SMS MSc Student Handbook 2019/20

18. Absences and Extenuating Circumstances

Extenuating Circumstances

If you believe that your ability to attend or submit a particular item of assessment has been negatively impacted by circumstances outside your control that cast doubt on the likely validity of the assessment as a measure of your achievement, you may wish to submit a claim for extenuating circumstances. Extenuating circumstances include illness, death of a close relative, etc. Extenuating circumstances do not include computer problems, misreading your exam timetable, planned holidays or local transport delays.

If you do not feel you are well enough to attend any invigilated examinations then you should not attend and should submit a claim for extenuating circumstances instead. You should note that the Academic Regulations state that if you attend an examination then you will be deemed to have declared yourself well enough to sit it and as a result any extenuating circumstances claim will not be considered.

Extenuating circumstance claim forms are available from the Maths Office and the Student Enquiry Centre. If you believe that you have a case for consideration, you should complete this form and supply supporting documentation (for example medical certification, death certificate, police report and crime number, or other written evidence from a person in authority), and submit the paperwork to the Maths Office by the specified deadline. You will be given a receipt for the claim form you have submitted, which you must keep safe for the duration of your studies. Please note that although accompanying documentation can be submitted late, claims without any evidence cannot be considered. It is in your best interest to provide evidence and supporting documentation that is as comprehensive as possible. All cases of extenuating circumstances are kept confidential until they are considered by a small subcommittee of the examination board. All proceedings of the subcommittee are strictly confidential, and details of individual cases will not normally be discussed at the full examination board meeting. It is your own responsibility to submit any claims for extenuating circumstances, not that of your advisor. Please ensure that if you do have what you believe is a valid case, you complete the submission process in accordance with the School guidelines and deadlines.

We do not distribute supporting evidence to staff who are not on the extenuating circumstances board, but we may disclose it in confidence to relevant Queen Mary officials. Maths Office staff will process the form itself. Copies will go to your advisor, any relevant module organisers and your file, and will be available to any staff writing a reference for you.

It is not possible to make a retrospective claim for extenuating circumstances, specifically once you know your results. Therefore claims submitted after the deadline will not be considered by the examination board.

Please refer to the full guidance notes on Extenuating Circumstances from the Advice and Counselling service here.

Missed In-term Assessments

If you report that an extenuating circumstance prevented you from submitting exercises and/or attending a test (you must provide evidence) and we accept your reason for the absence, then we will excuse you. We show an excused mark as "0NA". We normally ignore any excused marks when computing your overall average mark. Please note that this puts more weight on your other assessed work.

A module leader may instead wish to organise a replacement assessment exercise, which you would be expected to attend, and the result of which would form part of your overall mark.

If you miss exercises and/or tests for modules taught by other Schools then you should speak to the module organiser directly and, if you are studying on a joint programme (e.g. Mathematical Finance), follow the rules of the School concerned.

Missed Examinations

Do not delay! If you report that an extenuating circumstance prevented you from attending an examination and we accept your reason then we will allow you to sit the examination later without any penalty. We normally require documentary evidence such as a medical certificate or letter (a prescription is not acceptable) from the Student Health Centre, a GP, a hospital or the police. Please note that a medical certificate or letter from the Health Centre or your GP must clearly state that you were unfit to sit examinations during a specified period.

An examination sat later than normal because of extenuating circumstances is called a "first sit". You normally take such (EC-claim-related) first sits in August or at the earliest opportunity. If you pass enough credits to graduate then we will take account of any examinations missed because of extenuating circumstance when classifying your degree.

Please note that if you attend an examination but later tell us that you were ill during the examination we cannot normally grant you a first sit. If you feel ill before an examination then it may be best not to attend the examination but instead to seek medical advice and submit a medical certificate.

General Disruption of Studies

If extenuating circumstances either disrupt your studies for a substantial period or have a substantial direct effect on your examination performance (but do not necessarily cause you to miss any assessments) then you should discuss your case with the Student Support Officer before completing a form. If you wish the department to take account of your extenuating circumstances when determining your degree classification then you should support your form with documentary evidence such as a letter from the Queen Mary Medical Centre, a GP, a hospital or the police. The Examination Board will not consider extenuating circumstances without supporting documentary evidence.

