MITIGATING CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH
ADVERSELY AFFECT ASSESSMENT
1.1
Students who have been unable to attend or submit assessments, or who believe their
performance in assessment has been affected by Mitigating Circumstances may submit a
claim.
1.2
Mitigating circumstances are defined as unforeseen, unpreventable circumstances that
significantly disrupt student performance in assessment. 1
1.3
A Mitigating Circumstances claim should be submitted if valid detrimental circumstances
result in:
a) the late or non-submission of assessment;
b) non-attendance at assessment(s);
c) poor performance in assessment.
2.
What are mitigating circumstances?
2.1
Mitigating circumstances are circumstances beyond a student’s control, which could not
have been foreseen, and which have adversely affected work for assessment. The
mitigating circumstances procedure is intended to deal with transient circumstances
rather than long term ones without obvious prospect of resolution.
2.2
Mitigating circumstances typically relate to:
• Serious problems which prevented the student from completing an assessment task by
the due date or after a short extension, or which prevented the student from
attending for assessment on a designated date;
• Serious problems or illness on the day of an assessment task which the student
believes adversely affected performance, although the student completed the task;
• Problems over an extended period which the student believes seriously and adversely
affected preparation for the assessment task which the student nevertheless
completed.
2.3
Most commonly, mitigating circumstances concern illness. Other examples include the
death of a member of the student’s immediate family; the unexpected illness of a
relative the student is responsible for; an accident or crime affecting the student for a
significant period during work on an assessment task.
2.4
There are some circumstances which may affect assessment, but where the mitigating
circumstances procedure may not be used. These include:
• Dyslexia, disability, or a long-term medical condition. Mitigating circumstances only
apply where a known long term condition becomes acute and this change can be
evidenced. See section 10.37-10.41 of the Academic Regulations. Further advice is
available from the Learning Centre.
1
Guidance Note: “Assessment” relates to any form of assessment including coursework, reports, essays, examinations,
laboratory work, in-class tests, projects, dissertations etc.
Date Effective: 1st September 2014
1
•
•
General financial or personal difficulties, unless there is a medical certificate or
similar evidence of how these affected the student’s health.
Circumstances the student knew about before starting the course – such as
employment or external personal commitments.
2.5
Pregnancy and maternity is not normally considered by the School to be a mitigating
circumstance. Instead it should be viewed in the context of inclusive assessment and
therefore a reasonable adjustment to assessment should be put in place.
2.6
Where it is in the best interests’ of the student, an application for Mitigating
Circumstances may trigger the Student Wellbeing and Fitness to Study Procedures.
3.
The mitigating circumstance procedure for students
3.1
The mitigating circumstances procedure allows the examination board to take account of
the impact of those circumstances on assessment, and make decisions accordingly. The
procedure requires the student to disclose the circumstances, with evidence, by a
defined date before the Examination Board. It ensures that the details are considered in
confidence by a very small sub-group, and are not disclosed to the whole Board. A
request for mitigating circumstances to be considered may not be made after the
deadline.
3.2
A mitigating circumstances form is available from the Student Advice Service 2, or may be
downloaded from Learnzone. Students must complete the form, and return it to the
Course Support Office (via the Student Advice Service) EITHER
a) up to 28 days after the assessment event or hand-in date OR
b) no later than 72 hours before the Examination Board
3.3
Students are advised and encouraged to submit claims of mitigating circumstances as
soon as possible.
3.4
Students must use the form, even if teaching or administrative staff were aware of the
problem. The Examination Board will act only on the basis of the form. The Examination
Board will normally assume that a student who did not complete the form did not wish
the Board to take any account of mitigating circumstances.
3.5
A circumstance at the School or in an external environment for which the School is
responsible, affecting the assessment of a group of students, may be reported by a
relevant member of staff directly to the Mitigating Circumstances sub-committee (e.g. a
fire drill during an assessed performance). Students do not need to use the form in such a
case.
4.
Acceptable evidence of mitigating circumstances
4.1
Serious mitigating circumstances may be the basis of Examination Board decisions to
condone failed assessment tasks, allow reassessment without capping marks (deferral), or
award a classification higher than that signified by the average mark. Robust evidence of
the circumstances is therefore required. The mitigating circumstances form summarises
2
Students may seek advice on completion of the form from the Student Advice Service
Date Effective: 1st September 2014
2
the forms of evidence expected. The School requires sight of original evidence, not
photocopies.
5.
Documentary Evidence for claims
5.1
All claims should include some form of independent documentary evidence. Documentary
evidence must normally be presented in English and, where required, translations must
be provided by the student using an authorised translator. It is not the responsibility of
the School to translate any evidence provided by the student and any un-translated
evidence may NOT be considered.
5.2
The School reserves the right to check the authenticity of all documentation submitted as
part of a Mitigating Circumstances Claim.
