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LUU’s Guide to... The Academic Appeals Procedure: Information for students on taught courses.
An appeal is the procedure used to change a mark or a degree classification which has been finalised by an Exam Board.
This guide explains how to make an appeal.
You can also find information about the appeals procedure in the Taught Student Guide at www.leeds.ac.uk/qmeu/tsg/10appeals.htm, and on the Office of Academic Appeals and Regulations website at www.leeds.ac.uk/AAandR/appeals.htm.
You should read this if you want to appeal.
LUU has written the appeal procedure in ‘plain English’ to make it easier to understand.
Download LUU's Appeal Leaflet (pdf file)
Your appeal must be submitted within 6 weeks of your results being published online.
You cannot appeal if you have graduated.
Who can I talk to about my appeal?
How can the Student Advice Centre Help?
what is the procedure for appealing?
An academic appeal has a very specific function. It can only be used to try and change a mark or degree classification.
An appeal is submitted to the Office of Academic Appeals and Regulation (‘the Office’). They will send your appeal to your School, who will have the chance to write a response. An Investigating Officer, who will be a senior academic in the University, will decide if you have a case to be heard; if you do you will attend a hearing in front of the Committee on Applications, who will decide whether to uphold your appeal. The whole process takes about 3 – 5 months.
The procedure is explained in more detail below in Appealing: a step-by-step guide
You can use the appeals procedure to challenge your degree classification or any other mark. However you can appeal against any mark that you receive for a University exam or assessment, however, you can only start the appeal procedure once the mark has been ‘finalised’ or approved by your School’s examiners board or committee.
If you disagree with a provisional mark you have received for an assignment, seek advice from The Student Advice Centre. The Advice Centre can help you find the most appropriate way to challenge your mark.
In order to appeal you must be able to show why the mark or classification you are appealing against is unfair, or does not represent your true academic ability. These are the grounds for your appeal. There are no specific grounds you must base your appeal on but common examples include:
We recommend that you speak to staff in the Student Advice Centre about your grounds for appealing before deciding whether to appeal. The Advice Centre runs appeals surgeries from mid June – end of July. To make an appointment call (0113) 3801 300 or email advice@luu.leeds.ac.uk.
If you would like your assessments to be re-marked you will normally have to pursue an appeal to explain why you believe that this can be justified.
The timescale and different stages of an appeal are as follows:
Stage of the procedure |
Deadline |
|
Publication of results of Examinations and Assessments |
Beginning of July |
|
Student submits appeal |
6 weeks |
|
Departmental/School Response |
6 weeks |
|
Student submits Concluding Comments |
3 weeks |
|
Decision of Investigating Officer |
4 weeks |
|
The Hearing |
## |
|
Appeal to the Vice-Chancellor |
4 weeks |
Usually an appeal will take about 3-5 months, starting from when the appeal is submitted, to conclude. Students lodging an appeal after their reults are published in July should normally be able to graduate the following December, but there is no guarantee.
If the Investigating Officer decides you have a case, you will be expected to attend a hearing in front of the Committee on Applications. This is explained in the step-by-step guide to appealing. The Committee meets approximately every 2 months, and your hearing will be scheduled according to the amount of business the Committee has to deal with. The Committee meeting dates are published on http://www.leeds.ac.uk/AAandR/schedule.htm. You should make sure that you will be free on these days.
The Student Advice Centre has experienced staff who can advise you on your case and help you write your appeall. If you are considering an appeal you should make an appointment as soon as possible.
If you would like advice about how the appeals process works, you can contact the Office of Academic Appeals and Regulation either by telephone (0113) 343 3990 or email e.m.dickinson@adm.leeds.ac.uk. The Office can advise you on the procedures but will not comment on the content of your appeal.
We can help you with the following:
If you want to appeal you must not go to your graduation ceremony. You cannot appeal if you have already graduated.
You have 6 weeks from thedate your results were published online to appeal.
Let the ceremonies office know you are not graduating
If you have a received a classification that is lower than you expected then it is important to look at how this has been calculated. A good place to start is to contact your personal tutor, your School’s examination officer, or anyone you feel that you can approach in your School. Ask them to explain how your results have been calculated and whether or not the examiners felt that you had a ‘borderline’ case. The Student Advice Centre can also help you to check the calculation.
