Extenuating Circumstances
What should I do if extenuating circumstances affect my studies?
During your studies you may experience difficulties which could affect your academic performance. Such difficulties are known as "extenuating circumstances" and may include medical problems such as illness, or personal problems and difficult situations such as bereavement or being affected by crime. They are defined as events which are:
Short-term - the timing of the circumstances must be relevant to the impact of the extenuating circumstances request. Longer-term medical circumstances should be handled through other student support routes e.g. Disability and Dyslexia Support Services.
Significant – they must have had a demonstrably negative impact on your ability to study or to undertake an assessment.
Unforeseen and unpreventable - you could not have prevented them.
Beyond your control – you could not have planned to mitigate against the impact of the circumstances.
As a department, and university, we are committed to supporting you through challenges you are facing. Details of support available can be found here.
You are encouraged to document extenuating circumstances as much as possible to ensure examination boards can consider medical/personal factors, particularly at the final year exam board when degrees classifications are calculated. You should document this by completing an Extenuating Circumstances Online form at the bottom of this page.
We encourage you to speak to your personal tutor who can advise on what information to include, and direct you to sources of support, where appropriate.
In order to ensure consideration by the Examination Board, Extenuating Circumstances forms should be submitted no later than the Thursday following the end of the examination period.
Deadline extensions
The extension procedure allows you to request a short extension to a coursework deadline. You must put your extension request in as early as possible and at least two working days before the coursework deadline. The extension procedure allows you to request a short extension to a coursework deadline in order to manage short / minor illnesses, or other minor life events. You can self-certify one request per semester (this may cover a number of deadlines in the affected period) and you will need to request and have this approved by your department, giving a short explanation about why you need an extension, but you will not need to submit evidence.
If you require an extension of more than 7 calendar days or have already made a self-certification extension request, you will likely need to have a support appointment with either the Student Experience Manager, Student Support Officer or Senior Tutor, and may need you to submit some form of evidence. You can find the contact details on the help and support pages.
You should use the google form below to request an extension. We will aim to respond within 2 days, letting you know the outcome. For minor circumstances, in the first instance we tend to grant extensions of 3 working days or, if necessary, up to a week. Further extensions may be possible, but requesting numerous extensions may not be beneficial to your progress and multiple extension requests may prompt a further discussion with your department and referral to the relevant support.
Please note:
This procedure applies to individual coursework. If the request relates to a piece of group coursework/assessment, then you must contact your department for advice as soon as possible.
You should request extensions in advance of the specified deadline.
If you are a dual student, or it relates to a module outside of History, you should send the request to the department in which the affected module sits. You may need to complete more than one form.
If you have a Learning Support Plan in place, allowing for an adjustment of extensions to coursework deadlines, you still need to complete the extension request form and tick that you have an LSP.
If you are not able to submit for your extended deadline, you will be subject to the University’s late submission penalties if they apply.
Students who cannot submit for the extended deadline and who feel they have extenuating circumstances which mean a late penalty should not apply, please follow the EC procedure.
Some examples of extension requests that are likely to be accepted:
Minor illness or situations that set you back for a few days, but in a work situation is unlikely to lead to a significant absence from work;
If you are a disabled student with an LSP that indicates your department should take into account your disability when considering coursework extension requests;
Paid work, where you unexpectedly have to pick up additional work due to financial difficulties;
Caring responsibilities when there are unexpected difficulties with your usual caring arrangements (childcare, care for elderly relatives);
Technical difficulties beyond the control of a student e.g. a Turnitin outage;
Religious observance of a specific festival.
Situations where alternative support should be sought and will not usually require adjustments to extensions:
Computer problems, including printing and uploading to software such as Turnitin, when the expectation is additional time for these issued should have been factored into your planning;
Usual scheduled paid work;
You have not organised your time effectively, and have been unable to provide reasonable justification for this.
Extenuating circumstances procedure
The Extenuating Circumstances procedure allows you to put the challenging personal circumstances affecting your academic performance on record, so that they can be considered at the relevant examination board. Please note, not all difficult or distressing events will be considered in this way. The system is intended to cover events where there is:
A demonstrable adverse effect on your academic performance;
A reasonable case that the circumstances were not foreseeable and/or preventable;
Timely disclosure of extenuating circumstances; all submissions must be made as close as is reasonably possible to the time the problems arose.
