.
• Were unforeseeable and you could not have prevented them.
• Had a significant impact on your ability to study or to undertake an assessment.

8.3.4 This procedure may not be right for you if:

• You wish to complain about the supervision you received during the academic year.
• You wish to complain about your general learning experience (including the feedback you received).
• You wish to question an informal mark given to you during the academic year. You should follow the procedure for requesting a review of your mark set out here

8.3.5 EC claims are submitted via your School EC Team and are considered by Registry.

8.3.6 An EC claim cannot be submitted for an assessment that has been offered as a Tutor Re-Assessment

8.3.7 If an assessment for which you have an approved EC claim is subsequently investigated for Academic Misconduct, any penalty applied by the Academic Misconduct regulations will overturn and replace the approved EC.

8.3.8 We expect students to engage with the extenuating circumstances procedure prior to an assessment deadline rather than submitting an assessment which results in a breach of the academic misconduct regulations. An EC claim cannot be submitted against an assessment for which you have had a penalty applied by the Academic Misconduct regulations. If the Academic Misconduct penalty requires you to submit a subsequent piece of work, this may be open to an EC claim.

8.3.9 If your marks have already been published through the MyResults page on a formal publication date and you believe your performance was adversely affected by extenuating circumstances, you should make a Results Appeal within 10 days using the following procedure here.

8.3.10 If your claim for extenuating circumstances is successful, this may have an impact on your progression to the next stage of your course, or to the conferment of your award and the timing of your subsequent graduation.   

 

8.4 Support Information

8.4.1 You may experience challenging personal or health-related circumstances at any time during your studies and we offer a range of support services to help you deal with them. You can find a list of the services we offer at this link –Wellbeing and Disability Services.

8.4.2 Where you experience long-standing conditions and/or circumstances that impact your studies you should make full use of the advice and support available from the Student Wellbeing and/or Disability Services. If you disclose your circumstances to us, we may be able to make reasonable adjustments to support your studies via a Personal Learning Support Plan.

8.4.3 Where your circumstances cannot be resolved quickly or the support you need is beyond what our support services can reasonably provide, you may need to consider interrupting your studies. You should read Section 5 on Interrupting Your Studies and discuss this with the Students’ Union Advice Centre before making that decision.