Extenuating Circumstances

The Policy

The Extenuating Circumstances procedure is designed to support students facing short-term health or personal issues that have negatively affected their ability to attend, complete, or submit an assessment on time. However, if you are experiencing more serious or long-term circumstances that significantly impact your ability to study, it may be more appropriate to request a suspension of studies instead.

It is helpful to speak with your Personal Tutor, so that you can get support from your academic department. If they are aware of your difficulties they can provide you with a statement to support your online ECF submission. 

If you attend an exam or submit an assignment on time, you have declared yourself ‘Fit to Sit’ and an ECF is highly unlikely to be accepted. 

You can view the University’s official ECF policy here.

The Process

You must complete and submit the ECF by the deadlines for both coursework and exams:

1. Teaching Block 1 - 30th January 2026
2. Teaching Block 2 - 19th June 2026
3. Referral/deferral Period - 13th July 2026 - 31st July 2026

If valid, for Exam assessments you receive a deferral exam in the referral period.

For Coursework assessments, you will have either:

1. An additional 10 working days of the late submission period to submit your work, if sufficient, or
2. A deferral piece of work to be submitting in the referral period at the end of the year. 

You should hear back with a decision for your ECF within 10 working days, you should be notified of this through your email. 

Evidence

To apply, you need to go to your Student View and select the “Extenuating Circumstances" button to start an application. From there you can also view the status of your application/s at any time.

You will need to complete the online form providing the following information: 

A statement of Case:

1. Outline your current circumstances, how they have affected you and why you feel you are unable to complete your work to your true ability.
2. Details of evidence to support your circumstances. To find out what evidence you need for your application, please follow the link here. 
   
3. You can also describe any support that you have or are receiving and anything else you feel is relevant to your case.

Remember to include your evidence as required. 

Evidence should be recent, cover the period affected by the claim, and clearly demonstrate the circumstances. Any applications that have been rejected for missing or inappropriate evidence can be resubmitted with the correct evidence. 

There is also the option to have your outcome shared with the advice service so we can check in with you when your outcome has been received.