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Extenuating Circumstances (ECs)

This help guide is designed to be read in conjunction with the university’s guidance on ECs, which can be found here.

Top tips for submitting ECs
  1. If a situation is affecting your studies, it’s important to speak to your course team as soon as possible. They may be able to help with extra support or give an extension for any upcoming deadlines

  2. If you need to submit an EC, there’s a fairly small window to do it in. They can be submitted five working days before an assessment date/exam, and up to five working days after

  3. Take a look through the university’s guidance on what is normally classed as grounds for an EC claim. These have been extended to include a few more issues, given the situation with COVID-19 (this is subject to change!)

  4. You’ll need to download and complete an EC form (through the link above). Take the time to read it carefully. If you have multiple assessments to submit an EC claim for, you can do them all on one form (no need for multiple forms!)

  5. Evidence is super important (we can’t stress that enough). This needs to be independently verifiable – a good example would be a letter from your GP (note that supporting letters for family or friends are not acceptable). Again, the rules are currently a little different due to COVID-19

  6.  Evidence must be correctly dated (also very important!). For example, if your EC is due to a medical issue and your evidence is a GP letter, you must make sure it is dated around the time of assessment

  7. The SU advice team can check through your EC claim before you submit it to Assessments. If you’d like us to do that, or if you have any questions, please book an appointment

  8. Once you’ve submitted the form, you’ll receive an acknowledgement email. Your EC claim will be forwarded to the next available EC panel, and you normally find out the result when you receive your statement of results (it will either say ‘ECs valid’ or ‘ECs not valid’ along with further instructions on any reassessment dates)

  9. If you don’t submit ECs at the time of assessment – you may still be able to submit an academic appeal based on ECs (it sounds complicated, but it really isn’t! – book an appointment with us to talk it through).

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