Academic appeals

This section outlines the academic appeals process, as well as providing general information and advice about the process. (sub.) 

If a student is unhappy with a decision or an outcome, then they can lodge an academic appeal. Most often, this is because they wish to challenge their final degree award, but sometimes they might be challenging a decision – such as an outcome they received on a mitigating circumstances application. 

LUU are able to offer advice and support to students who are making an appeal – it is not appropriate for Schools to get involved with formulating an appeal, or to comment on an appeal in progress. 

An appeal can only be lodged against an outcome or a decision that has been made; an appeal cannot be made in anticipation of, for example, a student receiving a lower award than they feel is deserved. If a student is generally unhappy with a piece of advice they received, an interaction, or something else that has happened, then they can be directed to the complaints information. 

You can read detailed information about the process here. In terms of your involvement as a Student Support Officer, remember that it is not your role to respond to an academic appeal – this would normally be the role of the Head of School, or nominee. You may however be asked to gather supporting information, which will help to inform the school response, such as: 

• Correspondence with the student, where it is relevant to the content of the appeal. This might be emails sent directly to the student containing relevant information, instructions or advice; general emails sent to all students (where the information contained in them is relevant to the appeal case;) or records of any conversations with the student via meetings, calls, etc. For example, if a student’s application for mitigating circumstances was rejected because they submitted it after the deadline, the School will need to show when the student was informed of the deadline. 
• Meeting notes/meeting records, usually where guidance relevant to the reason for appeal was discussed. 
• Information about any mitigation previously requested and/or put in place. 
• Information about adjustments recommended by Disability Services, and confirmation that these were implemented. 
• Transcript of marks 
• Module enrolment details 

Other information as requested, that you would have access to as a Student Support Officer.