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.

Depending on your course of study, there will be an exam allowance that will provide an appropriate remedy.  However, exam allowances can only be granted where the exam was impacted by illness or grave cause, which is:

  • So serious that it prevented the student from:
    • attending the exam
    • completing a substantive part of the exam
    • 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
  • 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 2026-27 Guidance notes for students and Colleges. 

You should also check the Additional Processes section on this page, as some courses have unique processes you should be aware of.

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 Form to 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: 
  • 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.

Example 1: Gastroenteritis during the exam
Follow the course of an allowance requested for a student taken ill immediately before and during an exam.
Example 2: Bereavement during exams
Follow the course of an allowance for a student experiencing bereavement during the exam period.
Example 3: Migraine during the exam
Follow the course of an allowance for a student becoming unwell during an exam.
Example 4: Depression during the academic year
Follow the course of an allowance for a student experiencing intermittent illness throughout the year.

Additional processes

Some courses have unique processes. Students on these courses should follow this guidance to ensure their cases can be considered

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. 

How do I get it?

Who is it for?

Students on the following courses: 

  • Chemical Engineering Tripos Part IIB
  • Manufacturing Engineering Tripos Part IIB
  • Computer Sciences Tripos Part III
  • Mathematical Tripos Part III
  • Engineering Tripos Part IIB
  • Natural Sciences Tripos Part III
  • Management Studies Tripos

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.

How do I get it?

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.