NEW POLICY ON MITIGATING CIRCUMSTANCES

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

This document summarises some of the questions asked by staff in Schools for clarification of the new procedures and how to
implement them, together with the answers that have been given.
Question Answer
1 ow can we approve mitigating circumstances in advance of
a missed assessment when the mitigating circumstances
committee may not meet until months afterwards, and it can
only make recommendations to the !oard of "#aminers$
%t may be possible to think about dealing with mitigating
circumstances in advance for missed e#ams&labs etc in the
same way as we do for coursework e#tensions, i.e. the student
makes the request in advance and it is agreed 'or not( by an
individual who may be a course director, A)*T etc 'the person
who normally grants e#tensions(. The authority would be
delegated to them from the mitigating circumstances
committee so that they can make a definitive decision, +ust as
they would for coursework e#tensions. This would not need to
be sub+ect to mitigating circumstances committee&e#am board
approval, in the same way that e#tensions are not sub+ect to
that approval.
, The wording circulated to students says that mitigating
circumstances must be approved before the
submission&e#amination date but for internal purposes we
have applied this as having to be received and logged onto
SA%-T by this date 'or in e#treme cases within the following .
days(.
Approval must be given in advance unless it is impossible to
do so, e.g. illness on the day. % appreciate that it may be
difficult to implement and that a business process may need to
reviewed&amended, but that is what the regulations say. See
above for a suggestion on how to implement this.
/ Students may not be able to bring evidence in advance of the
missed assessment, how can we deal with that$
Some cases will be clear, with evidence to hand when the
decision is made so that a definitive yes or no can be given in
advance. 0thers might have good reason but no evidence as
yet. Students will be allowed up to . days after the
assessment to bring in their supporting evidence 'unless there
is good reason why they cannot do so(. These students should
be advised that the reasons for missing the e#am will be
considered as good cause 1sub+ect to evidence being
available2 and therefore if the e#am is happening before the
evidence can be provided, they would be advised to take the
e#am in case the request was turned down later.
3 Some students may take their assessments even though, on
the day, they do not feel well enough to do so. 4e accept
that, due to the new policy, we are going to encourage this.
This disadvantages these students, who may perform below
their best.
5itigating circumstances committees would continue to
consider mitigating circumstances that relate to issues such as
poor performance in assessment, etc. Such requests should
be submitted as soon as possible and no later than . days
after the assessment.
6 7an students appeal against a decision not to approve their
request to sit an e#am$
There is no appeal process against decisions of a mitigating
circumstances committee or delegated authority. Students can
appeal against the decision of the !oard of "#aminers, which
may not take place until some considerable time after the
event. All staff should be advising all students to take their
assessments if they do not have approval in advance to miss
it, and then to submit mitigating circumstances regarding poor
performance. They can then appeal against any decision that
this was not good cause and, whether they are successful or
not, will not be charged for the right to undertake any
necessary resits.
8 %f a student requests approval to miss an e#am and this is
turned down, the student may then still put in mitigating
circumstances.
%f a request is made in advance and then turned down, the
student can of course put in a mitigating circumstances
request for poor performance caused by having to sit an e#am
that they did not feel well enough to sit, for e#ample. This
would be dealt with at the mitigating circumstances committee
and !oard of "#aminers in the usual way. %f they have been
turned down but still do not sit the e#am, they cannot then put
in further mitigating circumstances as to why they did not do it,
as these have already been submitted and turned down. They
could appeal, but only after the !oard of "#aminers has met
which may be a long time after the event.
. %t would be really helpful if there was a list of what should and
should not be considered as good cause&mitigating
circumstances. This would also ensure consistent practice
within and across Schools.
This will be produced.
9 A list of what is and is not considered as acceptable evidence
would also be useful. ".g.
a doctors letter saying 1this student tells me that they were ill
last :riday2 ; not acceptable.
1This student was ill last :riday2 ; acceptable
This will be produced.
< %s the charge of =1>> or per component of original
assessment or per supplementary assessment$ 4e have
some modules with five components but the supplementary
assessment is +ust one e#am. %f a student has missed all the
components, would they pay =6>> or =1>>$
4e do not charge for supplementary assessments, so the
charge is not linked to the number of supplementary
assessments that there may be within the module. The charge
of =1>> is for each missed component of assessment. So, in
this e#ample, the student would be charged =6>> for the right
to take the supplementary e#am.
1> %f a student has missed a component of assessment but has
achieved /6? for the module as a whole, and is allowed to
pass and proceed under the compensation regulations, will
they still have to pay =1>>$
This would count as non@completions under the ":7"
definition, but not under our own Aniversity regulations. 4e
are charging students for the right to supplementary
assessment and, as this student would not need a resit, there
would be no charge.
11 4ill Schools have to charge the students and collect the
money$
7harging students will be done centrally and not by Schools B
the role of the School would be to ensure that SA%-T was
correct, but not to have to raise invoices or collect the charge.
1, 4hen will students be e#pected to pay and what if they donCt$ 4e anticipate that the invoice would need to be raised as soon
after !oard of "#aminers meeting as possible. There would be
a fairly short timescale for payment to be made, before the
supplementary e#am timetable was run. Students who do not
pay would be treated like any other debtor. 'This answer is
provisional as the detail still needs to be worked out(.
