Extenuating Circumstances

Students should promptly inform the Department if they are experiencing any circumstances that are impacting on their ability to engage with their academic studies and/or complete and submit academic work.

It is also important to make contact with your Academic Tutor if you need any support,  and access university Wellbeing services, if appropriate to your needs. See the ‘Support’ section of the Department Student Handbook for details of the full range of university services.

Reporting Extenuating Circumstances

Extenuating Circumstances are medical or personal difficulties that can affect your academic performance, such as mental/physical ill health, bereavement or other personal circumstances. The Department and University will consider your circumstances when calculating your module results and degree classification.

To submit relevant information, Students should complete the online Extenuating Circumstances Form to request an extension or to inform the Department of extenuating circumstances and provide appropriate evidence.   

Using this form students can request:

• A short deadline extension (DEX)

• No Penalty (NP) to be applied for late submission.

• Not Assessed (NA), so that an assessment is submitted in the August resit period as a first attempt (mark not capped), or in the next academic year. Please be aware that once NA is applied for your first sit, the Department will be unable to reinstate your original mark (if the work has originally passed and NA is requested at a later date).  The result you gain at resit will be reflected on your Student Record.

Evidence is required to support all requests. Evidence that is accepted includes:

• Notification that a student has a Learning Support Plan (LSP) from the Disability and Dyslexia Support Service (DDSS)

• Medical letter from a Doctor, Practitioner, the Hospital or other professional health service  

• Supporting evidence from a University Service such as the Student Wellbeing Service, SAHMS or the Student Welfare and Wellbeing team

• Crime Reference Number (CRN) from the Police

Please see the guide here for more information on what is accepted. 

Guidance for  deadline extension requests

It is important to consider the following when requesting an extension to a submission deadline:

• Only short extensions to academic work will be considered (a maximum of two weeks)

• If the extended submission deadline cannot be met, you will be recommended to complete in the resit period or take a Leave of Absence (depending on the individual circumstances of the student and Regulations of the Programme)

• Extension requests that are not considered reasonable will not be approved. See below for examples of what is and what isn’t considered a reasonable request:

Examples of what is considered to be a reasonable request for an extension:

• Bereavement

• Serious short-term illness/accident/hospitalisation (which in an employment context would have led to a period of sickness absence)

• Deterioration or fluctuation of a disability or long-term health condition

• Significant personal circumstances eg. victim of crime, sexual assault, domestic violence  

• Other significant adverse circumstances that can be documented by supporting evidence from a professional service. For example a Doctor or mental health professional

• Difficulty managing workload in an employment setting (CPD students only)

Examples of what is not considered to be a reasonable request for an extension:

• Submitting the wrong work for an assessment or a draft version of the work via Turnitin

• Computer issues which may include not backing up work, loss of computer data, printer problems or a stolen laptop. It is the responsibility of the student to ensure all work is backed up and stored in more than one place. If work cannot be submitted on time at 3pm due to a failure of the University computer system students should alert the Department at the time or obtain a dated statement from IT Services

• Minor illness or ailment (cold, headache, toothache etc) which in an employment context would be unlikely to lead to absence from work

• Late disclosure of circumstances on the basis that the student did not know who to contact or how to bring the circumstances to the attention of the Department prior to the Exam Board

• A long-term condition where treatment or additional support/arrangements are in place to mitigate

• Poor time management (pressure of work, conflicting assessment deadlines, unavailability of books etc)

• Financial circumstances

• Medical circumstances without supporting medical documentation or retrospective medical evidence (i.e. a doctor’s note stating that the student was seen after the illness occurred)

• Circumstances which do not relate to the assessment period in question

• If there is a reasonable case that the circumstances were foreseeable and/or preventable

For additional information on what constitutes extenuating circumstances and how the information is used please see the university web page here. 

To submit an extension request please use our online Extenuating Circumstances Form. NOTE: If you wish to request an extension for a module that is delivered by another department, you should contact them directly to make the request. We are unable to grant extensions or NA for modules outside of Sociological Studies.