Academic Appeals
Every student at the university has the right to appeal their results following confirmation by the Assessment, Progression, Awarding Committee.
You can find the university’s information on Academic Appeals here.
It is important that if you wish to access the Advice Service for support that you do so as soon as possible after receiving your results. Please be aware that we may not be able to review appeals/ evidence or offer in-depth advice to students who contact us within 2 working days of their appeal deadline.
We have tried to answer as many commonly asked questions as possible below. If you do require support with your appeal however, please complete the enquiry form and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
FAQ:
Please find the university FAQ’s on appeals here.
When can I appeal?
Within 10 working days of receipt of your final results that have been confirmed by the Assessment, Progression, Awarding Committee. It will be due at 11:59pm UK time. This starts after the date e.g. if you got your results on the 18th June, the appeal will be due on Tuesday 2nd July at 11:59pm UK time.
Can I appeal?
Every student at the university has the right to appeal their results following confirmation by the Assessment, Progression, Awarding Committee.
However, appeals can be really difficult to be successful, so it is very important to manage your expectations. Every student has the right of appeal, but we would strongly consider whether you have grounds before going through the process.
How do I appeal?
You need to complete the Formal Stage Appeal Form and submit the appeal form to your relevant faculty. You can find the appeal form here and a list of the faculty email addresses here.
How long will my appeal take?
The university aim to resolve an appeal within 30 calendar days. If it is going to take longer than this, they should communicate this directly to you.
What grounds can I appeal on?
You can appeal on one or more of the below grounds:
(a) Material circumstances affecting your performance of which a Board of Examiners or the Board of the Faculty (or the Dean of Faculty acting on its behalf) had not been aware before reaching its decision, only if you can present reasonable grounds why such circumstances had not been presented to the Board in advance of its meeting. Some examples could include:
• If you were hospitalised at the time of your assessment.
• If you were experiencing an unexpected medical emergency.
• If your physical or mental health impacted your ability to submit your work and to engage with the mitigation procedure.
(b) The procedural irregularities occurred in parts of the assessment procedures, or in reaching another academic decision, which has disadvantaged the student. Some examples could include:
• Your marks have been totalled incorrectly.
• You were provided with the incorrect assessment or assessment information prior to the assessment taking place.
• Any other administrative issue by the university.
(c) That prejudice or of bias on the part of one or more Examiners and/or markers took.
This can be very difficult to evidence unless you can demonstrate perceived prejudice or bias from a marker and moderator that was present prior to submission of the assessment. If you are unsure whether you may meet this ground for appeal, please do contact us by completing the enquiry form.
What can I not appeal?
The university are very clear that you cannot use the appeals process to challenge academic judgement or to argue the academic merit of your work – this includes disagreement with the actual mark awarded for any piece of assessed work This is because it has already been moderated through the university’s stringent moderation process.
You cannot appeal because you submitted your work to the wrong place or submitted it incorrect file. You can find further information on your responsibilities when submitting assessments here. The only exception to this may be if you can provide evidence from a medical or health professional that confirms that you were suffering from a condition at the time that could have led to you doing this (grounds a).
You cannot appeal because your internet meant that you uploaded the assignment late. You would be expected to have engaged in the mitigation procedure. If this was not possible due to exceptional material circumstances, then you may wish to consider appeal under these grounds (grounds a).
Other examples of exclusions from appeal can be found in G – Procedures Relating to Student Academic Appeals.
What evidence do I need?
This is dependent on the grounds that you are appealing on.
A) Material circumstances – Generally if you are appealing on material circumstances, you will need evidence from a medical or health professional confirming that your condition at the time of the assessment would have impacted your academic performance and your ability to navigate and engage with the mitigation procedure. If you have been able to previously engage with the mitigation procedure, the evidence will need to demonstrate why this time was different and why your ability to navigate and engage with the mitigation procedure was impacted/ inconsistent.
A medical or health professional could include GP, therapist, psychotherapist. Evidence from the Wellbeing Services and Education Welfare Team are also helpful. University services will usually not be able to provide evidence unless they were aware of your circumstances prior to the assessment and the appeal.
This should be on letterheaded paper and in English. If your original documentation is not in English, this must be accompanied by an authenticated translation. The evidence should also be independent, i.e. not written by a family member, for example and verifiable. If you are found to have falsified evidence, this could result in disciplinary proceedings.
If you are unsure about what evidence you could include, please do contact us by completing the enquiry form here.
B) Procedural irregularities – If appealing on a procedural irregularity, you may wish to include a copy of the procedure being referred to and make it clear (such as by highlighting it) what procedure has not been followed. You should make direct reference to university procedures here, which you can find all of in the TQA Manual.
C) Prejudice/ bias – If appealing on the grounds of prejudice or bias, you will need to provide evidence of communication with/ anecdotes of communication with (preferably with confirmation from others who were present) that demonstrates that the marker(s) were prejudiced or bias towards you prior to marking your work, and that this subsequently may have influenced their marking. You would also need to evidence that the Assessment, Progression, Awarding Committee process was bias as, following a potentially prejudicial/ bias marking, your marks would have been confirmed.
Without evidence, such as screenshots of emails, eyewitness statements from others who were present, or anything else evidencing that the whole marking process (including the APAC process as your work would have been moderated and the mark confirmed) may have been prejudiced or biased towards you, this is very difficult to be successful.
Will the information and evidence that I provide be kept confidential?
When appealing, you might have to disclose some sensitive information in order to establish your case. The University will treat your information sensitively and confidentially. All information and supporting evidence that you provide will not be shared as standard.
