On this page you can find more detailed information and answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for mitigating circumstances claims and extension requests. If you unsure whether the mitigating circumstances process is the right way to support you in your studies, please speak to your personal or senior tutor in the first instance.
The list of FAQs below is currently still under construction and will be added to over the coming weeks.
Eligibility FAQs
Mitigating circumstances are serious, unexpected events outside your control that affect your ability to complete an assessment or perform at your usual level. Examples include illness, bereavement, a major personal crisis, being a victim of crime, or a housing emergency.
They must be:
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Unforeseeable
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Unavoidable
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Directly affecting you during or in preparation for the assessment period
Eligibility
All Undergraduate and Postgraduate Taught students can submit claims for summative assessments.
PGR students can only use this procedure for taught summative elements.
Your department will tell you whether this procedure can also be used for specific formative assessments, such as draft reports.
Deadlines FAQs
You must submit your mitigating circumstances claim within 10 working days of the affected assessment. This is the standard deadline.
Requests for assessment deadline extensions must be made before the original assessment deadline. Your teaching department will set the deadline for submitting extension requests. If the original assessment deadline has already passed, you will normally need to submit a mitigating circumstances claim instead.
If you miss the standard deadline, you may still submit a late claim, but you must provide additional evidence explaining why you could not submit earlier (see FAQ on late claims). You should submit a late claim as soon as you are able. The final deadline for late claims is before the date of the Board of Examiners meeting. Your home department will set the final deadline for submitting a mitigating circumstances claim.
Deadlines
Absolutely - if you are unable obtain the required evidence in time, you must still submit your mitigating circumstances claim or extension request by the deadline and state that your evidence will follow. Your department will tell you the latest date by which the evidence must be provided. If you do not submit evidence by that date, your claim will be rejected due to lack of evidence , or the work may be treated as a late submission.
Outcomes FAQs
The Mitigating Circumstances Board may reach one of the following decisions on your mitigating circumstances claim or extension request:
- Accept: the claim is accepted as having affected the relevant assessment(s).
- Reject: the claim is not accepted because it does not meet the criteria for mitigating circumstances, lacks appropriate evidence, or was submitted late without a compelling reason.
While the Mitigating Circumstances Board may make recommendations, the final decision on the form of mitigation will be made by the Board of Examiners, who must act in accordance with university regulations and any programme-specific requirements. They also have an overview of your full academic profile.
Deadlines
If your mitigating circumstances claim has been accepted but you passed the affected assessment or module, the Board of Examiners will not grant a deferral. Instead, your accepted claim is treated as “unspent mitigation”, and the Board may apply one of two forms of consideration that support your overall academic profile.
Because you passed the assessment, the mark for this stands.
However, your accepted claim may help at classification or progression. These are not automatic outcomes, but the Board will review your profile holistically and apply mitigation where it is academically appropriate. The Board of Examiners may apply one of the following:
a) Extended consideration at the classification borderline
If your overall profile places you close to a degree classification boundary, the Board may take your accepted mitigating circumstances into account when deciding whether to award the higher classification. While the Regulations for Taught Programmes of Study do not stipulate a specific band for extended consideration, the Board of Examiners should take a consistent approach and record each decision clearly.
b) Consideration at progression borderlines
If your programme requires a specific qualifying mark for progression, the Board may consider your accepted mitigating circumstances when reviewing your profile.