Academic Appeals for Postgraduate Taught Masters

• 1. Your ability to progress on to a next stage of study
• 2. Your suitability to remain on a programme
• 3. The mark, grade, certificate, diploma or final degree classification you've been awarded.

There is no benefit to submitting your appeal as quickly as possible; take the 14 days to get feedback on your statement and to check you've included all the evidence needed. It is much easier to write a good appeal at this stage compared to submitting a second-stage appeal later on.

In our experience, appeals are successful when you know you have a case for appealing before you receive your results. For example, something significant happened in your personal life but you have not told your Department for a good reason. 

You should be able to evidence one or more of the following reasons for your appeal:

• 1. The Board of Examiners were unaware of circumstances which affected your performance, and you could not disclose these to your Director of Studies earlier, for example because you were too unwell or were distracted by the circumstances.
• 2. There were irregularities in the procedure of the exams or assessments which are likely to have affected the decision of the Board of Examiners.
• 3. The examiner’s decision was influenced by prejudice, bias or inadequate assessment.

The Chair of the Appeal Sub-Committee will invite you to a hearing with around 7 days notice (including weekends). The Chair should send you any written evidence and papers relating to your case that you may wish to respond to. You can share this evidence in confidence with an SU Advisor and work together to prepare your responses.

You need to make two important decisions:

1. Is there any additional information you want to provide as a written statement to the Appeal Hearing panel? If you want to provide a statement, you need to submit this to the Chair 3 days before the Appeal Hearing. An SU Advisor can help you structure your written submission and provide impartial advice on the content.
    
2. Do you want to attend alone or be joined or represented by a friend or SU Advisor? Students typically choose to have a friend or SU Advisor join them if this helps them feel more confident. SU Advisors don’t usually speak on your behalf, but can read out your statement, help you to ask for clarification about a point made or to ask for a break during the hearing. They can also meet you immediately before and after the Hearing to offer advice and answer your questions.  If you want someone to join or represent you at the Hearing, you must confirm their contact details with the Chair at least 3 days before the meeting. You need to ask an SU Advisor as soon as possible to check they are available.  Once an SU Advisor has confirmed they can join you, they will usually arrange 30minute meeting to help you prepare.

Appeal Hearings usually take place online, although you can request for this to be in person. The length of the meeting varies between cases and you will usually be asked to leave while the Panel confirm their decision. When students ask for an SU Advisor to join them, they usually meet the Advisor for 15minutes before and after the Panel for a debrief.

The Panel is usually made of five members of staff who all have equal voting rights and haven’t been involved in earlier stages of the investigation (with the exception of the Chair).

You need to follow this link to download a template of the Stage 2 Review of an Academic Appeal Outcome (AA2) form and send this to Director of Academic Registry within 14 days (including weekends) of receiving the decision of your Stage 1 appeal.

Your request must be based on the decision in Stage 1 Appeal, and can only be made on the following grounds:

• There were material procedural irregularities at Stage 1; 

• There is material new evidence which you could not reasonably have been expected to provide at Stage 1;  

• The outcome at Stage 1 was unreasonable in light of the evidence presented.

You must include:

• Copies of all the material submitted to the Chair of the Board of Studies in your original academic appeal
• Any additional evidence which you could not reasonably have been expected to share as part of your original appeal
• A statement and evidence explaining the grounds for your request for a review

 An SU Advisor can give impartial advice on whether you may have a case for a Stage 2 review and what to include in your AA2 form.  

Within 28 days (including weekends) of receiving your request, the Director of Academic Registry will decide:

The Director of Academic Registry will write to you to inform you of the outcome.

An SU Advisor can offer independent advice on the implications of the outcomes and your options, including taking your appeal to the OIA if you are dissatisfied with the final decision.