Submitting an appeal

Submitting a Stage One appeal

Stage One of the appeal procedure involves consideration of the appeal by a member of the Student Casework Team. All individuals must complete Stage One before choosing to proceed to Stage Two.

Submitting a Stage Two appeal

Stage Two of the appeal procedure involves the consideration of the academic appeal by a University Appeal Panel and can only be undertaken once an outcome has been received at Stage One.

Before submitting your appeal, you should:

• Refer to the guidance on these web pages when preparing and submitting an appeal.
• Ensure that your results have been officially published and that you submit within the ten working days deadline, or that you have received formal notification of the outcome of an alleged assessment offence. The official publication date is published to students by the college in advance and will be shown on the portal results page. The University may use discretion to consider and allow a late request where a student demonstrates good reason for delay.
• Be clear and concise when writing your statement – remember that the Student Casework Team will not know the background to your case so it is important to include all of the relevant details in a chronological order.
• Seek help from The Students' Union at UWE Bristol Advice Centre if you require support completing the appeal.
• Where possible, obtain documentary evidence to support your circumstances.

If you are an international student with a Tier 4 student visa under the PBS system, and have been asked to withdraw from your award as a result of an Examining Board decision, it is important to be aware of certain issues before you submit an academic appeal. Please read the Tier 4 Visa Appeal information document (PDF) for further details.

Timings

It could take up to eight weeks for a decision to be made in response to an appeal at Stage One, and a further six weeks at Stage Two if initiated.

There is no guarantee that individual cases will be resolved prior to any resit coursework deadline, resit examinations or graduation ceremonies. The original decision of the examining board will remain valid, unless it is subsequently revised following the outcome from a successful appeal. Therefore, until you are informed of the outcome of your appeal, you should prepare for any assessments and/or resit assessments as usual.

How your appeal will be considered

It is anticipated that you will provide all relevant information/evidence at the time of the Stage One submission. The Stage One appeal flowchart (PDF) outlines the steps involved. Therefore, the Student Casework Team will not automatically contact you for further documentation and a case could be rejected on the grounds that insufficient evidence/information has been provided.

If the appeal is escalated to Stage Two, the Student Casework Team will prepare a report for you to comment on before it is circulated to the Panel. The Panel is Chaired by an Assistant Vice-Chancellor, with membership of one senior representative from each college, and from Student and Academic Services. The Panel will make a decision based upon the information provided in the report. If further information is required, the case will be put on hold until it has been obtained.

Students are not invited to attend the Appeal Panel, so it is important to ensure that everything you would like to be considered is provided within the Stage Two appeal form (DOC). You may find the Stage Two appeal flowchart (PDF) helpful if you would like to know more about the process.

If your appeal is accepted

If it is determined that a student has valid grounds for an academic appeal, the Student Casework Team will consider the most appropriate outcome in line with the Academic Regulations.

A member of the Student Casework Team will email you to advise of the decision to accept the appeal and to explain any impact it will have upon your studies. However, it is important that you are aware of the following:

• If you have completed your degree, the acceptance of an appeal will not automatically mean that the degree classification is raised. It is possible that your academic profile may be referred back to the Award Board for reconsideration, however, this does not mean that the degree classification will necessarily change.
• If the outcome of an appeal results in a piece of work being re-considered, this does not mean that the mark will definitely change.

If your appeal is rejected

If your appeal is unsuccessful, a member of the Student Casework Team will write to you by email from 'Academic Appeals' and explain why the decision was made, and will explain the ‘next steps’ that are available to you if you wish to take the matter further.

When an appeal is unsuccessful it means that the decision of the examining board remains the same and that your academic results will not be changed.

If you wish to take the matter further (either to Stage Two of the appeal process or, following an outcome at Stage Two, to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator), you may choose to ask The Students’ Union at UWE Bristol Advice Centre for support and guidance with your next submission.

If you are unhappy with the outcome

The Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA) runs an independent scheme to review students' academic appeals. If you are unhappy with the outcome you may be able to ask the OIA to review your case. You can find more information about making a complaint to the OIA, what it can and can’t look at and what it can do to put things right on the student tab of the OIA’s website.

You normally need to have completed the academic appeal procedure before you complain to the OIA. We will notify you when you have reached the “Completion of Procedures” when you have reached the end of our processes and there are no further steps you can take internally. If your appeal is not upheld, you will be issued with a Completion of Procedures notification automatically. If your appeal is upheld or partly upheld you can ask for a Completion of Procedures notification if you want one. You can find out more information about a Completion of Procedures notification and when you should expect one on the Completion of Procedures Letters page of the OIA's website.

If you require information in an alternative format, please contact the Student Casework Team as soon as possible via email studentcasework@uwe.ac.uk.

Please contact the Student Casework Team if you have questions at studentcasework@uwe.ac.uk.

Our Student Support Advisers can also provide assistance should you need it.