Please complete the online form below, and the welfare team will consider your circumstances and agree the best course of action to support you. We may ask to have a support meeting with you, to discuss potential outcomes.
Some examples of extenuating circumstances that are likely to be accepted:
Bereavement – a death, which has a significant impact on you (which in an employment context would have led to a period of compassionate leave);
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
You have a Learning Support Plan that indicates the impact of your condition/impairment can affect your academic performance on an ongoing basis
Commuter students who have made reasonable travel arrangements to be in Sheffield for an assessment and who are impacted by unexpected delays to travel arrangements on the day.
Activity associated with Military Service, where Leave of Absence may not be appropriate;
Interviews where organisations refuse to change dates
Jury service
Caring responsibilities when there are unexpected difficulties with usual caring arrangements or unexpected new caring responsibilities (childcare, care for elderly relatives)
Other significant unavoidable and exceptional personal circumstances for which there is evidence of stress caused.
Situations where alternative support should be sought and will not usually require adjustments to assessments:
Medical circumstances which don’t relate to the assessment period in question;
Minor illness, ailment or sleepless night, which in a work situation is unlikely to lead to absence from work and would not require you to see a healthcare professional, seek wellbeing support;
Religious observance (i.e fasting, leaving before sundown). There’s a separate support process for this, please see religious observance and exams;
Holidays/family celebrations;
For students living in Sheffield during term time, transport difficulties e.g. delayed flights, strikes or traffic jams. You’re expected to be at your term-time address during the exam period or have made appropriate arrangements if you’re sitting exams abroad;
Issues with time management and effective organisation (e.g. conflicting assessment deadlines, unavailability of books, misreading the exam timetable, failure to back up work) support can be sought via 301 Academic Skills Centre;
Participation in sporting activities - needs to follow the Student Athlete Participation policy
Extenuating Circumstance Outcomes
The final outcome and resulting grade should be in line with what would be expected from your performance in unaffected circumstances. Your request will be considered by the Extenuating Circumstances panel, who will approve or decline the request and recommend an outcome to the Exam Board. Should your request be approved, some of the main outcomes that may be enacted are:
Not Assessed
You may be allowed to defer a formal examination or assessment attempt to the next standard occasion of assessment;
This can be applied to a first attempt (uncapped assessment) or a resit attempt (capped assessments);
This cannot be applied to modules you have achieved a pass in.
Remove lateness penalties
Removing lateness penalties on assessments submitted after the deadline or agreed extension date in cases where you can evidence substantial reasons which prevented you from submitting on time and from requesting an extension in advance.
Consideration of overall classification (final years only)
Where degree classifications are borderline, consideration of your overall classification with regard to the General Regulations for First Degrees, Higher Degrees and Higher Doctorates in respect of the specific impact your circumstances have had on your performance.
Evidence and paperwork
We strongly encourage you to use the forms below to document any extenuating circumstances you have faced during your degree. In cases where you are not requesting a particular action, we will still note the circumstances on your record, as it may be relevant to bring them into discussion at a later point, for example circumstances in your second year that may impact your performance, but won't be considered in your overall degree classification until your final year.
When your circumstances require evidence, it is important that it is genuine, accurate and verifiable, with dates that support the impact on assessment. This may include, for example, a doctor's note recording illness or hospitalisation, or official correspondance of eg. jury service. There is space in the online form to upload a file in various formats, but please do get in touch if you are unable to provide the evidence in this way.
Please note that:
The document should give details of the circumstance.
If the documentary evidence is not written in English, you will need to submit some further evidence from a member of the History Welfare Team.
If you have a Learning Support Plan that indicates the impact of a condition on your academic performance on an ongoing basis, this will be accepted as evidence.
The University will not undertake to obtain medical certificates on behalf of students.
You should not submit photographic evidence and this will not be accepted as evidence.
In cases of bereavement, death certificates or related items will not usually be required.
If you are unsure of what may be required, or how to obtain the relevant evidence/paperwork, please do get in touch with the History Welfare Team, and we will be happy to have a chat about what might be necessary.
Extension Request and Extenuating Circumstances Form
Please use this form to request an extension or to make us aware of extenuating circumstances: