The Appeals Procedure provides an opportunity for a review of your results if you meet either or both of the grounds set out below. The University Assessment Regulations and the Appeals Procedure can be found at:

http://www.mmu.ac.uk/academic/casqe/regulations/assessment/docs/appendix_8_appeals.pdf

You cannot simply appeal because you disagree with the examiners over the marks you have been given. The marking process will have been checked in your department and overseen by the external examiners, so your work will not be remarked just because you feel you ought to have done better.

Appeals can be sought on either or both of the following grounds:

Exceptional Factors

E.g. Non-trivial illness; serious disruption of studies caused by events over which you had no control; exceptional disruption of your personal life of a nature which you would not normally be expected to encounter; for example serious illness or death of a close relative.

If you did not disclose these to the Board of Examiners in time for its meeting, they will not be considered at the appeal stage unless you can show why you were unable to raise them at the time.

Examples of matters which are not normally exceptional: Non-availability of books, other learning resources or computer-related difficulties; theft of study notes or items of coursework; house removal; distance travelled or transport difficulties; pressure of work or change of employment; normal pregnancy well in advance of the assessment; normal domestic, personal, financial or emotional problems which form part of everyday life.

More weight will be given to events which happened in the three weeks before and during the assessment, than to those which happened well beforehand.

Material Irregularity

For example, an irregularity or error in the conduct of your assessment, or assessments or proceedings of the Board of Examiners were not conducted in accordance with the relevant regulations. However, you must clearly explain what material irregularity occurred and how it affected your assessment.

Students on PhD, MPhil or MRes programmes may cite bias as an irregularity. This option is not open to students on undergraduate or taught masters or professional courses.

• Form AA1 must be submitted for all claims.
• The form, along with all necessary documentary evidence, should be submitted to your Student Life Office or SIP who will provide an envelope, or by using your own A4 envelope and checklist, and obtain a receipt. (Combined Honours students who are studying in Manchester should submit their appeal documents to the SIP in the John Dalton Building).
• Your form should be submitted no later than 14 days after the publication date of the relevant result.

 

If you require assistance with completing your Academic Appeal contact the Advice Centre at: MMUnion at 3rd Floor Students Union, 99 Oxford Road, Manchester, M1 7EL. Telephone: 0161 247 6533 or e-mail: s.u.advice@mmu.ac.uk. Web site: http://www.mmunion.co.uk/.

Most appeals are resolved at Stage 1, but if you are not satisfied, you can appeal at Stage 2.

Stage 1

Your appeal will be considered by a Faculty Standing Panel drawn from all the Chairs of Board of Examiners in your Faculty. There is no hearing for you to attend, so it is important that you state your case clearly in writing and provide all the supporting evidence.

Your appeal will be assessed on the basis of the documentation you have submitted and you will receive a written decision within 21 days of the panel meeting. If a decision has not been made within 21 days you will be notified of the reason for this and given a revised date.

Stage 2 – Final

If you can clearly demonstrate that the panel has not addressed your grounds or has misunderstood the material facts of your case, you may apply for a final stage appeal by submitting your Academic Appeal Form (AA1) together with the Stage 1 decision letter to the Director of Student Services within 14 days of the date of the Stage 1 decision. You must explain why you believe the Stage 1 decision is wrong.

This Stage 2 appeal will be considered by the Director of Student Services or nominee who will consult a panel consisting of two appeal assessors and either the President or elected Education Officer of the Students’ Union or an elected nominee. You will receive a written decision within 21 days of your submission of a Stage 2 request.

At Stage 2 the Panel Chair may, in exceptional circumstances, where the facts and evidence are complex or contentious, grant a discretionary request for a hearing in person.

At the conclusion of Stage 2 you will be issued with a Completion of Procedures letter. This final stage appeal concludes the internal processes of the University.

If your appeal is successful, your marks will not normally be changed unless there was an error in the calculation. The University will have already carried out a calculation check before your result was published, but your assessment will also be re-checked as part of the appeal process. You will normally be allowed to resit without a cap on the mark. A ‘cap’ means that when you pass a resit, the maximum mark is 40% for degree and HNC/D programmes or 50% for taught postgraduate programmes. So a successful appeal means that this restriction is removed, as long as the affected exam was not in itself a capped resit.

Some first year students who fail one resit in the autumn, might be allowed to continue on their course and take the resit again during or at the end of their second year. The examiners will not allow this if the subject you failed is a core one, that is to say, one which is an essential foundation for other second year work, or if they think you will have difficulty doing second year work alongside the failed work. If the examiners do not allow you to trail the failed unit, you can’t appeal against that decision, as it is an academic judgement.

If you are still dissatisfied, the Completion of Procedures letter allows you to ask the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education to review the way we handled your request.

The website of the Independent Adjudicator is www.oiahe.org.uk. The contact address is OIA, Third Floor, Kings Reach, 38 - 50 Kings Road, Reading. RG1 3AA

If you are due to undertake a reassessment you should continue with your preparation as normal. It is possible that you will not receive a decision until very close to your reassessment, so do not await the outcome of your appeal before deciding what to do next.
Even if your appeal is successful it is likely that you will still have to take the reassessment. The most common outcome of a successful appeal will mean that the status of your reassessment will be changed. For example, your work will be marked as a first attempt, without being capped at 40%.

Submission Deadlines
Stage 1 appeals should be submitted to your Student Information Point or Student Life Office within 14 days of the date of your results letter
If you are dissatisfied with the decision on your Stage 1 appeal, your Stage 2 appeal should be submitted to the Director of Student Services within 14 days of your Stage 1 decision