Procedure: Appealing a result

Results Appeal Procedure

 

Before submitting your appeal at Stage 1 or 2 or your request for a review of a mark or grade, we recommend you should seek advice from the Students’ Union Advice Centre who can provide you with independent advice and guidance on completing your appeal form.

 

9.3 Request for a review of a mark or grade

9.3.1 If you wish to request that a mark which has not yet been;

  • confirmed by a CAM;
  • second or blind double marked

Then you should follow the steps within this procedure. You can only request a review of a mark or grade where there is demonstrable material irregularity within the marking process.

9.3.2 A procedural irregularity may be any of the following:

  • The mark or grade was not based on the specified assessment methods or criteria provided as part of the assessment brief
  • The published split of marks has not been applied
  • A piece of work submitted on time was treated as having been submitted late and a marking penalty was wrongly applied
  • There has been an error in calculating the final mark or grade
  • There is evidence that questions, or parts of questions, have not been marked.

9.3.3 If you are unhappy with your mark or grade, we expect you to contact the tutor who has marked your work first. You should ask for a more detailed explanation of the mark or grade and how they reached their decision. If after this, you can demonstrate a material irregularity has occurred within the marking process, the following should be actioned before the CAM:

  • You submit a request for a review of your mark or grade to the Module Leader and provide an explanation and/or evidence of the material irregularity
  • An appropriate member of staff will review the explanation and/or evidence along with the mark or grade
  • The Module Leader will normally provide a written response to you no later than 10 working days after the date of your request to explain their review and any decision made.
  • If a re-mark is required, the new mark or grade will replace the original mark or grade and will be subject to standard moderation processes.

9.3.4 We expect you to contact the tutor or module leader within 5 working days of the release of the unconfirmed mark. If your tutor does not respond promptly to your request for feedback and you can provide evidence of this, we will permit a reasonable delay.

 

9.4 Appealing a result

9.4.1 This procedure only applies if your marks have been confirmed by a CAM and the have had your formal results have been published and released to you via the StudentHub. There are deadlines within this procedure and we expect you to keep to these unless you have compelling independent evidence to show why you could not do this. The details of the types of suitable evidence are listed here.

9.4.2 We are also expected to meet deadlines but there will occasionally be times when we are unable to do this for good reason. If so, we will let you know why and keep you informed of progress.

9.4.3 To complete the procedure you will need to know the dates when your results were formally released. If you do not know, you must contact your course Office before completing your appeal form.

 

9.5 Stage 1 results appeal

9.5.1 To appeal about your results you should submit a completed Results Appeal Form to resultsappeal@hud.ac.uk no later than 10 working days from the date your results were published.

9.5.2 You must submit evidence to support your appeal. If there is a delay in obtaining the evidence, you should still submit the appeal form no later than 10 working days. If your evidence is delayed, you must tell us what it is and when you expect to provide it.

9.5.3 If you submit your appeal later than 10 working days, you will need to provide evidence to confirm why you could not submit your appeal any sooner. This is in addition to the evidence required to support your appeal. If you do not send us independent evidence to allow your late appeal to be considered, your appeal will not be successful on the basis that it was submitted late.

9.5.4 For your Stage 1 appeal to be successful, you must provide independent evidence to demonstrate at least one of the following grounds:

  • there was a procedural irregularity in how your work was marked or classification was calculated;
  • there was bias or a reasonable perception of bias in how your work was marked or classification was calculated;
  • there were circumstances that affected your submission or assessment and you could not have told us sooner by using our consideration of personal circumstances procedure.

9.5.5 You will receive a response, providing reasons for the decision, normally no later than 20 working days from the date you submitted the appeal and all supporting information. You should read the content of the letter carefully. In the meantime, if you have been provided with instructions for further assessment opportunities within the release of your results you must continue to engage with these in the event that your appeal may not be successful. 

9.5.6 If your appeal is successful:

  • It may have an impact on your results profile if a procedural irregularity or bias has been found in how your work was marked or your classification calculated;
  • It may alter the number of attempts you have for an assessment, most commonly an EC may be granted if you are able to evidence these circumstance;
  • You should discuss the outcome with your School immediately.

9.5.7 If your appeal is not successful:

  • You may wish to discuss the outcome with the Students’ Union Advice Centre who can independently guide you through the decision;
  • You may request a review of the decision (please see Stage 2);
  • You should discuss the outcome with your School immediately.

 

9.6 Stage 2 results appeal: Review request

9.6.1 To request a review you should submit a completed Stage 2 Appeal Form to resultsappeal@hud.ac.uk no later than 10 working days from the date of the outcome from your Stage 1 results appeal.

9.6.2 If you introduce new evidence for your Stage 2 appeal you must explain why you did not provide this evidence with your Stage 1 Appeal. If there is a delay in obtaining the evidence, you should still submit the appeal form no later than 10 working days from the date of the Stage 1 outcome. If your evidence is delayed, you must tell us what it is and when you expect to provide it.

9.6.3 If you submit your Stage 2 appeal later than the deadline, you will need to provide evidence to confirm why you could not submit your appeal any sooner. If you do not send us independent evidence to allow your late appeal to be considered, your appeal will be not be successful on the basis that it was submitted late. No further details of your appeal will be considered.

9.6.4 Your Stage 2 Appeal will be considered by a member of Registry staff not involved in the Stage 1 decision. We will issue a Completion of Procedures Letter no later than 10 working days from the date the appeal and all supporting evidence was received.

9.6.5 For your Stage 2 appeal to be successful you must provide independent evidence to demonstrate at least one of the following grounds:

  • there was a procedural irregularity in the way we considered your Stage 1 Appeal;
  • the decision we reached was unreasonable in light of the evidence provided for Stage 1;
  • you have submitted new evidence that, for a good reason, could not have been provided at Stage 1 and would have materially affected the outcome.

9.6.6 If your appeal is successful:

  • It may have an impact on your results profile;
  • It may alter the number of attempts you have for an assessment;
  • You should discuss the outcome with your School immediately.

9.6.7 If your appeal is not successful:

  • You may wish to discuss the outcome with the SU Advice Centre who can independently guide you through the decision;
  • You should discuss the outcome with your School immediately;
  • You may request an independent review of the Stage 2 decision.

 

9.7 OIA: Independent review of results appeal decision

9.7.1 Our Stage 2 decision is final and cannot be appealed any further within the University. You can request an independent review of our final decision at Stage 2. You will need to send your completion of procedures letter to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA) within 12 months of the date of the completion of procedures letter.