Good Cause (illness or other difficulties affecting your assessments) and Coursework Extensions
‘Good cause’ is the term we use to refer to illness or other difficult circumstances arising around the time of your assessments:
- where you are prevented from taking an exam or class test, attending an assessed tutorial, presentation or other assessed event, completing coursework, submitting work on time; OR
- where you complete an assessment but you believe that your performance has been seriously affected by the difficult circumstances. In other words, you believe that you were not able to show what you had learned on the course.
A good cause claim will NEVER lead to your grades being increased. Exam Boards are not allowed to speculate about how much better you might have done in better circumstances.
Where a good cause claim is accepted, the most likely outcome is that you will need to take the assessment at a later diet (often during the summer vacation).
Good cause is for acute difficulties that affect your assessment. It is not about longer-term issues that have affected your ability to engage with the teaching on the course (e.g. you were ill for some weeks during the semester).
Good cause refers to serious difficulties rather than the normal pressures of studying. It is usual to have a demanding workload with competing deadlines. Most students face challenges: balancing their studies, home life, any paid work and extra-curricular activities; coping with minor illnesses; managing unexpected demands on their time. These normal circumstances don’t justify a good cause claim. Good cause refers to a serious acute medical condition or worsening of a chronic condition, or serious unforeseen, unpreventable incidents.
Good cause is an important mechanism to support students who have completed the learning on their courses but have encountered difficulties at the time of assessment. On the other hand, students who face difficulties more generally through the semester, and who are therefore worried that their learning will be impacted, are encouraged to contact their Advisor/Advising Team as soon as problems arise so that they can provide you with guidance to help you access the appropriate support. Don’t wait to mention your problems in a good cause claim. The sooner you ask, the sooner that help can be put in place. The University has a wide range of support services that can be contacted directly. These include additional learning support and support with pastoral issues.
If you are having difficulties managing your workload, help is available: you can speak to your Advisor of Studies/Advising Team or Student Support Officer. Student Learning Development provides advice and classes on a range of matters related to your studies.
If you have significant additional responsibilities at home there are a number of policies that could help: e.g. Student Parents Policy, Student Carers' Policy.If you are facing financial difficulties and are struggling to balance study time and paid employment please see the Cost-of-Living Support Pages and information about the Discretionary & Hardship Funds.
If you have a disability or an on-going health issue, support is available from the Disability Service. Adjustments may be put in place to help you during teaching time and with your assessments.
If you are struggling to cope and would like to talk to someone please contact Counselling & Psychological Services. Even one initial conversation may make a big difference. Peer Wellbeing Support and Self-help Resources are also available.
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Making a good cause claim
Please see the Good Cause Submission Guide and the Student FAQs, which give a lot more information about the process. The key points are that a good cause claim must be submitted on MyCampus within five working days after the assessment (exam date, coursework submission deadline, etc.). The claim form requires you to:
- Explain the circumstances and how they affected the assessment(s) in question, referring clearly to the relevant dates.
- Submit supporting evidence. A member of staff who has been supporting you may be able to provide a statement. The Student FAQs give more information about evidence.
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Coursework extensions
You should always plan your various assessments carefully, taking particular note of where a number of deadlines fall around the same time. Try to complete assessment in good time so that you will still be able to submit by the deadline in the event of an unexpected disruption to your ability to study. Before submitting a request for extra time, consider carefully whether this would really be in your best interests. By submitting on time, your marked work will be returned to you promptly and you will avoid creating a later bottleneck of deadlines.
Extensions of up to five working days: If illness or other adverse circumstances mean that you will be unable to submit your work on time, you may request an extension of up to five working days directly from your course convener: you should contact them and explain the situation. (Your course documentation will provide the relevant contact details.) There is no requirement to provide supporting evidence for an extension request of up to five working days. If the course convener accepts that you will be prevented by circumstances beyond your control from submitting the work on time then they will grant whatever extension they believe is appropriate, up to a maximum of five working days. If not, the request will be declined and late penalties will be applied if you submit after the due date.
You should request an extension as soon as you become aware that it may be necessary. If you submit the request after the submission deadline, and there is no good reason for not having requested the extension earlier, then the extension request may be declined and late submission penalties applied.
Extensions of more than five working days: If you need an extension of more than five working days, you must submit a Good Cause claim supported by evidence.
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