Exceptional Circumstances (ECs) are the only way to inform the Exam Board about circumstances  you feel may have affected you during your assessments. Appropriate corroborating evidence must also be submitted as part of your ECs.

Please read the Student Guidance on ECs before submitting your exceptional circumstances form. 

The School has a “fit to sit” policy that applies to all students. If you submit an assessment, or sit an exam,  we consider you have declared yourself well enough to do so. If you experience disruption to your studies prior to the assessment (e.g. due to personal difficulties, crime, bereavement, illness etc.) you must think carefully about whether you should attempt that assessment or whether you should apply for an extension or request to defer.

If you experience circumstances which are sudden, unforeseen, outside of your control close to when an assessment is due for submission, you should consider requesting an extension. This may be appropriate for an essay, project or dissertation.

If you feel you require more time to submit the work than an extension would normally allow, or if the assessment in question has a static deadline e.g. an exam or take home assessment released on a specific date, you  should consider requesting a deferral.

If having submitted an assessment or attempted an assessment, you feel your performance was directly impacted by circumstances which are sudden, unforeseen, outside of your control you should submit ECs in order to allow the Exam Board to take your circumstances in to account.

You should also submit ECs if you are unable to submit an assessment or were absent from an exam and you did not have permission to defer. You should also submit ECs if you submitted an assessment after the deadline to allow the Exam Board to consider whether or not to apply late penalties.

Submit an Exceptional Circumstances Form

The form will allow you to provide a summary of your circumstances, note why an extension or deferral was not appropiate, list the impacted assessements, explain the impact on those assessments and upload your supporting evidence.

Deadline

You must submit your ECs and supporting evidence by the following deadlines:

In all cases you are encouraged to submit ECs and evidence as soon as possible.

If the deadline for you to submit ECs falls on a public holiday, then your ECs will still be accepted on the next working day after the bank holiday. Anything submitted after this deadline may not be considered by the Exam Boards.

Supporting Evidence

EC submissions must include appropriate corroborating evidence in English. Forms submitted without evidence are highly unlikely to result in any action.

Please read evidence to support exceptional circumstances submissions for guidance on the type of evidence we expect, the technical requirements of the form, and how you can get documents translated. Please note that the EC form will only accept PDF uploads, you will need to convert your evidence to PDF before completing the form.

You must submit your EC form by the relevant deadline (see above) and it should contain all of your evidence. If your evidence is not complete then you should wait until it is all ready before submitting your form, so long as you still meet the deadline.

If you are unable to obtain all of your evidence by the deadline, then you should submit the your EC form with the evidence you do have (or with no evidence) and explain why you have had to do this (there is a space to for this on the form). Remember that it is highly unlikely that exceptional circumstances submissions without supporting evidence will result in any action.  

After submitting ECs/EC Outcomes

Once you have submitted your ECs, you will receive an automated email confirming they have been received. Your ECs will be considered by the relevant Exam Board when they formally ratify your marks.

New for the 2023/24 academic year, all students that have submitted ECs will receive information about the consideration of their ECs shortly after the release of their ratified results. This information will be sent by email either from the Student Regulations Team where it pertains to a School level Board of Examiners, or the Department where it pertains to a Department level Sub-Board of Examiners.

The actions Exam Boards can take will always depend on your individual circumstances and when you were impacted by them, that there is robust supporting evidence you have provided, the timing of when your assessments took place and your marks. Depending on the circumstances, your Department Sub-Board may determine to make one of the following recommendations, known as a “Suspension of Regulations” request to the School level Board to consider:

• Discount a failed/absent attempt (treating that attempt as if it was a deferral)

• Grant additional attempts where the maximum two attempts to pass a course have been exhausted

• Remove late penalties that were applied due to late submission

• Award a higher degree classification, if you have a borderline mark profile as defined by the General Proviso in the Classification Scheme for your programme.

You will be informed by the Student Regulations Team shortly after your results have been released of the outcome of the consideration of your ECs by the School level Board.

If you are a continuing student or not currently eligible for an award and have passed all your assessments, your ECs will be considered by the Exam Board again at the point you become eligible for classification.

Common reasons for why a Sub-Board is unable to recommend a Suspension of Regulations (SoR) request or why an SoR request is rejected (which could be one or more of the following):

• The student declares themselves fit-to-sit in an assessment by sitting or submitting the affected assessment

The School has a number of support procedures in place such as the extension and deferral policies and MyAdjustments. Therefore, if a student submits an assessment or sits an exam, the School considers you are fit enough to do so unless there is evidence to clearly demonstrate this was not the case. 

• The student's evidence is not proximate to the affected assessment – see below

• The student has no evidence to prove the impact on the assessment

All EC submissions must be supported by robust corroborating evidence in line with the School’s Standards of Evidence policy. This independent evidence must be able to verify your circumstances and the time they impacted you.

• The student has not clearly demonstrated their performance in the assessment in question was significantly out of line with their performance in other, unaffected assessments

The supporting evidence must clearly corroborate what symptoms a student was likely to have experienced on the day of the assessment in question

• The student has not clearly demonstrated their circumstances were sudden, unforeseen, out of the student’s control and occurred at a time close to when the assessment in question was due for submission

Where you are aware of your circumstances in advance of the assessment/exam you would be expected to request an extension or deferral. If you proceed to attempt the assessment you will be considered fit enough to have done so unless you can demonstrate otherwise

• For the award of a higher degree; the student must have a borderline mark profile

Individual marks cannot change as a result of ECs. Rather, your mark profile must meet the borderline criteria as defined by the relevant classification scheme

What can’t ECs do

Individual marks can never be changed as a result of the submission of Exceptional Circumstances (ECs). However, ECs may result in the lifting of a penalty where late submission penalties have been applied, see above. 

It is not possible to discount a course or assessment that you pass even if you feel you have underperformed. 

If you have any queries once you have submitted ECs please conact the Student Services Centre using our online enquiry form (select Exams and other assessments then Exceptional Circumstances).

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)