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Academic Appeal An appeal is a request from you for the university to review a decision made about an assessment result, academic progression, or an overall award, where the decision was made without knowing essential information about your circumstances. You can submit an appeal if there were circumstances beyond your control that affected your results For example, severe illness at the time of the assessment or a university administration issue.  Grounds for Appeal  A – exceptional mitigating circumstances B – operational issues impacting academic outcome Challenging an Academic Judgement The appeals process does not allow you to challenge an academic judgement if you don’t like your grade. The university uses moderation processes and external examiners to ensure that marking is fair and consistent across the university.  If you feel that your work has been unfairly marked, you should seek feedback from your tutor.    Full details of the Academic Appeal ...

In most cases, a successful academic appeal will provide you with another opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge and skills through a reassessment. These opportunities will normally be offered to you during the next formally scheduled assessment period. Therefore, an academic appeal could have an impact on your academic progression. If you think this might impact you, it is important that you speak to an advisor prior to submitting an appeal.   Important - a successful appeal will not improve or alter the grade/outcome that you have already been awarded. This is because you have told the university that the circumstances you faced during the original assessment period had such a negative impact on you that you were unable to perform to your full potential. A reassessment will therefore give you another opportunity without these circumstances impeding you.   If an appeal is submitted and it is not successful, there will be no change to the exam board’s decision or result in a...

Appeals can only be submitted after your grade has been confirmed by the university’s Board of Examiners. Details of the exam board dates can be obtained from Student Information Desk (SID).    If your assessment deadline has not yet passed and you are looking for advice, then you should seek help from the university Student Engagement and Mitigation Teams who might be able to grant you an extension.    If your assessment deadline has passed and you think you have grounds for an appeal, then we suggest that you watch our video explaining how to submit your Academic Appeals form which is available on the Beds SU YouTube channel.    All appeals need to be submitted within 15 working days of your grade being awarded by the relevant exam board. Unfortunately, adjudication will not accept a late appeal without an exceptionally good reason and with evidence to validate this reason   Important – you must submit an appeal using your @study.beds.ac.uk email. Emails from personal ema...

Submitting evidence alongside your written statement is an important part of the appeals process. The Adjudication Team (who reviews student appeals) do not know you, your circumstances, or will have an opportunity to question you directly; therefore, this will allow the panel to critically analysis your statement and cross reference it with your evidence. It is also likely that the Adjudication Team will not consider appeal statements without supporting evidence to back it up. Evidence Examples   Exceptional mitigating circumstance evidence might include: Doctor (GP) or hospital letter Death certificate Medical certificate Court letter or Police letter Evidence that you have sought support from Student Support and/or university staff Operational problems impacting on academic outcome evidence might include: Witness statements (emails and/or on headed paper preferably for authenticity) Photographs Dates, times and location of disturbances such as building work Co...

Once you have submitted your Academic Appeal, the Adjudication Team will allocate a case reviewer. You should receive notification (via appeals@beds.ac.uk) within 10 working days of the appeal reviewer being allocated your appeal. In busy periods this may take a considerable longer time. The notification will inform you of one of the following actions:   to uphold (accept) the appeal, inform you about the findings of the investigation and to confirm that the relevant exam board will be required to review or revise its decision (through Chair’s action) in respect to your case. to not uphold (not accept) the appeal, and to provide you with a clear and complete reason for not doing so. to confirm to you a deadline for response where the appeal circumstances require a longer investigation. in exceptional circumstances to confirm that a case cannot be addressed adequately at stage one and will therefore proceed to stage two   It may take time for the Adjudication team to alloca...

Beds SU have a group of advisors who are independent from the university who write and develop guidance on how to appeal successfully. A video explaining how to submit your Academic Appeals form is available on the Beds SU YouTube channel, which gives you a step-by-step guide on how to complete the form.   If you decide that you would like assistance from an advisor, they are available to look at your academic appeal and offer advice on it before you send it to adjudication@beds.ac.uk. They can be contacted via: Attending a drop-in session (see below) Email help@bedssu.co.uk    If you are seeking support from an advisor, it is important to note that you must send us your appeal to read and edit with plenty time before the deadline set out in the appeals process. We are not part of the decision-making process, and we are also unable to write/submit your appeals for you.     ‘Drop-in’ to one of our academic appeals, Zoom Sessions. These run on a ‘first come, first served ba...

Every course that is delivered at core university campuses is regulated by the University of Bedfordshire Academic Regulations. These regulations outline how qualifications are assessed, managed and defined. You may find yourself in a situation where you are unable to progress (move onto your next year) because the regulations do not allow you to, for example, you have not passed enough credits. In these circumstances, it is wise to visit the university’s Student Support Service where there is a specialist Student Engagement and Mitigation Team to discuss your options. They can also help if you are struggling to attend their lectures, finding your course more difficult than expected, or you need to take a break from your studies and wish to continue at a later date. How can the SU help?  A member of the Beds SU Advice team can help you to appeal a decision made about your progression if you have mitigating circumstances or you feel that an administrative occurred that impacte...

STEP ONE:  CONFIRMATION OF THE RESULTS BY THE EXAMINATION BOARD  You will receive your provisional results after completing your assignments and/or exams. You can proceed with an appeal once your results have been confirmed by the Examination Board. All exam board decisions are made with reference to the Academic Regulations. You will receive official confirmation of your results after the relevant Examination Board has met and reviewed your complete academic profile.  More info about the function of the Examination board can be accessed through this link https://www.beds.ac.uk/about-us/our-governance/examinationboard/  STEP TWO: READ APPEAL POLICY  Click here to read the Appeal Policy.  Very Important note: In order to continue with your appeal please check if you are eligible by answering the next questions:  -Are you appealing on exceptional mitigating circumstances or operating circumstances impacting on academic outcome? -Are you appealing within 1...

STEP ONE: OUTCOME OF APPEAL  Your stage 1 academic appeal outcome "not upheld" STEP TWO: READ APPEAL POLICY  Read the appeal policy here  STEP THREE: COMPLETE THE ACADEMIC APPEAL STAGE 2 FORM  Complete the academic appeal form stage 2  Attach new evidence that were not considered in your stage 1 appeal The deadline for stage 2 appeal is 10 working days after receiving the outcome of stage 1 appeal (stage 2 appeal form) STEP FOUR: SEND TO ADJUDICATION TEAM  Send to adjudication team using your @study.beds.ac.uk email Emails from personal email accounts will automatically be relegated to the bottom of the review list If your @study.beds.ac.uk email is suspended, please contact SID STEP FIVE: WAIT FOR THE OUTCOME FROM THE ADJUDICATION TEAM  You will get the outcome of you stage 1 academic appeal once your appeal has been reviewed by the Academic Reviewer Upheld:Your appeal is successful.  Please inform your Faculty of the outcome Not Uphel...

It is unlikely that you will be able to submit an Academic Appeal if you were unable to use ‘WISEflow’ for your exams. The reason being is that UoB have published lots of information and ‘test exams’ to ensure you are ready to sit your exam.   Please click here for the WISEflow guide. For the PDF guide on how to use WISEflow please click here. TOP TIPS Do a test run in good time before sitting your exam; that way if you do encounter any problems with the application after following UoB instructions they can be hopefully resolved before your exam.   Apply for Mitigation if you are unable to use WISEflow  An Academic Appeal is usually the very last resort in these types of scenarios. WISEflow has got all the information on how to log in, what to do if you cannot sit your exam etc. Click here to find out more about Examinations.