In this section

If your performance in your exams has been seriously affected by a medical or personal issue then you can inform the university of this via a Mitigating Circumstances notice to examiners. This helps the University to take into account your circumstances in determining what actions they take at the exam board.

Applying for Mitigating Circumstances

When do I need to submit the notice?

You should do this as soon as possible after your final assessment impacted. This is because the university want to know specifically how your performance was actually impacted in the exams, not just how it was likely to have been impacted.

If you are experiencing challenges in the lead up to your exam, its advised you contact your college (or departmental, if non-matriculated) as soon as there is a problem. If your teaching or revision has been affected, it is likely that there are better university processes to help you to succeed in your assessment. These may include organisation of catch-up teaching, applying for exam adjustments or a dispensation, or suspension.

They must be submitted before noon on the day before the final exam board meeting. You can find out when this on e-vision.

If you are within a month of this date, then your application may be able to be forwarded to the exam board if the Proctors agree. If you are beyond one month, you'd need to submit an academic appeal (if you meet the grounds) to be able to have a late notice submitted to your exam board.

My preparation was impacted rather than my exam itself. Can I still submit a notice?

Generally, the University are wanting to understand how your exam performance was impacted, rather than your preparation. However, if you had severe circumstances in your preparation which then could have impacted your exam performance without you realise, you should submit a notice.

It's always better to submit a notice than not, so if you are unsure, then we'd recommend submitting one regardless even if the university decide there is no further action they can take.

What circumstances count and don't count?

There is no prescriptive list, but generally the university are looking for circumstances which had a significant impact on your performance such as:

  • Sudden illness or accidental injury
  • A change to or exacerbation of a long-term condition or disability during the assessment period (find out more about this here)
  • Bereavement
  • Significant adverse personal/family circumstances -
  • Other serious circumstances, such as the impact of crime
  • Significant disruption during an examination where you have been particularly personally impacted
  • Work commitments if you are a part-time student and they are exceptional, unexpected and time-limited

 

Circumstances which are unable to be considered under the MCE process include:

  • Difficulties submitting including failure of internet connection, lost or stolen files, laptop/computer malfunction, software failure
  • Work commitments if you are a full time student
  • Circumstances that are not directly related to the assessment period - such as events that happened in previous academic years but are not ongoing
  • Social obligations and similar avoidable/adjustable events, foreseeable or routine commitments such as:
    • Holidays
    • Weddings
    • Parties
    • Routine medical appointments
    • Moving house
    • Changing job
  • Regular commitments such as work, voluntary, extracurricular activities, caring commitments, job interviews, internships, sporting commitments
  • Failed travel arrangements or inadequate travel planning
  • Financial difficulties
  • Poor planning or time management, clustered deadlines, misreading of the examination timetable, misreading assessment requirements or where to submit your work
  • Failure to familiarise yourself with the course information such as exam regulations, exam conventions, course handbook or student handbook
  • Very minor acute illnesses such as mild colds 
  • Poor sleep the night before examination
  • Minor disturbances in an exam (such as other students coughing)

What do I need to include in my notice?

You need to include a statement explaining your circumstances and independent evidence of your circumstances and the impact on you.

 

Your statement should include a full explanation of how the problem affected your assessment and which papers you believe have been affected:

• The examiners need to understand how your circumstances impacted on your ability to study and complete your assessment – try and keep your statement focused on this.

• Include basic details of the circumstances but you don’t need to go into a lot of detail. Focus on the impact they had at you e.g. pain made it hard to concentrate or sit to study for long periods.

• Remember to include dates where relevant of the time(s) you were affected.

• Try and be concise, you can use bullets to help organise your statement.

 

The evidence will need to be:

• relevant – relating to the time period of your exams or your period of preparation for exams and written submissions.

• contemporary – produced close in time to the period affected (make sure all evidence is dated).

• independent – coming from a source that is not yourself or your friends/family, that is, from a medical professional, professional services such as the University’s Counselling Service or Disability Advisory Service, a statement from the police or a solicitor, or a statement from your department/college. 

• specific – if possible, it should explicitly relate to the impact your circumstances have had on you and your performance

 

If you cannot provide the evidence in English, then please provide the original and a translation. You may be asked for an official translation.

If your performance was affected by an acute illness, the medical certificate can be from the college nurse, but any longer-term condition will need a medical certificate from your treating physician/service, or your GP. Medical certificates must meet the standard University requirements.

 

You do not need to provide medical evidence when you have been impacted by another person’s illness or you have been bereaved – a supporting statement from your tutor or university support service who is aware of your circumstances is sufficient – unless it has had a serious impact on your own health. Unfortunately SU Advice is unable to write this evidence for you.

 

If you had exam adjustments but are also submitting a notice in relation to the same condition(s) or disability, you need to explain why the exam adjustments or other adjustments did not fully compensate for the impact of your disability or health condition.

 

Your college can also include a statement. Your college will not comment on your academic performance, but might include information on what they have done to help you, or on any difficulties there have been in getting supporting evidence (e.g. difficulties in getting a doctor’s appointment).

How do I submit my notice?

Your best option is to submit the notice yourself via student self-service. However, your college (or department, if you are non-matriculated) can submit the notice on your behalf if you'd prefer.

Late Disability Diagnosis

What happens next?

What are the potential outcomes of submitting this notice?

The University isn't able to change individual marks or pass you for assessments that you have failed. However, they can take into account your circumstances and do one of the following six things:

 

  1. Review the classification/overall outcome requirements
  2. Pass the notice to the examiners of the final results/classification meeting
  3. Disregard a paper or papers and finalise results on the basis of the remaining work
  4. Finalise the mark for a paper or papers taking into account all available material
  5. Impact of circumstances considered, no appropriate adjustment could be made
  6. Removing of cap on resit marks

 

You can find out more about what these mean here: https://academic.admin.ox.ac.uk/mitigating-circumstances#collapse2154566.

How is my notice considered?

Firstly, a sub-set of the exam board will read your full submission (i.e. your statement & evidence) and review the information. They will then band the seriousness of the impact on a scale of 1-3:

  • One: minor impact on your performance
  • Two: moderate impact on your performance
  • Three: very serious impact on your performance

If you disagree with the rating given and have reason to meet the grounds of appeal, this is a challengeable decision under the Academic Appeals Process.

 

Then, your impact rating and grade profile will be considered by the full board, who will decide which action they can take. If you disagree with the decision they've taken at exam board (but agree with the rating it has been given) unfortunately this is not challengeable.

Academic Appeals

If you have a question not answered by the above or would like your draft statement/evidence checked over by a member of our team, then read our Advice Agreement then Contact Us and we'd be happy to help.