Extenuating Circumstances

All EC Claims must be submitted by the EC deadline for the relevant semester, and no later than three working days before the relevant EC Sub-Board meeting, otherwise they cannot be considered. EC deadlines for each semester are provided in the Key Dates section of this Student Handbook. 

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 EC Sub-Board. 

EC Outcome 

All the claims will be considered at the EC Sub-Boards which usually take place around two weeks after the ECs deadline. Therefore, you can expect to be notified of your EC claim’s outcome after that time.  

12.3. Standard EC claim 

A standard EC claim must be accompanied by relevant supporting evidence, for example: 

• Medical certification 

• Death certificate 

• Police report and crime number 

• Other written evidence from a person in authority 

Please note that although accompanying documentation can be submitted after the claim, standard 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 evidence submitted in support of your EC claim application must be in English. If your evidence is not in English, it is your responsibility to obtain a certified translation. 

Further guidance on evidencing extenuating circumstances is available here: Extenuating Circumstances: a guide for students 

12.4. Self-certification 

Each student is entitled to submit up to three self-certified claims per academic year, which involves providing details of the extenuating circumstances without the provision of documentary evidence. 

Each self-certification can cover a period of up to seven calendar days - this is the maximum amount of time that each instance of self-certification can cover. 

It is not permitted to use consecutive self-certification applications, that is, you cannot claim for two back-to-back seven-day periods using self-certification. Also, you cannot normally use a self-certified application more than once for the same assessment. 

Please note that self-certification does not mean automatic approval of a claim – the School will consider it in the normal way and will check that it meets the criteria of the university's extenuating circumstances policy. Any claims beyond those three self-certifications must be accompanied by evidence as part of a standard EC claim, as described in the previous section. 

12.5. Non-attendance or non-submission EC claim 

If you do not submit an assessment by the deadline, this is considered as a fail. However, if you have extenuating circumstances to explain your non-attendance or non-submission, you should submit an EC claim in line with the following procedures. 

When submitting your EC claim in MySIS, please select 'non-attendance' (for exams/FAEs/in-class tests/presentations) or 'non-submission' (for essays/dissertations) as the EC Impact and leave the Late Date blank. 

If you have an accepted non-attendance or non-submission EC claim for your first attempt at an assessment, you will be permitted another uncapped first attempt at the next available opportunity. You would then still be entitled to a resit attempt should you fail and are also able to apply for extenuating circumstances, should you need to do so.  

If you have an accepted non-attendance or non-submission EC claim for your resit attempt at an assessment, you will be permitted another capped resit attempt at the next available opportunity. You would be able to apply for extenuating circumstances, should you need to do so.  

Please note: Students who have to resit assessments the following academic year due to extenuating circumstances are not entitled to attend lectures or classes of any kind. However, QMplus access is available through the QMplus Archive. 

12.6. Late Submission Policy 

Important to note 

• No extensions are permitted under any circumstances for any assessment. 

• Essays and dissertations can be submitted up to 7 days after the specified deadline, but will be recorded as late, and a late penalty will be applied – see the Mark Deduction section below. 

• No late submissions are permitted under any circumstances for online exams or FAEs.  

Late Submission EC claim 

(For essays and dissertations only) 

If you have extenuating circumstances to explain your late submission of an essay or dissertation, you should submit an EC claim in line with the following procedure to request for the late penalty to be revoked. 

When submitting your EC claim in MySIS, please select 'late submission' as the EC Impact and include the date you submitted work as the Late Date. Although you may see the option to request an extension in MySIS, you must still select ‘late submission’ as the School does not permit extensions. 

If you wish to submit a late submission EC claim, you must first submit your work up to 7 days late, then submit your EC claim before the EC deadline. The School cannot process your late submission EC claim until we know when you have submitted your work late. If you submit a late submission EC claim before you have submitted your work late, your claim will be declined - you can submit another claim once you have submitted your work late. 

Mark Deduction 

If an essay or dissertation is submitted up to 7 days after the specified deadline, it will be recorded as late, and a late penalty will be applied. For every period of 24 hours or part thereof that an essay or dissertation is overdue, there shall be a deduction of 5% of the total marks available (i.e. 5 marks for an assessment marked out of 100).