Appeals procedure

A Stage One: Formal Appeal can be defined as a claim for a review of the decisions of the official Central University Assessment Board. The Central Assessment Board schedules are available on the University’s Assessment page.

Students have 15 working days from the date of being first notified of the decision against which the student wishes to appeal - normally, this would be the official results email received on the Results Publication date.

Details of the results publication dates are available in the Central Assessment Board schedules, which are available on the University’s Assessment page. A completed Appeals form and any accompanying evidence should be submitted to appeals@bathspa.ac.uk.. Appeals sent after this deadline will not normally be accepted.

Exceptional Circumstances are defined as: unforeseen or unpreventable circumstances that significantly affect a student’s performance in an assessment.

We recommend submitting a Retrospective Exceptional Circumstances Claim. Retrospective claims for exceptional circumstances can be submitted up to 10 working days following the receipt of the official University results email.

The claim should be submitted via MyServices and should be accompanied by a clear explanation as to why it was not possible for the student to submit the claim on time – for example, the student was in hospital and unable to access their computer in order to submit their claim.

There are two criteria for appeal:

• Criterion One: There is evidence to show that you may have been disadvantaged because there has been an administrative error in the way in which the University’s Central Assessment Board has made its decision. Had this error not occurred, you consider that your assessment outcome would have been different.
• Criterion Two: There is evidence to show that you may have been disadvantaged because one or more of your assessments was not carried out in accordance with the regulations or published material for your programme, or with the University’s Assessment and Feedback Policy or your agreed reasonable adjustments. Had the assessment been carried out appropriately, you consider that the University Central Assessment Board’s decision about your assessment outcome would be different.

Students can choose to submit a claim under more than one of the above grounds in the same Appeals claim. We encourage students to submit as much evidence as possible to support each grounds of appeal, as indicated on the claim form.

Criterion One: There is evidence to show that you may have been disadvantaged because there has been an administrative error in the way in which the University’s Central Assessment Board has made its decision. Had this error not occurred, you consider that your assessment outcome would have been different. 

Relevant evidence could include, for example, incorrect or missing marks on your transcript or the weightings of your assessments being wrong. 

Criterion Two: There is evidence to show that you may have been disadvantaged because one or more of your assessments was not carried out in accordance with the regulations or published material for your programme, or with the University’s Assessment and Feedback Policy or your agreed reasonable adjustments. Had the assessment been carried out appropriately, you consider that the University Central Assessment Board’s decision about your assessment outcome would be different. 

Relevant evidence could include, for example, the assessment task not aligning with the learning materials taught on your programme or evidence that second marking or module moderation has not been carried out, or reasonable adjustments have not been properly considered or implemented following dialogue between you, your module tutor and Student Wellbeing Services. Your general disagreement with a mark that has been awarded for a piece of work (i.e. the academic judgement that has been made in the assessment process) is not a criterion on which you can appeal.

Depending on the nature of your claim, we recommend that you consider submitting Retrospective Exceptional Circumstances, a Formal Complaint or contacting the Students’ Union for further advice and information. If you submit an appeal that does not fall under one of the specified grounds for appeal, your appeal claim will not be accepted.

Academic judgement refers to judgement that is made about a matter where only the opinion of an academic expert will suffice. For example, a judgment about assessment, assessment criteria, a degree classification, fitness to practise, research methodology or course content/outcomes. (This means that a mark or outcome cannot be challenged on the grounds that, in the opinion of the student, it is not what the work deserved).

It is not possible to submit a Stage One: Formal Appeal on the grounds that students do not agree with academic judgement. However, if a student feels that they can provide evidence which could establish grounds for any of the three grounds of appeal below and these grounds are upheld during the Appeals process, a possible result may be that the student is given the opportunity to retake a module or resubmit assessment(s), which may in turn result in a higher award classification (once the new submissions have been ratified by a Central Assessment Board).

Criterion One: There is evidence to show that you may have been disadvantaged because there has been an administrative error in the way in which the University’s Central Assessment Board has made its decision. Had this error not occurred, you consider that your assessment outcome would have been different.

Criterion Two: There is evidence to show that you may have been disadvantaged because one or more of your assessments was not carried out in accordance with the regulations or published material for your programme, or with the University’s Assessment and Feedback Policy or your agreed reasonable adjustments. Had the assessment been carried out appropriately, you consider that the University Central Assessment Board’s decision about your assessment outcome would be different.

