How should I write my appeal form?

If you are an Undergraduate student then you will need to submit your appeal via the Faculty Student Appeals App which you can find here, if you no longer have an active student account then you won't be able to access the app, instead you should email the relevant appeals address for your Faculty to request an alternative submission method, the Faculty appeal email addresses to contact can be found on the University website here.  

If you are a Postgraduate student then you should complete the Post Graduate Faculty Academic Appeal Form which you can access here and once complete send it to student.appeals@durham.ac.uk, along with any supporting evidence. 

When completing the appeal form, you should: 

• Be very clear about the decision that you are appealing so that your department can clearly understand the basis of your appeal. This could be wanting to appeal the award of an ordinary degree; the requirement to withdraw from the University or the capping of a mark for a specific module for example, whatever you are wanting to appeal against, make sure this is clearly outlined within your form. 
• If you are appealing on multiple grounds, then please make sure that you clearly set out the reasoning for each of the grounds that you are appealing. A decision will be given individually for each ground that you appeal, and it is entirely possible for one ground to be upheld whilst the other is dismissed, so make sure to include as much information as you can for each ground.  
• Make sure to provide clear, chronological timelines when explaining events, and connect them to what you're appealing. For example, include dates of exams, periods of illness, and dates of medical appointments etc. 
• Be clear about the outcome that you are looking for. It is important to note that it is not within the power of the Faculty or Senate appeal processes to overrule any decisions of an exam board or other decision-making body. If your appeal is upheld, then the most likely outcome would be for your case to be referred back to the original body for reconsideration, this doesn't mean that the original decision will be reversed or altered, marks generally only get changed if there was an error when recording or processing them. 
• Be sure to list and attach copies of all of your evidence that you want to be considered with your appeal. If you are appealing at the Senate level then you do not need to submit any evidence that you have already provided during the Faculty stage as the Senate appeal panel will have sight of your full Faculty file and need to be able to clearly distinguish any items of evidence that was not available during the Faculty stage.
• Make sure that all sections of the form are completed before you submit it. 
• Ensure that you submit the form via the correct channel (either via the app for Undergraduate students or by emailing the PG Appeal form for Postgraduate students). 
• If you are submitting the form from, and expecting a response back to, a non-Durham email account, please ensure that you check your junk mail to make sure that you don't miss any responses. 

Please take a look at our next article here for details on what evidence to include with your appeal...