Student Advice Centre

Academic Appeals

There are only specific circumstances where you can make an academic appeal and a limited number of grounds on which you can do so. The relevant regulations are in the University Calendar.

• Regulation 8.12 refers to final year undergraduates
• Regulation 37 to taught postgraduates
• Regulation 38 to research postgraduates

If you are an intermediate year undergraduate the only circumstance in which you can appeal is if you have been required to leave your course. Final year undergraduates can appeal against their degree classification as well as against the decision not to award a degree at all. Postgraduates can appeal if a lower or no degree has been awarded (although you cannot appeal against a lower Masters' classification).

You can't challenge matters of academic judgment when you appeal but you can appeal under the following grounds:

1. You are in possession of evidence relevant to your examination performance which was not available to the Board of Examiners when its decision was reached and can provide good reasons for not having made the Board of examiners aware of this evidence;
2. There appears to have been procedural irregularities in the conduct of the examination process;
3. There appears to be evidence of prejudice or bias on the part of one or more of the examiners.

If you are not a final year undergraduate you can only appeal on the first ground. If you are a postgraduate, taught or research, you have a further ground for appeal which is:

1. There is evidence of inadequacy of supervisory or other arrangements during the student’s enrolment at the University. In this instance, you are required to explain why a complaint was not made at an earlier stage.

You must make your appeal within the time limits given which are 10 days for undergraduates (15 for medical undergraduates) and 42 days for postgraduates.

You can consult your Personal Tutor for help with the appeal process. If you wish to get help and representation from outside your department, you can consult the Senior Tutor at the University, the Education Officer at the Students' Union or the Student Advice Centre.