Your circumstances will normally be considered by a Mitigating Circumstances Committee (MCC), which will meet when necessary. Students cannot attend these meetings.

The MCC can consider your claim only if you have both completed the Mitigating Circumstances Claim form and submitted relevant evidence supporting your claim. Your claim will remain confidential and will be disclosed only to the MCC and those administering the Committee. For this reason your claim cannot be anonymous. If, however, you appeal against the decision of the MCC, members of the University's Special Cases Committee and its administrator will see your claim and the associated evidence.

If your claim is accepted, it is usual that either you will be permitted to attempt the assessment again, or you will be granted an extension to the submission deadline.

If you are permitted a new attempt and you accept this option, and you received a mark for your original attempt, the original mark becomes void and is replaced with the mark for the new attempt.

If your claim is not accepted, the original mark for the assessment will stand. This mark could be a mark of zero if you have not taken the original assessment.

You will receive written/email notification of the MCC's decision. You will be informed of the reason if your claim is rejected.

If you fall ill and can go to the University's Health Centre, you can be seen by a Medical Advisor there. They will complete the onfirmation of lllness Affecting Assessment form which you can use as evidence for your mitigating circumstances claim. This service is available for all students even if they are registered with another doctor.

If you cannot go to the University's Health Centre you can obtain evidence from another doctor. Please take a copy of theConfirmation of Illness Affecting Assessment form with you.

Other third party medical evidence can also be considered, such as evidence of emergency treatment (eg from a dentist, Accident and Emergency doctor and others). This evidence should state the nature of your illness/injury and the length of time you will not be able to engage with academic work effectively.

If you have suffered from long-term illness you should provide a medical certificate or letter from your usual doctor or hospital consultant. Letters from the Open Door Team regarding medical conditions should specifically state that the Open Door team is in possession of documentary medical evidence to support this request” and state who has provided the evidence. (Letters from the Open Door Team regarding non-medical conditions are discussed below.)

Circumstances normally accepted and the required examples of evidence that would support a claim based on this circumstance.

For all students:

• Compassionate grounds
  A letter from the Open Door Team, a counsellor or a relevant independent third-party explaining that, in their professional opinion, the circumstances have had a serious impact on your ability to engage with academic work effectively during the assessment period in question.
• Exceptional personal circumstances
  A letter from the Open Door Team, a counsellor or a relevant independent third-party explaining that, in their professional opinion, the circumstances have had a serious impact on your ability to engage with academic work effectively during the assessment period in question. An example of this type of circumstance would be the illness of a dependent or the repossession of your accommodation.
• Close bereavement
  A death certificate. The following relatives are accepted as 'close' without further evidence: spouse, child, parent, sibling, grandparent, and grandchild. For other bereavements, evidence of closeness in the form of a statement from a third party should also be provided. Additional evidence should be provided where mitigation is claimed for an extended period where the bereavement is not close, for example, for more than a fortnight following the death of the relevant person.
• Victim of a serious crime
  A crime report and number.
• Disabilities for which reasonable adjustments are not yet in place and where the delay is not due to the student
  A letter from the Disability Services.
• Serious and unforeseeable transport difficulties
  A letter from the relevant transport company or evidence of a major road incident.
• Interviews for placements or for employment
  Evidence showing that the interview date cannot be rearranged.
• Legal proceedings requiring attendance
  A letter from a solicitor or a court

For part-time students and research students in their writing-up period:

• Paid work commitments or constraints arising from paid employment
  Evidence of employment explaining that the circumstances have had a serious impact on your ability to engage with academic work effectively during the assessment period in question

Note: The timing and nature of the above circumstances should have adversely affected your performance on the assessment(s) for which you are claiming mitigating circumstances.

• Paid work commitments or constraints arising from paid employment for full-time students
• Minor illnesses, for example, those for which only self-certification under the University scheme is available
• Disabilities for which reasonable adjustments have been made or where you have experience or time to manage the situation
• Long-standing minor medical conditions such as hay fever
• Over-sleeping
• Holidays
• Minor everyday surmountable obstacles, for example, disruption to normal domestic routine
• English being a second language
• Moving house
• Deadlines for work being set close together
• Planned health appointments
• Financial difficulties
• Breakdown of personal relationships unless leading to compassionate circumstances as described above
• Weddings
• Unavailability of course books/resources
• Attending or taking part in sporting or social events
• Voluntary work
• Unreasonable refusal to return to York for assessments scheduled in the vacation 're-sit' period
• Mitigating circumstances that affect an individual in relation to group assessed work cannot be claimed by other group members

In addition the following circumstances are never accepted:

• Loss of work not backed-up on disk or printing problems
• Misreading of the examination timetable

• The form is incomplete
• No independent documentary evidence has been supplied to support the request (letters from family, fellow students or academic supervisors are not normally sufficient on their own)
• The timing of the circumstances cited would not have adversely affected the assessment(s)
• The evidence submitted does not support the claim that the nature of the circumstances was over and above the normal difficulties
• The form was not submitted by the department deadline and the mitigating circumstances would not have prevented you making a claim by the deadline
• Sufficient mitigation has already been made for the same circumstances
• The mitigation is a disability for which reasonable adjustments have been made
• The circumstances are not, or not normally, accepted under Mitigating Circumstances Policy

If the Board of Studies had not yet received the recommendation of the MCC you can ask the Board to consider your appeal. You should write to the Chair of the Board of Studies stating why you think the MCC has reached the wrong decision in your case.

If the Board of Studies has already received and approved the MCC's recommendation you will need to appeal to the Special Cases Committee. You should write to the Special Cases administrator stating why you think the MCC has reached the wrong decision in your case. You should do this within four weeks of receiving notice of the MCC's decision.

Information and advice on appeals is available from:

• Special Cases Committee administrator
  student-support@york.ac.uk
• YUSU/GSA
  academic@yusu.org
  advice@yorkgsa.org

University's Academic Appeals Regulations can be found online:

• Academic Appeal Procedures for Undergraduate Students
• Academic appeals by graduate students

Even if you are taken ill on the Friday evening before a long Bank Holiday you can still download the forms and start to complete them and begin to assemble your supporting evidence. Any emergency treatment or hospital admission can be vouched for by notifications issued by the medical staff. You can ask doctors or other practitioners for statements and be ready to book appointments as soon as the holiday period or weekend are over. None of this preparatory work is dependent on the department office being open and staff being available to assist you. It is not reasonable to expect members of staff to respond to e-mails over a weekend or holiday and the lack of a response will not be accepted as an excuse for failing to take sensible and reasonable steps to cover your claim for mitigating circumstances.