When illness or grave cause has impacted an examination
What is an Exam Allowance?
An exam allowance is a remedy for a student whose assessment(s) (exam, coursework or other formal assessment where the marks contribute to the student's formal examination result) has been impacted by serious illness or grave cause that prevented them from completing the assessment.
- So serious that it prevented the student from:
- attending the exam; or
- completing a substantive part of the exam; or
- having the decision-making capacity to determine they are not fit to sit the exam;
- Unanticipated;
- Entirely beyond the student’s control;
- Close in time to the assessment;
- Evidenced by contemporaneous evidence from an independent, appropriately qualified source; and
- accompanied by academic evidence that the student would have otherwise been expected to pass the exam. If the student attended the exam, the academic evidence must demonstrate that the student was expected to achieve a significantly higher mark than was received.
How to make an application for an exam allowance
All information for students and Colleges is available in the 2025-26 Guidance notes for students and Colleges.
Deadline
All undergraduate and postgraduate taught students must initiate an exam allowance application to their College within 7 days of the missed exam/assessment, or the final exam in the same exam period.
Action for students
Students must complete and email the Student Initiation Formto their Tutor and Tutorial Office as soon as possible, and by the deadline - within 7 days of the missed exam/assessment. If this deadline has passed, students can still email the form, but will need to provide a valid and evidenced reason for why it is late.
Students can email the contemporaneous evidence of the illness or grave cause to the College at the same time as sending the Form, or if it is not yet available, they can submit it to the College as soon as it becomes available and before 6 weeks have passed.
Where a student's circumstances prevent the student from accessing the form e.g. ongoing hospitalisation, this step can be completed by the College) and emailed to their College's Tutorial Office and Tutor. If the deadline has passed the student must contact their College immediately.
Action for Colleges
Colleges will have six weeks from receiving the Student Initiation Form, to send an application to EAMC@admin.cam.ac.uk. The application must include:
- a completed College exam allowance application form, either:
- College form for first and second year Tripos students - Exam Allowance form for allow to progress or statement on transcript
- College form for final year Tripos students and postgraduates - Exam Allowance form for disregarding or reassessment
- The Student Initiation Form - completed by the student;
- The email from the student sending the Student Initiation Form to the Tutor and Tutorial Office;
- The contemporaneous evidence of the illness or grave cause from an independent and suitably qualified person;
- The academic evidence for the student's studies.
Where applications are submitted after the 6 weeks, or where the student has submitted their Student Initiation Form after 7 days, a valid and evidenced reason for lateness must be included with the application.
Action for Departments
Where exam allowances are granted for final year Tripos students or postgraduate taught students, this can lead to re-classing a student or reassessment. Further information for Departments and Faculties in responding to exam allowance remedies is available in the 2025-26 Exam Allowances Guidance for Departments and Faculties.
Additional information
To help everyone understand the exam allowances system, a series of examples of Exam Allowances have been provided.
Exam re-sit for Foundation Year students
| Who is it for? | Foundation Year Students |
| Why is it used? | Where a foundation year student has been impacted in the exam by illness or grave cause |
| Guidance | Guidance notes for Foundation Year re-sit exam allowance |
| Application Forms | Student Exam Allowance Form: Foundation Year re-sit exam allowance College Application form: Foundation Year re-sit exam allowance |
Progression to Part III opinion
| Who is it for? |
|
|---|---|
| Why is it used? | For students who failed to progress onto one of courses above due to illness or grave cause. The student can request an opinion from the EAMC on whether their examination results were impacted by illness or grave cause and can then choose to provide the opinion to the University academic authority considering progression onto the relevant course. |
| Application Forms | Application form: opinion on progression to Part III |
Raising a complaint about IT issues in exams or coursework
For undergraduate and some postgraduate students
University IT issues
Where students have experienced technical difficulties during an examination, it is expected that they will have raised the issue at the time, as advised by the relevant guidance (which differs dependent on examination mode and platform).
Where the technical issue was the fault of the University – e.g. an issue with the digital platform, this is likely to have been remedied at the time of the exam or as part of the examining process. For example, the invigilator may have given the student additional time to complete the exam to compensate for the writing time used when remedying the issue. Alternatively, where an IT issue has impacted the cohort, for example the cohort could not access the exam paper for a length of time due to a technical issue with the platform, then the invigilators may still give additional time and/or the Examiners will take this into account when marking and examining the students’ scripts.
Where the student receives their examination results and is concerned that the impact of the University’s IT issue has not been remedied, then an application for an Examination Review should be submitted within 28 days of receiving the formal examination results, under the ground of ‘procedural irregularity’.
The impact of University IT issues exacerbated by a student's disability
Where a student has received a remedy for the University’s IT issues but following receiving their examination results, believes that the remedy has not accounted for the specific disadvantage caused to them because the impact of the IT issues was exacerbated by their disability, the student can apply for an exam allowance.
An exam allowance is a remedy granted to students hindered by illness or grave cause in an exam. Depending on the year and course of study, it might allow a student: to progress to the next year of their course where they had otherwise failed; to have the relevant assessment disregarded from their overall results (if 25% or less of the assessments are impacted); or to sit a reassessment. Students should contact their Colleges to support making an exam allowance. The application is normally submitted by the College but can be submitted by the student and must be received within three months of the student receiving their exam results.
The student will need to evidence that they were substantially disadvantaged in the assessment and that the remedy put in place for the University IT issue was insufficient to mitigate the substantial disadvantage caused by their disability. Part of this evidence is likely to include the student’s marks for the relevant exam being out of line with all of their other exam marks.
Student IT issues
Students are expected to take responsibility for their own IT, as outlined in the relevant policy. Where students have issues with their devices, difficulties submitting assessments, or lost work due to an IT malfunction on their device without having regularly saved it, there is normally no remedy available, as students should have taken reasonable steps to ensure that work is saved, that submissions are made in good time and that devices are in good working order.
However, if students consider that their IT issue is so exceptional as to meet the criteria of ‘grave cause’, in that it was serious, entirely unanticipated, beyond the student’s control, close in time to the examination, and independently evidenced, then the student can apply for an exam allowance. As outlined above, applications are normally made with the support of the College, in accordance with the exam allowance timeframes.
For assessments that have taken place before 1 October 2025
For undergraduate and some postgraduate students
| Who is it for? |
|
|---|---|
| Why is it used? | Where students on the named courses have been impacted in the assessments by illness or grave cause Exam allowances include:
|
| Guidance | Guidance notes for exam allowances UG and some PG |
| Application Forms | Application form: allowed to progress or receive award |
| Consideration | The reconsideration of an original result would be required if a student wished to disregard a paper and still be Classed. This allowance is available where a student has been Classed or in cases where a student has not met the pass mark. Applications are usually only considered after the examination has finished and the final outcome is known. It should be noted that in instances where the Class will not change, the EAMC are unable to act, and a technical decline will be issued. This allowance is not intended to be used for:
If an application is approved, the mark(s) will not be removed from the transcript - only the overall Classing will change. The allowance relates to mitigating circumstances, it doesn't negate academic fact, so the enrolment and mark awarded will remain on your permanent academic record and will be displayed on your transcript. |
For certain postgraduate courses
| Who is it for? |
|
|---|---|
| Why is it used? | For students on the named courses where assessments were impacted by illness or grave cause |
| Guidance | Guidance notes for exam allowances for certain postgraduate courses |
| Application Forms | Application form: exam allowances for certain postgraduate courses |