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If you consider that you have a reason to appeal against an assessment board decision, please bear in mind that your reasons must fall within the grounds specified as below. You cannot appeal simply because you disagree with the mark given. The specified grounds for appeal are:

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1. That an Assessment Board has given insufficient weight to extenuating circumstances;

2. That the student’s academic performance has been adversely affected by extenuating circumstances which the student has, for good reason, been unable to make known to the Assessment Board;

3. That there has been a material administrative error at a stage of the examining process, or that some material irregularities have occurred;

4. That the assessment procedure and/or examinations have not been conducted in accordance with the approved regulations.

Where a student is seeking to appeal a decision of UMEP committee, the appeal will only be valid if it is based on the following grounds:

a. that the original hearing was not conducted fairly and/or in accordance with the published procedure;

b. that the original decision was unreasonable in all the circumstances.

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PRINCIPLES:

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• If you want to appeal, you should fill out the necessary form and submit the same with documentary evidences to the Student Support Services Department within 2 weeks (10 working days) from the results being published. The onus is on you to find out your results and submit your appeal on time. Contact the Student Support Services
  Department for support and advice.

• If a student is not sure whether an appeal is appropriate, she/he should discuss the matter with Student Support Services Department staff or her/his Course Leader.

• Appeals received outside the stated timescales will be ruled invalid.

• Requests for appeals must be in writing and must state the ground (s) for the appeal.

• Students have a right to be accompanied by a representative or friend at any hearings in the Appeals process.

• The Appeals process is a two-stage process as follows:

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FIRST STAGE APPEALS:

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1. First Stage Appeals must be lodged with the Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs within two weeks of the official publication of pass/results lists on UCLan students’ portal.

2. The Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs, accompanied by an independent Course Leader, hears the appeal and is responsible for arranging a time with the student, usually within 14 days of receipt of the request for appeal.

3. At the discretion of the Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs, the Course Leader for the student’s programme may be called for part or the whole of the hearing.

4. The Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs is responsible for making a recommendation to the Chair of the Assessment Board backed by complete documentation with copies to the student. The recommendation may be:

a. The appeal is upheld and referred back to the Assessment Board for reconsideration

b. The appeal is upheld and the Chair of the Assessment Board takes immediate action on behalf of the Assessment Board

c. The appeal is turned down

   5. The Chair of the Assessment Board confirms or turns down the recommendation from

       the Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs and is responsible for ensuring the student is

       informed in writing of the outcome of the appeal within 7 days.

   6. Where an appeal is turned down by the Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs, the student

       has a right to a College appeal before the recommendation is made to the Chair of the                   Assessment Board if he/she is dissatisfied with the outcome.

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COLLEGE APPEAL:

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1. A College appeal will not be called if a first stage appeal has not been held.

2. Requests for College appeals must be made in writing to the Course Leader, normally

within 7 days of the first stage appeal hearing.

3. College appeals will be heard by an Appeals Panel of the College Academic Council normally with the following composition:

Chair: Dean

Members: Two independent HoDs A Student Representative

4. The powers of a College Appeals Panel are:

a.  to determine the validity of the grounds for the appeal. The appeal will not proceed if the panel does not deem the grounds to be valid;

b. to uphold the appeal based on the evidence presented and to refer the matter back to the Chair of the Assessment Board for decision; 

c. to turn down the appeal and recommend to the Chair of the Assessment Board that he/she upholds the original decision of the Assessment Board.

Note: The College Appeals Panel can only make recommendations to the Chair of the Assessment Board. It does not have any delegated powers.