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. If so, please see the "Extenuating circumstances" on i2 Keepin' it real - Maths student support. 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 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 i2 Keepin' it real - Maths student support. 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 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 adviser. 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.

Normally, only the Student Support Officer and Senior Tutor see any supporting evidence. We do not distribute it to other staff, 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 adviser, 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.

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 then we will excuse you.  We show an excused mark as NA. We normally ignore any excused marks when computing your overall average mark.  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 follow the rules of the School concerned.

If you are absent for more than 5 days you must provide supporting documentary evidence such as a letter from your GP.

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 (unless you graduate anyway). We normally require documentary evidence such as a medical certificate or letter (a prescription is not acceptable) from Queen Mary Medical 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 first sits in August. If you pass enough credits to graduate then we will take account of any examinations missed because of extenuating circumstance when classifying your degree.

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.

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 (CB309) or the Student Enquiry Centre (CB02) in the Queens' Building. 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 adviser 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 Student Enquiry Centre, room CB02 in the Queens' Building or the Your study web site. Then take the form to the Senior Tutor, 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 will not allow you to enter for any examination in which you would be the only candidate.