In the first instance, we suggest that students contact their tutors to ask any queries that they may have about the assessment feedback or grading that they have received. It is not possible to ask for work to be remarked as part of the Stage One: Formal Appeals process, as this is a matter of academic judgement and there are robust marking and moderation processes in place.

Suitable evidence could be:

• Email correspondence between students and tutors
• Turnitin receipts
• Screenshots of information.

These should be sent as attachments alongside the completed Appeals claim form to appeals@bathspa.ac.uk.

Bath Spa University Students’ Union provides a comprehensive appeals advice and support services, details of which can be accessed on their Students’ Union Advice page.

Your appeal form will be acknowledged by email, normally within 10 working days. The University will let you know by email within 15 working days of your submission if your appeal meets the criteria to be considered.

On occasion, this timescale may be slightly longer, for example, if a case is particularly complex. We will let you know of any delay, why this has occurred and the date on which you will hear back from us. If your appeal meets the criteria, your case will be considered by the Deputy Academic Registrar or nominee.

Where appropriate, eligible appeals will be sent to the relevant academic member of staff or nominee to complete formal responses to the issues identified in your appeal.

Where there is clear evidence that your appeal should be upheld, the case will be referred to the University Central Assessment Board for the matter to be resolved. An example of clear evidence is where there was an obvious administrative error in the way in which the University Central Assessment Board made its original decision. In such cases, appeals will normally be resolved within 15 working days from when the University notified you that your appeal meets the criteria.

In more complex cases, your case will be considered by the University Appeals Panel. A Panel meeting will normally be held within 25 working days from when the University notified you that your appeal meets the criteria. Students are given the opportunity to attend the Appeals Panel meeting to give a representation of their claim and further details of these procedures will be given on an individual basis to the student by the Appeals team.

Following the meeting of the Appeals Panel, the student will normally receive an Outcome email within 5 working days, which will confirm the decision of the Appeals Panel and any relevant recommendations.

You are disappointed or disagree with the academic judgement about the mark/s you have been awarded for your assessment/s and/or the University Central Assessment Board decision about your overall results. 

A third party, such as a friend or family member is disappointed or disagrees with the academic judgement about the mark/s you have been awarded for your assessment/s and/or the University Central Assessment Board decision about your overall results

Your award classification falls just below the boundary of the next highest classification: the regulations for how the University’s awards are calculated are set out in the Academic Framework relevant to your course. Your Academic Advisor will also be able to talk you through how your degree classification is calculated

A Stage Two: Review is an opportunity for students to request for a review of the decision of one of the following three Stage One Panels:

• Stage One: Formal Appeals Outcome
• Exceptional Circumstances Panel Outcome
• Academic Misconduct Panel Outcome

Students have 10 working days from the date of being notified of the decision of one of the Panels below. Students should submit a completed Review Form to reviews@bathspa.ac.uk.

• Stage One: Formal Appeals Outcome
• Exceptional Circumstances Panel Outcome
• Academic Misconduct Panel Outcome

Students should include all relevant information from the outcome of the relevant Stage One Panels below, to include original applications, evidence submitted with the original application and Appeals forms, where relevant:

• Stage One: Formal Appeals Outcome
• Exceptional Circumstances Panel Outcome
• Academic Misconduct Panel Outcome

Additionally, students should indicate on their Review form whether:

• There is new evidence that, for good reason, could not have been provided at the time at which your Stage One decision was made
• There is a significant procedural error in which the decision was considered at Stage One.

Your submission will be acknowledged by email, normally within 15 working days. Your case will then be reviewed by the Academic Registrar or nominee to consider if it meets the grounds for review. The University will let you know by email within 15 working days of your submission if your review request meets the criteria.

On occasion, this timescale may be slightly longer, for example, if there is a high number of cases. We will let you know of any delay, why this has occurred and the date on which you will hear back from us.

If the Academic Registrar determines that your review request meets the criteria, they will appoint a Review Panel within 25 working days from when the University notified you that your request meets the criteria. Students are given the opportunity to attend the Review Panel to give a representation of their request for a Review.

Following the meeting of the Review Panel, the student will receive a Completion of Procedures letter, confirming the Panel's decision.

No member of the Review Panel will be a member of staff from a department of the University previously involved in the case, or someone who has been directly involved in the case.

A Completion of Procedures letter will be sent by email to the student, which will confirm the decision of the Stage Two: Review Panel’s and will provide any relevant recommendations for further actions.