See http://campus.leeds.ac.uk/ordinances/Rules for Award 2007-08.pdf which explains how your degree is calculated. Your School might have its own slightly different rules so you should also check with them.
Step 2: Seek advice and decide whether to appeal
It is useful to consult the Student Advice Centre before deciding whether to appeal. The appeals procedure is lengthy and an appeal takes a lot of work, so you may want advice about whether you have a strong case or not.
You could also speak informally to your department to check whether your results have been considered by your School’s special cases committee, and if so the reasons for their decision. You may wish to discuss your concerns with the department to see if they can explain or resolve your situation without the need for an appeal.
Step 3 (finalists): Let the Graduation Ceremonies office know that you are appealing
You cannot graduate if you decide to appeal. To make sure there is no confusion you should let the Graduation Ceremonies Office know that you are going to appeal and will not be graduating (tel: 0113 343 4117/3796/4005; email ceremonies@adm.leeds.ac.uk).
If you decide to appeal you will miss graduating with your year group. You can attend a later graduation ceremony once your appeal has been settled. You cannot start an appeal if you have already been to your graduation ceremony.
Step 4: Write your letter of appeal and submit it within 6 weeks of your results being published
You must prepare a detailed letter outlining your case. The Student Advice Centre can help you to structure your letter to present your arguments as effectively as possible, but we can’t write the appeal letter for you. We will also help you to decide what supporting evidence may be the most helpful to include.
You do not need to use any special legal language when you write your appeal, and you should try and avoid an overly emotional style as this can distract from your argument. Make your case as clearly as possible and include all relevant supporting evidence and facts. You will not be able to introduce new information later in the appeal. You should avoid repetition as clear and concise appeals can have more impact.
Download the Student Advice Centre’s guide to writing your appeal.
Your appeal should be on single sided A4 paper and numbered consecutively (including any appendices) in the top right hand corner of the page. You need to make sure that it can be easily photocopied so do not bind the appeal or use staples. Your appeal will not be accepted unless it is laid out correctly.
Do not rely on any colour images/highlighting that would not be legible if photocopied. You must make five copies of your appeal; three for the Office of Academic Appeals and Regulation, one to keep for your own records and one to send to the Student Advice Centre if we are supporting you.
All papers related to your case must be included with your appeal and must be posted to the Office of Academic Appeals and Regulation by you. Correspondence sent to the Office of Academic Appeals directly from third parties will not be considered. This is important to remember. If you want to provide evidence from a third party such as a doctor or counsellor, ask them to send their letters to you so that you can include them with your appeal. You should discuss the letter with them and confirm they have your permission to release specific details that may provide evidence of how your circumstances have affected your academic performance. This should be more than just having them confirming your attendance at a surgery, or counselling session.
Once you are happy with your letter detailing your grounds for appeal, you should complete the cover sheet on the Academic Appeals and Regulation’s website (www.leeds.ac.uk/AAandR/forms.htm) and send three copies of your appeal and supporting evidence to Dr Brooks, Head of Academic Appeals and Regulation (see contacts at the end). The Office will not accept appeals submitted by hand. The deadline for submitting your appeal is 6 weeks from the date that your results were published. This is a strict deadline and it is very important that you keep to it.
We recommend that you check the meeting dates of the Committee on Applications (available at: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/aaandr/schedule.htm). If you are found to have a ‘prima facie’ case (see step 7) you will need to attend one of these committee dates. If you know that you will not be able to attend one or more of these dates it is crucial that you let the Office know by including a short separate letter with your appeal explaining which date you can’t attend and why. If you have any specific requirements or requests to enable you to attend the Committee you should explain these to the Office in a separate letter and request that they be taken into account. We suggest that you discuss this with the Student Advice Centre where relevant.
Step 5: Acknowledgement of appeal
When the Office of Academic Appeals and Regulations receives your appeal they will send you an acknowledgement by email if you have given them your email address. The Office will keep one copy of your appeal for their records, forward one copy to the Head of your School, and hold one for the Investigating Officer at a later stage of the appeal (step 7 ).
Your department will consider your appeal and prepare a response. This reply will usually be from your Head of School and will respond to the points that you raised in your appeal. They must return this response to the Office of Academic Appeals and Regulation within 6 weeks of receiving your appeal. If they do not then they lose the right to comment on your argument. The Office of Academic Appeals and Regulation will forward a copy of this response to you.
