SMS MSc Student Handbook 2021/2022 (Sep 2021 Start)

19. Absences and Extenuating Circumstances

Extenuating Circumstances

All extenuating circumstance claims or queries should be directed to the Education Services Team.

Extenuating circumstances are defined by Queen Mary as:

Circumstances that are outside a student’s control which may have a negative impact on a student’s ability to undertake or complete any assessment so as to cast doubt on the likely validity of the assessment as a measure of the student’s achievement.

Extenuating circumstances are usually personal or health problems. Health problems include your emotional wellbeing and mental health, as well as your physical health. Extenuating circumstances do not include computer problems, misreading your exam timetable, planned holidays or events, or local transport delays.

In order to be valid, the extenuating circumstances must be:

•     unplanned;

•     outside of the student’s control;

•     such that there has been a negative impact on the ability to undertake or complete any assessment;

•     cast doubt on the likely validity of the assessment as a measure of the student’s achievement.

Queen Mary operates a fit to sit policy, which covers all assessments including coursework and exams. If you sit an exam or submit a piece of coursework you are deemed to be fit to do so. In such instances a request for extenuating circumstances will not normally be considered. If you do not feel you are well enough to attend an invigilated exam then you should not attend and should submit a claim for extenuating circumstances instead. You will need to attend a medical consultation within three days of the date of your exam that you missed. Similarly if you get sick during an exam and have to leave you will need to attend a medical consultation within three days.

To submit an extenuating circumstance request you must log a claim through the online extenuating circumstances task on MySIS (https://mysis.qmul.ac.uk/) and following the instructions there. Claims must be submitted by the relevant deadlines which are noted below or on the Key Date’s chapter of this handbook. If you have any queries please email maths@qmul.ac.uk.

Your claim must be accompanied by relevant supporting evidence (for example medical certification, death certificate, police report and crime number, or other written evidence from a person in authority). Please note that although accompanying documentation can be submitted after the claim, claims without any evidence cannot be considered except in the limited cases permitted for self-certification, below. It is in your best interest to provide evidence and supporting documentation that is as comprehensive as possible.

 You are entitled to self-certify on up to three occasions each academic year; each self-certification can cover a period of up to seven calendar days. This means completing and submitting the Queen Mary self-certification form in place of independent evidence. Please note that self-certification does not mean automatic approval of a claim – The School of Mathematical Sciences will consider it in the normal way and will need to be satisfied of the validity of the claim, and satisfied that it justifies the outcome. Any claims beyond those three must be accompanied by evidence, as described above.

When you submit an extenuating circumstance claim you will receive a formal acknowledgement, you must keep this safe for the duration of your studies. All claims must be received by the relevant deadlines which are noted below or on the Key Date’s chapter of this handbook.

All extenuating circumstances claims are kept confidential until they are considered by the School of Mathematical Sciences Subject Examination Board. All proceedings of the subcommittee are strictly confidential, and 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 not that of your advisor or any other staff member.

Please ensure that if you have what you believe is a valid case, you complete the submission process in accordance with the set guidelines and deadlines.

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.

ABSENCES

Students cannot be absent from Queen Mary University of London during term-time without obtaining written agreement in advance from the School of Mathematical Sciences.

If you are unable to attend any scheduled teaching or Advisor meetings then please notify the School of Mathematical Sciences of your absence via email prior to the scheduled activity -  maths@qmul.ac.uk. 

You need to include the scheduled teaching activity/s and/or meeting/s you are missing including the reason for your absence. A member of the Education Services Team will notify you if your absence has been approved.

This is underpinned by the School of Mathematical Sciences Student Engagement Framework and you may be de-registered for poor or non-engagement.

In advance of deregistration you will be sent a formal, written warning and a specified period in which you must improve your attendance, participation, or submission of assessment before deregistration from your programme of study occurs.

Further information can be found in the Academic Regulations (point 2.55 onward).

If you are absent for more than 5 weekdays you may be asked to provide supporting documentary evidence such as a letter from your GP.

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 may be able to 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, 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. 

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 unless you have submitted a self-certification EC claim.

Retaking the Year

If you have significant extenuating circumstances, you may be able to request a retake of 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 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 discuss the matter with your advisor and read the Your study web site. If you decide to proceed, you must complete an "Interruption of study" or "Withdrawal from Queen Mary" form, which is available from the Maths School Office or the Student Enquiry Centre, room CB01 in the Queens' Building or the Your study web site. Then take the form to the Education Services Team, who will want to discuss it with you before agreeing to sign it. Further information can be found here - 

http://www.arcs.qmul.ac.uk/students/study/withdrawing/index.html

If you wish to interrupt, i.e. withdraw temporarily, then you must do so by the set deadline stated on the interruption form. Interruption of studies is normally for one complete year but, in exceptional circumstances, the period may be up to two years. Please contact the Education Services Team to discuss this further, 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.

Further information can be found here - 

http://www.arcs.qmul.ac.uk/students/study/interrupting/index.html

If you are looking to interrupt your studies or withdrawing from your studies you need to contact the Education Services Team to discuss both procedures. Interruption of Studies or Withdrawal forms can only be authorised by the Education Services Team.

Please note that the Registry deadlines for both forms to be  signed off by students registered on the majority of programmes are 5th January 2022 and 4th May 2022 (students who sign forms after these dates will remain registered for examinations in either the January or May examination periods and failure to attend may result in marks of 0 being entered and being used towards award outcomes).