There are some occasions when the person assessing your appeal may need to share some information in order to properly investigate your case (for example with the mitigation team to establish if you engaged with mitigation). This is always done carefully with respect to you and only necessary information is shared.
Can appealing make things worse?
Appealing will not reflect negatively on you at all.
However, it is important to know that if you are asking for a remark and you are successful, the result of this could be that your mark goes up, stays the same or goes down. Similarly, if you get a awarded a resit and your previous mark is disregarded, there is no guarantee that the new mark will be higher.
Please also note that your appeal needs to be respectful and must not be frivolous or malicious - appeals which are could lead to disciplinary proceedings.
Can we make a group appeal?
Yes. The appeals procedure is mainly focussed on individual appeals, but it is possible to submit a group appeal where one person acts as group spokesperson. All members of the group must sign and agree to the appeal.
What outcomes can I ask for?
The university cannot award marks where they have not been given due to academic merit. This means that you cannot ask for additional marks as the result of an appeal.
Common requests for appeal outcomes include:
• A further referral where you have failed all assessment opportunities.
• Removal of a cap where you submitted work late due to exceptional material circumstances or procedural irregularity.
• Change of a referral (capped resit) into a deferral (uncapped resit) where you experienced exceptional material circumstances at the time of the original submission.
• Re-calculation of degree where you have evidence that there has been a procedural irregularity that has impacted this.
• For a different marker (only where you can provide evidence of prejudice or bias in the marking and mark confirmation process).
How can the Guild Advice Service help me with my appeal?
We can review your appeal and evidence for you to provide advice and guidance on what you may wish to add/ remove or edit. We can do this a maximum of two times if time allows. During busy periods, we will only review appeals and provide feedback once.
We cannot provide grammatical advice, provide supporting evidence, or write your appeal for you.
Where do I send my appeal?
You should send your appeal to the relevant Faculty Cases Team for their consideration:
· Environment, Science and Economy - ESE-Facultycases@exeter.ac.uk
· Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences - HASS-Facultycases@exeter.ac.uk
· Faculty of Health and Life Sciences - HLS-Facultycases@exeter.ac.uk
· For students based at our Penryn Campus - Penryn-Facultycases@exeter.ac.uk
· For all Postgraduate Research appeals - pgr-student-cases@exeter.ac.uk
What are some tips for writing my appeal?
• Make sure that your appeal is clearly paragraphed.
• Clear timeline of events in chronological order. It must be made clear how these events have impacted you and your academics.
• Make sure that all information and evidence that you are including is relevant. Remember that someone has to read your appeal and be able to understand exactly what happened and how this impacted you. Other information that is not relevant could distract from this.
• Clearly reference which piece of evidence is relevant to what part of your appeal within the body of your appeal.
• If your evidence is going to take longer to get than the 10-working day appeal window, please do communicate this directly with the Faculty Cases Team when you submit your appeal form. Try to give them an estimated timeframe and keep them updated if you will not be able to provide the evidence within this.
How should I structure my appeal?
• Start with an introduction explaining what you are appealing and what outcome you are hoping for.
• Explain why you have grounds for appeal, breaking this down into paragraphs and including references to your evidence or University procedures.
• Explain any evidence you have included, showing how it is relevant and ensuring the timeline and significance of each piece of evidence is clear.
• Finish with a short concluding paragraph or statement, succinctly summarising your case and thanking the reader for their consideration.
What if my appeal is not upheld/ I am unhappy with the outcome?
Following the outcome of your Formal Stage Appeal, you can escalate this to a Review Stage Appeal. You have 10 working days following receipt of the Formal Stage Appeal outcome to do this. Find the Review Stage Appeal Form here.
The process is similar to the above, however it is important to note that re-iterating your Formal Stage Appeal will not be sufficient as the grounds for appeal are slightly different:
• Material circumstances which could not reasonably have been expected to have been submitted for consideration during the Formal Appeal process
• Evidence of procedural irregularities during Formal Appeal process
• Evidence of bias during Formal Appeal process
• The decision reached during the Formal Appeal Stage is one that no reasonable body (properly directing itself and taking into account all relevant factors) could have arrived at.
You must provide new information and evidence not provided at the Formal Stage Appeal and make it very clear as to why this information and evidence could not be provided earlier.
Your appeal and new evidence must be sent to studentcases@exeter.ac.uk.
If you need any help with understanding your outcome, or in pursuing an Appeal Review, please contact us here.
Will I still be able to graduate?
This is entirely dependent on the mark and award that you receive. You can find information on helping you check if you are eligible to graduate in the FAQ’s here.
If you have any questions around this, please do contact your Hub who will be able to clarify what your results mean for you.
An active appeal will not prevent you graduating as it may be the case that your appeal will not be upheld. If your appeal is successful (upheld), you have opportunity to accept or decline the offer awarded to you. We can discuss further the possible implications of this to ensure that you can make the most informed decision for you. Please contact us here.
What will happen with my Visa?
We are not licensed to offer visa and immigration advice. If you are considering an appeal and would like to discuss the potential impacts of this on your visa, please do contact the International Student Support Team.
How could this impact me financially?
Please find our webpage on Undergraduate Student Finance here, postgraduate finance here, and international finance here.
If you have any questions about the potential financial impact of your results, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Who else can I go to for support?
Your Education Welfare Advisor can support you if your mental or physical health or wellbeing is having an effect on your ability to study, or your studying is creating health problems for you. They may also be able to provide evidence in support of your appeal. This is entirely at their discretion, however.
The university’s Wellbeing Services can support you with any impact that this is having on your mental and emotional wellbeing.
You can also access urgent and out of hours wellbeing support here.