Sometimes, factors beyond your control may interfere with your ability to attend to your academic studies. The University’s mitigating circumstances procedures exist to try to mitigate against the impact that this could have on your grades. You should make use of these procedures if you experience difficulties that either (i) result in absence from classes for a period of 5 days or more (ii) prevent you from completing course work on time, (iii) result in you missing examinations, or (iii) negatively affect your performance in assessments (coursework and/or examinations).
The full mitigating circumstances policy can be accessed via the following link: http://documents.manchester.ac.uk/display.aspx?DocID=4271. We strongly recommend that you seek advice from a member of staff before submitting any claim for mitigating circumstances. The most appropriate person to contact is your Year Tutor (see key contacts) as they are fully aware of the rules relating to mitigating circumstances. However, you are also encouraged to inform your Academic Advisor if you are experiencing difficulties, so that they can provide you with further pastoral support.
6.1 Grounds for Mitigation
Grounds for mitigation are unforeseeable or unpreventable circumstances that could have, or did have, a significant adverse effect on your academic performance.
Possible mitigating circumstances include:
- significant illness or injury
- the death or critical/significant illness of a close family member/dependant
- significant family crises or major financial problems leading to acute stress
- absence for public service e.g., jury service
Circumstances that will not normally be regarded as grounds for mitigation include:
- holidays, moving house and events that were planned or could reasonably have been expected
- assessments that are scheduled close together
- misreading the timetable or misunderstanding the requirements for assessments
- inadequate planning and time management
- failure, loss or theft of a computer or printer that prevents submission of work on time (it is important to back up work regularly and allow enough time before your deadline to find another computer)
- consequences of paid employment
- exam stress or panic attacks not diagnosed as illness or supported by medical evidence
6.2 Submitting Mitigating Circumstances
You should inform us of any mitigating circumstances by submitting a mitigating circumstances form, available from the Student Support Office. The form must be completed by you. It will ask you to provide details of your mitigating circumstances and to list the assessments affected. It is important that you list each separate assessment, giving details of the course unit and the nature of the assessment (e.g. PSYC10711 Essay or PSYC10100 Week 4 Quiz); mitigating circumstances cannot be considered for assessments which are not specifically listed on this form. Your form should also be supported with evidence, which is independent and time-specific (for example, a doctor’s note which confirms that you were ill and indicates the period affected). Ryan Hurst, our Student Support Officer, can advise you on the information required on the form. Completed forms should be submitted to the Student Support Office.
You should inform us of mitigating circumstances as soon as you become aware that they might affect your performance. Typically, mitigating circumstances must be submitted prior to the following deadlines:
- Coursework: prior to the deadline for the affected assignment (as published in the Syllabus booklet and on Blackboard)
- Examinations: prior to the published date for the start of the relevant examination period
- Semester 1 examinations: prior to 15th January 2018
- Semester 2 examinations: prior to 16th May 2018
- Resit examinations: prior to 20th August 2018
Mitigating circumstances submitted after these deadlines will not be considered, unless supported by a credible and compelling explanation of why the circumstances could not be submitted by the appropriate deadline. An example of such a situation might be that you become ill in the middle of an exam period. In these cases, you must submit your mitigating circumstances within one working day of the end of the examination period.
The committee is not able to consider any circumstances without the submission of a mitigating circumstances form. Not informing the University of circumstances due to personal feelings, e.g., shame, embarrassment and pride, or having concerns over the confidential treatment of requests for mitigation, are not considered to be credible and compelling explanations as to why the circumstances could not be made known or shown by these deadlines. If the details of the mitigating circumstances are considered to be highly confidential, you should submit them in a sealed envelope. The committee handle all requests for mitigation with sensitivity and due regard for confidentiallity (please speak to your Year Tutor if you are particularly concerned about this).