Step 7: Your Concluding Comments
You have 3 weeks from the date of the letter from the Office of Academic Appeals that forwards you your School’s response to prepare and submit your ‘Concluding Comments’. This is your chance to respond to any of the points made in the departmental response.
You should not raise any new evidence at this stage of the process. If the Student Advice Centre is supporting you then it is important to send your caseworker a copy of the School’s response as soon as you can so that they have the maximum time to help you write your concluding comments.
As with the Appeal, your concluding comments should be on single sided A4 paper and should be numbered in the top right hand corner of the page. You must send 3 copies to the Office of Academic Appeals and Regulation. Keep one for your records. Your concluding comments will be acknowledged by email if you have sent the Office your email address.
Once the Office of Academic Appeals and Regulation has received your concluding comments, all correspondence relating to your case will be forwarded to the Investigating Officer. They will then consider the evidence provided by you and your School and determine whether or not there is a ‘prima facie’ case, which means whether you have made a case that will be heard by the Committee on Applications.
You will receive a letter from the Office of Academic Appeals and Regulation to tell you whether or not you have a prima facie case. If you have not made a prima facie case you will receive the reasons for this.
If it is decided that there is no prima facie case then this is the end of the appeal process. If however, you feel that procedures have not been followed properly in reaching this decision, or that the decision can be shown to be ‘unreasonable’, then you can appeal to The Office of the Independent Adjudicator (the OIA). If you would like more advice on how to appeal to the OIA or you are concerned that the University’s procedures may not have been followed, contact the Student Advice Centre.
If you have a prima facie case your appeal will be heard by the Committee on Applications. Hearings are held approximately every two months. The dates for these are on the Office of Academic Appeals and Regulation website (http://www.leeds.ac.uk/aaandr/schedule.htm). If the Student Advice Centre is supporting you we will need to discuss your case with you and agree on how best to present the key points of your case before the committee meets.
Step 8: Committee on Applications
The appeals committee, known as the Committee on Applications, is made up of senior academics from different faculties of the University. Your case will usually be heard by 5-10 members of the Committee.
You will be asked to make a brief statement at the beginning of the hearing. You may then be asked questions by the Committee members. If the Advice Centre is supporting you we will be happy to attend with you and will help you to prepare your statement and anticipate some of the questions that may be asked. We will always encourage you to speak for yourself during the committee meeting.
Step 9: The Committee’s decision
The Committee tries to make a decision on the same day as the hearing, but you will be informed of the result in writing, usually within 7 working days of the meeting.
The Committee has a number of powers. It can decide on any course of action it thinks appropriate; in general the main recommendations are one of the following:
Step 10: Appealing against the Committee’s decision
If you are unhappy with the Committee’s decision then you can appeal to the Vice-Chancellor. You must do this within 28 days of receiving the reasons for the decision. The Vice-Chancellor, or the Pro-Vice-Chancellor acting on his behalf, will review the case and make a decision. This decision will be final within the University process. Appeals to the Vice-Chancellor should be addressed care of Dr Brooks and sent through the Office of Academic Appeals and Regulation.
If you are still unhappy your only option is to appeal to The Office of the Independent Adjudicator (the OIA). The Student Advice Centre can advise you on both of the above options if this becomes necessary.
LUU Student Advice Centre,
First floor of the Union Building,
Student Union Building (building number 38 on campus guide)
Tel: (0113) 380 1300
Fax: (0113) 380 1301
advice@luu.leeds.ac.uk
Office of Academic Appeals and Regulation
Level 11, E C Stoner Building
University of Leeds
Leeds
LS2 9JT
Tel: (0113) 343 3990
Fax: (0113) 343 3991
e.m.dickinson@adm.leeds.ac.uk
www.leeds.ac.uk/AAandR
Office of the Independent Adjudicator
www.oiahe.org.uk
Please be aware that we are only able to advise current or prospective students of Leeds University.
These pages are for guidance only and are not a substitute for the formal procedures and statutes of the University. The information was checked and correct at the time of writing.
If you have any comments or queries about this page please email advice@luu.leeds.ac.uk.
© LUU Student Advice Centre June 2007.