1/ %f a student missed their first attempt, their right to a second
one is taken away @ if they pay the =1>>, they get a S"70-)
attempt, because the ma# mark is /6?. %s that correct$
Des
13 Are students failed and charged =1>>, or are they
failed and it is their choice to pay =1>> and then do a second
attempt$
They will automatically be charged the =1>>. % think the
question of whether they choose to pay or not simply confuses
the issue although of course they can choose not to pay and
not to take the assessment B but would then fail the whole
course and be required to withdraw.
16 4hat about students who are required by the Eune&Euly !oard
of "#aminers to repeat the stage with attendance due to 9> or
more failed credits 'if these are due to non@submissions($
-o charge will be made for the supplementary assessments
as these students will be charged a full fee for a repeat stage
and therefore will not be taking supplementary assessment
from the previous stage.
The same applies to students who have failed .> credits and
are required to repeat modules with attendance during the
ne#t stage.
18 %n our School we do not give e#tensionsB students have to
submit when they can and then submit mitigating
circumstances to e#plain the late submission, which will then
be +udged to see whether this was for good cause or not.
This is no longer possible under the new policy. Students are
therefore required to request e#tensions in advance and if
these are acceptable, be given an e#tension appropriate to the
mitigating circumstances.
1. %n our School, students are given e#tensions for a ma# period
of , weeks and then if that is not long enough, they are not
given a further e#tension but have to submit when they can
and then submit mitigating circumstances to e#plain the late
submission, which will then be +udged to see whether this was
for good cause or not.
This is no longer possible under the new policy. Students are
therefore required to request e#tensions in advance and if
these are acceptable, be given an e#tension appropriate to the
mitigating circumstances. Should they require more time
following the first e#tension, they should request a further
e#tension 'with evidence as appropriate( and a further
e#tension granted if the circumstances warrant it.
19 "scalate provision B we are very much in the hands of
employers for the deadlines for submission and have to take
advice from them. 4e tend to set a very long deadline
'usually the ne#t year(. 7an we e#empt this provision from
the mitigating circumstances policy in some way$
The length of time for assessments does not matter so if an
"scalate module has a one year submission deadline, then
students will be +udged on whether or not they have submitted
by that deadline, or whether they have requested an e#tension
in advance. % am not sure that we need to e#empt them from
the policy provided that this is made clear to them.
1< Social work placements B these start when the placement
providers are identified so there isnCt a standard start date any
more. The submission deadline, therefore, is not standard.
Students are required to submit the portfolio the first working
day after their placement ends. %Cm not quite sure how to
manage this for mitigating circumstances. 4e do keep track
of start and end dates as best we can, but it doesnCt leave us
much time for Fin advanceC notification and agreement of
mitigating circumstances in relation to the submission
deadline.
A standard submission date is not a requirement of the policyG
provided that students are aware when their submission date
is going to be then they are sub+ect to the same regulation as
everyone else. Hresumably students are working on their
portfolio during their placement so would know in advance
whether or not they need an e#tension before the submission
date$ % appreciate the tight turnaround time for submission and
we need to be sensitive to issues around professional practice,
but students do also need to be aware of the professional
importance of meeting deadlines.
,> %s it possible for the e#ams office to notify students of the time
that they need to be in the e#amination room as the Istart
timeI of e#am$ 4hilst % appreciate that our current system,
notification of start time, and strong advice that students are
required to be there 16 minutes beforehand, should be clear
enough, but every year we get some students who do not
appreciate that they will be barred from the room, and unable
to sit the e#am, unless they arrive 16 minutes before the start
time.
The problem with telling students that the arrival time '16
minutes early( is actually the start time is that it will only work
onceJ %f they know that a < a.m. e#am actually starts at <.16,
they will arrive for <.16 after that first time of arriving at <.
% think that the only way to approach this is to continue to
discuss with students the importance of planning to arrive
early +ust in case something happens on the way to the e#am,
+ust as they would if they were catching a train or a plane. %
know that they do not always realise the impact and
importance of this, but that is our +ob 'for all of us, both
centrally and in Schools( to keep on stressing it until they do
hear the message.
4ithin the ne#t few months we will also be developing an
application for smart phones that will alert students an hour
before an e#am, and will then guide them via KHS to the right
building and then to the right room via integrated floor plans.
Dou may not know that the number of students who do not turn
up for e#ams has steadily decreased over the last year or so
since we started sending out individual timetables to every
student, and we think that the number will decrease even more
this Eanuary when students will have to pay =1>> 'per missed
component of assessment without prior approval( for the right
to reassessment. 4e will be doing a report for Senate on this
later in the year.
,1 %s it legally acceptable for the Aniversity to change
regulations throughout the course of the academic year and if
so should this information be included in the regulation
documentation$
-ormally the Aniversity would not seek to change regulations
mid@year, but on some occasions this is necessary, and this
was one of those rare occasions. 0ther institutions are in the
same situation as us and are making similar changes. There
is nothing in the regulations which stipulates that changes will
not be made for the duration of a course and, +ust as curricular
content might change, regulations occasionally need to be
changed. 0ur commitment in such cases is always to ensure
that students are kept fully informed of any changes, and we
have undertaken a mass communication campaign to ensure
that all students are aware of the new policy.
,, )oes the new policy apply to students studying at
7ollaborative Hartner %nstitutions$
The original agreement was that the policy of submitting
mitigating circumstances in advance of missed assessments
would also apply to 7H institutions from 1
st
)ecember, but that
the issue of whether or not to charge students would be left up
to them. %t has since been agreed that 7H institutions will not
be required to implement the 1in advance2 part of the policy
until September ,>1>.
7T
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