5.3
Any student who submits documentation that is not authentic may be subject to the
School’s disciplinary procedures.
5.4
Although evidence is normally required, there may be situations which cannot be
independently evidenced through documentation. Students may provide (on the form) a
clear explanation of the circumstances, their effect on work for assessment, and the
reasons why there is no corroborative evidence. In such a case, supporting evidence that
the student had told a tutor of the situation at the time may be helpful (e.g. “this was
noted in a tutorial record”).
5.5
Students should be aware that discussing their circumstances with staff does not
constitute a submission of a claim of Mitigating Circumstances.
6.
How mitigating circumstances claims are considered
6.1
The Secretary to the Examination Board, based in the Course Support Office, will hold a
file of mitigating circumstance forms, as received through the year.
6.2
A meeting of a Mitigating Circumstances Panel will be convened as appropriate
throughout the year. The panel will be chaired by the Chair of the Examination Board,
must include the Secretary to the Examination Board, and may include one of the Deputy
Deans, the Academic Registrar or his/her nominee, or a member of academic staff (but
not the course leader for any of the courses in the scope of the Board).
6.3
The Mitigating Circumstances Panel will consider the mitigating circumstances claims and
associated evidence. The panel will not have access to the students’ profile of unit
results. The purpose of the panel is to:
• ensure consistent treatment of mitigating circumstances across different courses;
• provide a confidential forum in which sensitive information may be considered,
which need not then be revealed to the full Examination Board.
6.4
For a claim to be accepted a student must produce independent documentary evidence to
show that the circumstances:
a) have (or will) detrimentally affected their performance in assessment
b) were unforeseen;
c) were out of their control and could not have been prevented;
Date Effective: 1st September 2014
3
d) relate directly to the timing of the assessment affected.
6.5
The remit of the Board is limited to the consideration of whether or not, on the basis of
all the evidence submitted, the student has made a valid claim of Mitigating
Circumstances. The final decision of the Mitigating Circumstances Board is binding.
6.6
The Panel will review the evidence presented, in relation to the nature and timing of the
assessment and of the circumstances and may judge the claims to be in one of the
following categories:
a) Strongly supported
b) Supported
c) Rejected
6.7
The Secretary to the Examination Board will
• record the panel’s decisions;
• annotate exam board paperwork appropriately and communicate the panel’s
judgments to the Examination Board;
• carry forward the record of a student’s mitigating circumstances claims supported in
previous year for reference at the final Board determining the student’s award and
classification.
• record details of why a claim was unsuccessful which will be made available to
students only on written request.
7.
Decisions which the Examination Board may take
7.1
If mitigating circumstances have been supported or strongly supported, the decisions
open to the Board are specified as follows:
7.2 Deferral in an assessment
7.2.1 If the student has failed an element of assessment (either by not completing it or through
poor performance) the Board may allow a deferral. This means that the student may be
assessed as if for the first time in any or all of the affected assessment. The deferred
assessment may necessarily differ in form from the original assessment, but will be
comparable. The Examination Board will decide whether the student must attend all or
part of the year in order to take the deferred assessment. Attendance may have cost
implications for the student.
7.2.2 The date and format of the deferral shall be the decision of the Board of Examiners but
would normally be at a time before the start of the following academic year. 3
7.2.3 A student who passes a deferred assessment will be awarded the actual mark achieved,
and may then progress to the next level of the course or to the award for which he or she
is a candidate. The mark will not be capped at the pass mark, as would be the case for
retrieval.
7.2.4 Because of the nature of the original element(s) of assessment or the learning outcomes
of the unit, the Board of Examiners may determine that the deferral cannot occur
without attendance of the unit, or that the deferral cannot occur until such a time as the
3
Where practical the deferral shall take place before the start of the following academic year. An alternative
format of assessment to that originally used may be employed at the discretion of the board.
Date Effective: 1st September 2014
4
unit next runs, in which case the student would not be able to progress to the next year
and/or level of study.
7.2.5 A student who fails a deferral shall retrieve the element of assessment.
7.3 Accepted claims for submission of late work
7.3.1 Late submission (i.e. a backdated extension) may be permitted when the claim justifies
late submission/participation in assessment. In such instances the student will therefore
receive their actual mark for the element of assessment and the work shall not be failed
in accordance with late submission of assessment regulations. 4
7.4 Condonement
7.4.1 If the Board accepts evidence that a student has missed or failed a unit or an element of
assessment in a unit, but that the Board judges that there is evidence that the student is
academically prepared to progress, or has met the learning outcomes required for the
award, the Board may condone the failure and credit the student with a pass after
condonement. The mark awarded for the unit will not be raised, but the Board has
discretion to disregard the mark for the affected unit in the calculation of any
classification or distinction to which it may have contributed.
