When something happens during a student’s course that impacts on a student’s studies or exams, students must speak with their College Tutor to understand and discuss the best action to take. The Guidance Notes on this page explain the different processes available to students and the Application forms enable the College and student to apply for the relevant action.
When something goes wrong before exams/submission deadlines
All of these processes require the student and the College to complete different parts of the form, with submission of the form and evidence to be undertaken by the College.
Applications for intermission, resuming study, extensions to coursework or dissertation deadlines or conditional allowance of a term can be made on behalf of the following students:
- Foundation year students
- Undergraduate Students; and
- The Postgraduate students on the following courses:
- MBA and Executive MBA
- Master of Law (LLM)
- Master of Accounting (MAcc)
- Master of Advanced Study (MASt)
- Master of Architecture (MArch)
- Masters Degree in Corporate Law (MCL)
- Master of Engineering (MEng)
- Master of Finance (M.Fin)
- Master of Mathematics (MMath)
- Master of Music (MMus)
- Master of Science (MSci)
- PGCE
Intermission (and disregarding terms for other purposes)
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Permits students to take a break from their studies as a result of illness or grave cause
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Guidance notes for disregarding terms
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Application form: disregard terms
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Resuming study following intermission or illness
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Permits students to return to studies after intermission or, where required as a condition of an exam allowance being granted
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Guidance notes for resuming study
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Application form for resuming study
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Dissertation or coursework extensions to the submission deadline
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Grants students an extension to coursework or dissertation deadlines, after self-certification extensions have run out, as a result of illness or grave cause
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Guidance notes for coursework and dissertation extensions
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Application form for coursework and dissertation extensions
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Conditional allowance of a term
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Permits students to sit exams where they have lived outside of Cambridge for more than 20 days in a term (or 17 days in Easter Term) as a result of illness or grave cause
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Guidance notes for conditional allowance of a term
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Application form: conditional allowances of a term
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Illegal Combinations of papers
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For tripos students only (primarily undergraduate students)
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Permits students to take exams for a set of papers that do not comply with the regulations due to ‘incuria’ or disadvantage
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Guidance notes for illegal combinations of papers
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Application form: illegal combinations of papers
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When illness or grave cause has impacted an examination
These processes expect the student and College to complete the form, with submission of the form and evidence to be undertaken by the College.
Where a student does not wish to share the evidence with the College directly, it is permissible for the student to make an application directly to the University without College involvement. The University shall inform the College that an application has been made and the nature of the application.
Exam allowances can only be granted where the examination was impacted by illness or grave cause, which is:
- serious;
- unanticipated;
- entirely beyond the student’s control;
- close in time to the assessment; and
- evidenced by contemporaneous evidence from an independent, appropriately qualified source
Each exam allowance may have additional criteria that must be met before it can be awarded. Further information is available in the relevant guidance notes.
Exam allowance: exam re-sit for foundation year students
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Where a foundation year student has been impacted in the exam by illness or grave cause
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Guidance notes for Foundation Year re-sit exam allowance
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Application form: Foundation Year re-sit exam allowance
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Exam allowances for undergraduates and some postgraduates
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Where students on the following courses have been impacted in the assessments by illness or grave cause
Exam allowances include:
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Guidance notes for exam allowances UG and some PG
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Application form: allowed to progress or receive award
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Application form: reconsideration of original results
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Application form: re-sits for UG and some PG
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Raising a complaint about IT issues in exams or coursework
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. It might allow a student to progress to the next year of their course where they had otherwise failed, or to have the relevant assessment disregarded from the calculation of the student’s Class, where the relevant assessment is a ‘small part’ of the assessments undertaken and all other marks are in a higher class than the current Class awarded to the student.
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 and must be received within three months of the student receiving their exam results.
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Progression to Part III Opinion
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For students who failed to progress onto one of courses below 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. The student can then choose to provide the opinion to the University academic authority considering progression onto the relevant course.
Applicable courses:
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Guidance notes for exam allowances UG and some PG
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Application form: opinion on progression to Part III
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Exam allowances for certain postgraduate courses
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For students on the following courses, where the assessments were impacted by illness or grave cause:
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Guidance notes for exam allowances for certain postgraduate courses
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Application form: exam allowances for certain postgraduate courses
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