What can and can't I appeal?

WHAT CAN I APPEAL?

You can appeal against a confirmed decision by a board of examiners or the examiners of higher degrees, as well as decisions by either a university committee or staff member regarding academic progress. This could include decisions made by exam boards, such as the classification of a degree or a notification for you to withdraw from the course.

If you are going through any other formal University procedure dealing with the same, or related issues, then these procedures will have to be completed before you can submit an appeal.

WHAT CAN'T I APPEAL? 

You can't appeal against anything that the University deems to be "Academic Judgement". The University define academic judgement to be:

“the professional and scholarly knowledge which academic staff draw upon to make academic decisions, and an Academic judgement is therefore a judgment that is made about a matter where the opinion of an academic expert is essential."

This essentially means that you can't appeal against:

• Decisions about the severity of impact of mitigating circumstances on academic performance
• Decisions about the academic standard attained by students
• Marks and grades to be awarded for individual pieces of work or modules, and degrees and degree classifications to be awarded

Appeals can't be made if you simply disagree with the mark, or if you feel that the mark isn't a true reflection on your ability, as this will be classed as academic judgement, but if you can evidence that a process or procedure has not been followed, resulting in the mark being incorrect, then you could submit an appeal against that.

Read our next article here to find out more about the different stages of the appeals process...