7.5 Raise the classification or award a distinction
7.5.1 If the panel has “strongly supported” the mitigating circumstances claim, and the
student’s overall average mark is 2% or less below a classification band or the percentage
required for a distinction, the Examination Board will normally award the higher
classification or the distinction. The marks recorded on the student’s transcript will not
be raised.
7.5.2 The Examination Board has discretion to make decisions outside these norms, but may do
so only with the support of a relevant external examiner. Such exceptional decisions may
take account of the overall profile of marks, the weighting of assessment affected by the
mitigating circumstances, and the difference between the student’s attainments in the
affected tasks compared with that in unaffected tasks. For example, the Board would
typically not raise a classification within 2% of the boundary if the whole of the affected
unit carried only 5% weight in classification, or if the mark achieved by the student was in
line with, or higher than, his or her marks in other work.
7.6 Offer an Aegrotat Award
7.6.1 If the student is registered for an undergraduate award, and where a high proportion of
the student’s work has been affected by illness or other serious circumstances, the Board
may consider offering an Aegrotat award (see section 30 of the Academic Regulations).
The student should normally be allowed the option to be reassessed and is not required
to accept the Aegrotat (which is not classified).
4
The Board should consider whether feedback has already been given to the other students on the unit. If
feedback has not been given to the students the assignment would usually be allowed late and the actual mark can
be awarded. Where feedback has already been given before the assignment was submitted it would be usual for
the board to grant a “deferral” in the assessment. This would allow the student to be assessed and be awarded
their actual mark (rather than being capped) without jeopardising the integrity of the assessment.
Date Effective: 1st September 2014
5
7.7 Recommend or require Suspension of Study
7.7.1 If it is clear that a student’s serious mitigating circumstances are ongoing, and there is
evidence that the student will be unable to attend or participate in the course for an
extended future period, the Board may recommend or require a period of suspension.
(See section 7 of the Academic Regulations). The Board may particularly require this
following recurring mitigating circumstances considered at successive meetings of the
Examination Board.
7.8 Defer Unit
7.8.1 The claim is accepted and the Board feels that the circumstances and evidence warrant a
deferral in the whole unit i.e. the student shall attend the entire unit and undertake all
assessments for that unit as if for the first time. Deferring an entire unit will prevent a
student from progressing to the next level of study.
7.9 Repeating the Year
7.9.1 The Examination Board will not offer students an opportunity to repeat assessment tasks
which they have passed, in order to achieve an improved outcome.
7.9.2 Exceptionally, the Examination Board may offer a student the opportunity to repeat a
year of the course. In such cases the student shall have submitted sufficient mitigating
circumstances evidence to satisfy the Board that the majority of the year’s work has been
affected by the circumstances. This means that the student will attend the course and
will undertake all the assessed work of the course as if for the first time, and will attend
the course. The opportunity to repeat the year means that the student re-takes (as if for
the first time) all the assessments of the year in question, and not solely those
assessment units that were the subject of initial failure.
7.9.3 A student may only repeat a year once. No more than one opportunity will be given to a
student to repeat a year during his/her study on a course.
8.
Submission of Mitigating Circumstances Claims
8.1
The final deadline for submission of a claim is 72 hours before the Examination Board (see
section 20 of the Academic Regulations). Students are encouraged to submit mitigating
circumstances claims at the earliest opportunity.
9.
Confidentiality and Record Storage
9.1
The Mitigating Circumstances claim and associated evidence will be considered by
members of the Mitigating Circumstances Board solely for the purpose of processing a
student’s claim. Original documentary evidence shall only be returned upon written
request by the student.
9.2
All claims and evidence will be kept by the School for the duration of time as stated in
the School Records Retention Policy after which the records and evidence will be
destroyed.
9.3
The School therefore does not accept any liability for the destruction of original copies of
evidence after the minimum period of storage has lapsed.
Date Effective: 1st September 2014
6
10.
Late and Rejected Mitigating Circumstances Claims
10.1
If a claim does not meet one or more of the required conditions it will be rejected.
Exceptionally, rejected claims may be resubmitted for consideration up to 6 weeks after
the release of the Examination Board decision.
10.2
Late claims may be submitted up to 6 weeks after the release of the Examination Board
decision and should have valid reasons for late submission.
11.
Other related procedures
11.1
Extensions
A student unable for good reason to complete an assessment task by the due date may, in
advances of that date, request an extension, using the form provided by the Course
Support Office or downloaded from LearnZone.
11.2
Appeal
The appeals procedures are available from the Student Advice Service and on LearnZone.
One of the grounds for appeal against the decision of an examination board is that there
were mitigating circumstances which “could not reasonably have been presented before
the examination board”. Mitigating circumstances are not in themselves grounds for
appeal, unless there was a sound reason why the mitigating circumstances procedure
could not be used.
Date Effective: 1st September 2014
7