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Academic Appeals

To submit an academic appeal to UCL, you will need to complete an online Stage 1 Appeal Form. Outlined below are the key sections of the form with information you should know about each, and how to complete them fully and clearly. 

You cannot save this form as you go, so make sure to complete any drafts in a separate document, so you can edit before you submit.  

Please note, if you are dissatisfied with a service at UCL unrelated to your academic marks, you should use the UCL Student Complaints Procedure to address this. 

Page 5: The Grounds of Your Academic Appeal

In this section you will need to state on which grounds your academic appeal is being made. You can choose more than one ground, if you feel that is appropriate to your complaint.

Some examples might be:

  • You were hospitalised or unable to engage with the Extenuating Circumstances process due to ill health (including mental ill health) or you were so distressed as a result of what happened to you that you didn't think about additional consideration until too late.
    • (i) there were circumstances that significantly affected the student’s academic performance, where for compelling reasons, the relevant Extenuating Circumstances Panel was not made aware of the circumstances through the Short-term Illness and other Extenuating Circumstances Procedure;
  • Your exam contained questions which were on topics not included in your syllabus, or your exam contained major errors (such as mathematical) which made the questions unanswerable
    • (ii) there occurred a material irregularity (an administrative or procedural error) that had a significant impact on a student’s performance and which had not been determined prior to a Board of Examiners;
  • You were treated differently and worse than others on your course by one or more of the examiners. You have evidence which supports this.
    • (iii) there is substantive evidence that one or more of the examiners can be shown to have been biased or prejudiced against the student in one or more specific assessments.

Are you making an Appeal based on Extenuating Circumstances?

If your appeal is based on you were unable to use the Extenuating Circumstances process at the appropriate time, you will need to explain why in question 14.

You will also need to submit evidence (later in the online form) to support why you could not have reasonable done this at the time.

Points to Note

Not knowing about university processes, or not realising that your performance had been affected until after seeing your results, would not normally count as good reasons for asking for additional consideration late.

Compelling reasons for not raising issues or difficulties at the time of the exam might include things like being hospitalised, being a victim of a serious crime, being involved in an accident, or having an illness which directly affected your ability to complete administrative processes.

Remember that you will need to include evidence to show how this compelling reason not only prevented you from raising any extenuating circumstances at the time of the assessments, but also how it affected you from raising any issues up until now, the submission of your academic appeal.  

Page 14: Your Academic Appeal

Here is where you describe why you are appealing. Make sure what you write is clear, and as concise as possible - try not to include things which are not directly linked to your appeal, as you will have limited space to explain your case. You are limited to around 650 words.

You should be clear on:

  • the date of the official notification of the decision (for example, your results)
  • which modules and assessments were affected
  • what exactly you are unhappy about
  • why you are dissatisfied with what has happened

You can add something in your appeal about how this issue has impacted you, for example:

  • has it affected you financially?
  • has it had a negative effect on your wellbeing?

Be clear on what consequences this issue has had for you directly.

If you can explain what impact your issue has had, this will make your reason for appeal clearer to the Casework Team and Appeal Assessor.

If you have any evidence (e.g. medical records, letters or emails) to show the impact of the issue, you should note this in your appeal, and include this with the submission.

An example might look like this: 
I experienced sudden and unexpected extenuating circumstances on the day before my exam and I could not attempt it. I was in a traffic accident and was hospitalised for treatment. I did not apply for mitigation because it was impossible for me to do so, as I had serious injuries and was kept in the hospital for a number of weeks for rehabilitation. As evidence, I include my accident report (see document A), my hospital admission and discharge letters showing the duration of my time in hospital (documents B & C), and a medical document detailing my injuries and treatment plan (document D).  

My exam was marked as zero. I would like to request an attempt to resubmit this assessment as a first attempt given the circumstances I faced during this time. 

Page 15: The Outcome

In this section, you must set out what you would like to see done to resolve this issue.

The key thing is to think about what you feel would be beneficial for you to move forward from the situation that caused you to make the appeal. 

Please note, an Appeal Assessor or Appeals Panel cannot change marks, change a degree classification or recommend an award. 

Some examples of possible outcome requests might be 

  • an opportunity submit the assessment again as a first attempt 
  • for your work to be remarked  
  • for an alternative extenuating circumstances mitigation to be given (if applicable) 

Points to Note

Depending on when you submit your appeal, the time of year and the volume of appeals UCL are receiving, you may not have an outcome before the next available assessment opportunity. For example, appeals made after results in July may not be completed before the Late Summer Assessments in August so you may not be able to be entered for a deferral. This may delay your progression or completion of your programme, if you needa successful appeal to move forward.

If your Academic Appeal is upheld in full or in part, then your outcome letter will make recommendations for what UCL will do to put things right. The decision or recommendations may not be in line with the desired outcome you request.

Page 16: Supporting Documentation

You will need to provide all the evidence you have to support your argument. The casework team will not have access to any course specific documents, so you will need to include everything which is relevant to your academic appeal.

This could includes things like:

  • email communications between you and the department relating to your appeal
  • any communications you received which are contrary to UCL assessment policies
  • a short timeline of events
  • independent evidence to support your extenuating circumstances. For example, a letter from your doctor or other registered medical practitioner that confirms you were unable to complete an EC application form on time.

If any of your evidence is not in English, you will need to have it translated by an accredited translator. UCL cannot consider any untranslated documents.

You are limited to 10 uploads here, so if you need to, try to collate or resize elements where you can. 

How can the Advice Service Help Me?

Our advisors can:

  • tell you more about the procedures, what to expect, and what is expected of you
  • advise you about drafting your statement (but can't complete one for you), deciding on the evidence you need to collect and putting together a strong case
  • accompany you to a panel meeting
  • if you are not satisfied with the response from UCL, we can advise you on how you can take your complaint forward outside of the university.  

You can get in touch with our team via our online contact form.