Extenuating Circumstances

Extenuating circumstances (EC) claims and supporting evidence should be submitted within 5 working days of the deadline for the assessment item affected by the EC's.

Evidence must be supplied with your EC claim and must coincide with the submission dates. 

ECs will not be accepted after the MCB has taken place, If you feel that you have not been able to engage with the EC process then you may wish to consider submitting for academic appeal after you have received your formal results following the assessment and award boards. 

Yes. The panel can only consider claims that have been submitted on a fully completed EC form.

This is to preserve confidentiality in the process, and to ensure we get your information reliably if your tutor is not at work throughout.

If you are having trouble filling in or sending the form, please email assessment@cumbria.ac.uk for advice

In exceptional cases, if you are incapacitated (either due to a physical or mental illness) and therefore not able to complete the EC form yourself, the form may be completed on your behalf by a member of staff (e.g. Personal Tutor, Programme Leader). However, it is your responsibility to contact the member of staff and ask them to do this for you, the panel will need to see evidence that you have asked the member of staff to complete this form for you.

Your claim may be deemed invalid if you fail to provide enough information or evidence for the panel to consider your case. It is essential that you include module codes, titles and submission dates on your form. You must also give a clear and concise explanation about how your circumstances have impacted on your study which has led to your claim for extenuating circumstances.

The following are examples of documents that may be considered as evidence:

• Medical certificate
• Hospital / doctor's Letter
• Solicitor’s letter
• Death Certificate

Students should keep their Personal Tutor informed of any adverse personal circumstances. Where circumstances are of a nature that make it difficult to obtain independent evidence and your course tutor or personal tutor is aware of your situation they may provide a letter of support as evidence on your behalf. 

Where medical evidence is supplied it should include dates, time frame and a medical opinion about the likely effect of illness on your ability to study for and/or submit for assessment.

Documentary evidence must be independently verifiable and therefore letters from family members or friends will not be accepted. Newspaper articles, copies of internet pages or photographs (of any nature) will not be considered as verified evidence unless such documents directly link you to the circumstances/news stories being discussed. 

Any information submitted as part of an academic appeal and/or extenuating circumstances claim which subsequently is identified as fraudulent will be disregarded from the purpose of the EC/appeal.  If you submit fraudulent information you may be referred for consideration under the Adjudication Procedure and/or Disciplinary Procedure or Fitness for Professional Practise Procedure

If your ECs are deemed ‘not valid’ the original assessment result will be confirmed and if you are entitled to a reassessment opportunity this will proceed as normal.

To ensure confidentiality EC claims are considered by a panel prior to the Module Confirmation Board (MCB).

The panel considers whether the circumstances are valid and the decision is reported at the MCB who recommend the next course of action to the University Progression and Award Board (UPAB).

Decisions of the EC panel remain provisional until confirmed by the MCB and UPAB and you will not be notified of the outcome until the official release date of results following the UPAB.

Once the EC panel has met and a decision made, you will be advised if your  Extenuating Circumstances claim has  been deemed valid or not valid.   The outcome and any dates for submission will be confirmed following the Module Confirmation Board (MCB) and University Progression and Award Boards (UPAB) and sent to you in your transcript of results and in ICON.

Once they have been confirmed by the Assessment Boards the EC decision will be displayed on your Statement of Results and in ICON along with your module result.

The recommendation will likely note: EC (Valid), followed by an assessment recommendation, or EC (Not valid).

If you receive confirmation that your EC was considered valid but you have achieved a pass mark for the module and wish to keep this mark then you must advise the assessment team that you wish to keep the pass mark as soon as you receive your provisional grade.

In the case of a non valid claim no recommendation will be made if you have passed the module.

If your claim for extenuating circumstances has been deemed valid, there are a number of likely outcomes:

If you have passed the module, you may be offered the opportunity to void the mark and take the assessment again as for the first time (this is called ‘deferred assessment’ and the mark will not be capped at 40% for undergraduate students or 50% for postgraduate students).  Please note that even if the new mark is lower than the original mark, it will stand.

If you have passed the module and do not wish to take the assessment again you must contact the Assessment Team (assessment@cumbria.ac.uk) within 10 working days of receiving your results to accept the mark.

If you have failed the module and have a mark below 40% for undergraduate study or 50% for postgraduate study, the mark will be voided and you will be offered a deferred assessment.

Depending on your EC claim and the details competed in the EC form there may be some instances when you may receive a valid EC outcome for one element of assessment within a module but not another.  In such cases, where both elements of assessment have been failed, it is standard practice for the earlier assessment attempt to be offered first as the outcome of this assessment may impact on the potential requirement for the remaining assessment to be undertaken.

You can see some examples of the impact of EC claims and impact on assessment offered in accordance with the current regulations.

Further information on the University’s policies and procedures on Extenuating Circumstances can be found within the Academic Regulations.

Staff in the Assessment and Awards team (assessment@cumbria.ac.uk) will be able to provide further help and information.

If your situation is of a sensitive nature and you wish to speak to a member of the Assessment and Awards Team in private, please inform them of this so that they can make suitable arrangements to speak to you.

You can also speak to your Personal Tutor or Programme Leader to seek advice before submitting ECs and the discussion of possible extension dates.

Staff within the Students’ Union will also be able to provide advice and assistance.

You may find these EC Case studies for Students  useful.