Retaking the Year

If you expect that you might not meet the hurdle to progress, but have extenuating circumstances, you may be able to retake the year. In order to be considered for a retake, you must request this before the end of the examination period, i.e. before you know any of your examination results. You must demonstrate that significant extenuating circumstances have been present for much of the academic year, which, for example, have led to your missing large parts of Semester A or B. Normally, extenuating circumstances covering only parts of the revision period or the examination period are insufficient.

For further information please see the full guidance notes on Extenuating Circumstances from the Advice and Counselling Service.

You should provide the Student Support Officer with a one-page summary detailing your case. Summarise briefly any extenuating circumstances affecting the current year and, where appropriate, refer to extenuating circumstances forms you submitted earlier. For recent occurrences that have not been covered by previously submitted extenuating circumstances forms, you should also submit a new extenuating circumstances form. The Senior Tutor or Student Support Officer will be able to advise you on whether a request to retake the year might be successful. If you want to go ahead with a retake request, you need to complete a Queen Mary Retake of Academic Year form, which is available from either the Maths Office or the Student Enquiry Centre. Please hand in all completed forms to the Maths Office.

Interruption of Studies or Withdrawal

If you decide to withdraw from Queen Mary, either temporarily or permanently, you should firstly discuss the matter with your advisor and Programme Director. If you decide to proceed, you must complete an "Interruption of study" or "Withdrawal from Queen Mary" form, which documents are available from the Maths Office, or Student Enquiry Centre. You should then take the form to your advisor or Programme Director for their signature, who will want to discuss it with you before agreeing to sign it.

If you wish to interrupt, i.e. withdraw temporarily, then you must do so by the end of the second semester. Interruption of studies is normally for one complete year but, in exceptional circumstances, the period may be up to two years. If you interrupt your studies then you lose the automatic right to enter examinations for modules that you took before you interrupted, and we may not allow you to enter for any examination in which you would be the only candidate.

Religious observance and study

QMUL is a diverse community of over 25,000 students and staff. With a variety of faiths and beliefs represented on campus, we are committed to tolerance, understanding and co-operation, as well as to ensuring as far as possible that our policies are consistent across all needs. Many religions and beliefs require their members to pray at specific times during the day, or have special festivals or spiritual observance days. We recognise therefore that students at QMUL often strike a balance between their educational and religious commitments.

One of QMUL’s fundamental aims is to provide an education that is judged internationally to be of the highest quality. It would be both impractical and inconsistent with our aims as a university to suspend teaching for reasons of religious observance, but we will accommodate students’ religious commitments where we reasonably can do so. This may include providing learning materials (potentially including QReview recordings) online and permitting students to attend classes at different times where there is availability.

Students are expected to stay engaged and up-to-date with their studies throughout their time at QMUL. Schools and institutes should make their expectations for attendance and submission of coursework clear to students at the beginning of their studies, and students should inform themselves beforehand about the potential implications of missing learning and teaching activities. Students must also inform their school or institute beforehand if they intend to miss any teaching. We will take religious commitments into reasonable account when reviewing students’ attendance, but we expect students to plan their studies so that they can submit coursework on time.

The following procedures apply in the event that a special festival or spiritual observance day would result in absence from a scheduled assessment:

In the case of an in-class test, students may request permission in advance from their Head of School or Institute to be absent on that occasion. The Head of School or Institute will consider whether reasonable adjustments can be made, for example by permitting late submission or rearranging the test. It is important to submit requests well in advance, in case reasonable adjustments cannot be made.
Students may notify QMUL of any special festivals or spiritual observance days that fall during formal examination periods by submitting the relevant form by the deadline specified in the Academic Calendar. We will accommodate such requests where we reasonably can do so. We are not able to make allowances for routine religious observance during formal examination periods.