Case Summaries

A student failed a resit exam at their final attempt in January 2020. The student made an academic appeal to the provider in late April, after the deadline for appeals, on the ground that they had new evidence which for good reason they had not submitted earlier. They explained that they had felt unwell at the time of the exam but did not think their symptoms would be considered as mitigating circumstances. The student provided a letter from their GP which said that the student had felt unwell in January and in April, and had been told to self-isolate in April because of symptoms of Covid-19.

The provider rejected the student’s appeal. This was because it was made two weeks after the deadline for appeals in early April and the student had not provided evidence to explain why they were unable an appeal by that deadline, and the student had also been unable to explain why they had not submitted a mitigating circumstances claim in January. The student complained to us.

We decided that the complaint was Not Justified. We decided that in view of the significant pressures on NHS services in March and April 2020 and government advice not to attend GP surgeries, it was not reasonable for the provider to insist on independent evidence to support the student’s explanation for missing the appeal deadline. In the circumstances it would have been reasonable for the provider to have accepted the student’s appeal for consideration even though it was made late.

But the student also had to explain in their appeal why they were unable to make a mitigating circumstances claim in January 2020, and they had not done so. We thought it was reasonable for the provider to expect the student to have made a mitigating circumstances claim at the time of their exam if they felt that their performance had then been affected by ill-health. On that basis it was reasonable for the provider to have rejected the student’s appeal.

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