6.3 How Mitigating is Considered and Applied
Evidence for personal and medical mitigating circumstances is considered by a mitigating circumstances committee, which sits immediately prior to each meeting of the Board of Examiners, in February, June and September. It is this committee’s role to determine whether there is evidence of mitigating circumstances, whether those circumstances could have had an effect on your performance, and the likely impact. The committee will consider all submissions and, where there is evidence that circumstances have been serious enough to have an effect on one or more elements of assessment, the committee will make recommendations to the exam board. In considering each case, the committee refers to the guidelines which are widely used across the university (available here: http://documents.manchester.ac.uk/display.aspx?DocID=4271).
The exam board, at the recommendation of the mitigating circumstances committee, can take a limited number of actions to apply mitigation (for a complete list of available actions, see http://documents.manchester.ac.uk/display.aspx?DocID=23163). In most cases, acceptance of the mitigation will involve revoking any late submission penalties or allowing for the missed or failed coursework/exam to be taken again as a first sit. There are no circumstances where individual marks can be changed although, in exceptional circumstances, the board may award a unit mark based on the other grades within a unit.
A claim for mitigating circumstances may be turned down for several reasons:
- The circumstances detailed by the student are not regarded as grounds for mitigation under the Policy on Mitigating Circumstances
- The supporting evidence does not cover the relevant period
- The supporting evidence is not supplied by an appropriate (independent) source
- The supporting evidence is deemed insufficient to support the student’s claim of the seriousness of impact on their assessment performance
- The wording of the evidence supplied does not support the student’s claim e.g. the material does not provide a medical diagnosis
- No evidence is provided, and the student has not given any explanation as to the reasons why nor indicated when evidence could be available
- The evidence relates to a chronic condition which the student is already in receipt of support from the Disability Advisory and Support Service (DASS). This does not include instances where the student has an acute flare up of a pre-existing condition which may be accepted if properly evidenced and confirmed by DASS
- The deadline for submitting mitigating circumstances has been missed, without a credible and compelling reason
- The claim relates to a ongoing condition or circumstance previously used to claim mitigation where the Panel, on the earlier occasion, instructed the student that this mitigation could not be used again and may have instructed the student to access support from the Disability Advisory and Support Service
6.3.1 Mitigating Circumstances Resulting in a Missed Examination
If mitigating circumstances prevent you from attending a scheduled examination, you must inform the Student Support Office as soon as possible (this is in addition to following the mitigating circumstances procedures outlined above). Please be aware that if you miss an examination and your mitigating circumstances are rejected, you will be awarded a grade of zero. If you are not sure whether it is more appropriate to attempt or miss an examination, please contact your Year Tutor for guidance (in situations where you need urgent advice and your Year Tutor is not available, you should contact any Year Tutor, the Programme Director or the Examinations Officer).
6.3.2 Mitigating Circumstances resulting in a further assessment attempt.
Where the application of mitigating circumstances results in a further ‘first-sit’ assessment attempt, this assessment (coursework and/or examination) must be completed during the summer examination period, regardless of whether the course unit fell in Semester 1 or 2 (see Section 3.1 for specific dates). It is therefore crucial that you check you will be available to complete coursework or attend exams during this period. Final Year students should note that the award of a further ‘first-sit’ assessment attempt would necessarily delay their graduation until December.
6.3.3 Mitigating Circumstances resulting in the exclusion of grades.
As noted above, in exceptional circumstances, mitigation may involve excluding affected grades from the calculation of your degree result. This outcome is only possible where (i) a pass mark was achieved on the piece of assessment (ii) the affected grade demonstrates clear evidence of underperformance in relation to your other grades. In such circumstances, the affected grade would not be used to calculate your Year average or final degree result.
It is important that you appreciate that the exclusion of grades simply removes the impact of assessment affected by mitigating circumstances. The examination board do not have the authority to change a student’s grades (e.g. to award an additional 10% to an assessment result). As such, you cannot assume that mitigating circumstances will result in the award of the grade that you could have achieved if mitigating circumstances had not affected your performance.
Please note that the exclusion of grades in this way will be indicated on your degree transcript. Where grades relating to individual assessment components have been excluded from the calculation of a course unit mark, a note will indicate the number of credits considered in the calculation of the mark; where full unit grades have been excluded from the calculation of your Year average and final degree result, a ‘P’ will be entered in place of the unit grade.
