Mitigating circumstances

Life can be unpredictable, and we know that sometimes you might face difficulties that impact your studies.

Some factors, like a mild illness or general stress about deadlines, are a normal part of life and you need to be able to manage these alongside your course.

But sometimes, something serious or unexpected can happen which you have no control over. These can affect how well you complete your assessments or may prevent you from submitting work in the normal way and a Mitigating Circumstances claim is how you can tell us what is happening.

The University want to support you during these times, so please speak with the firstpoint advisers for more help.

Reasons for making a claim might include a serious illness, a situation which has impacted someone requiring your care, the death of family member or close friend, being victim of a crime or an unplanned event which has a substantial effect on your studies. 

Certain situations will not be considered, such as the loss of material due to IT failures, a minor illness like a cold, or a foreseeable or pre-planned event like a holiday or house move.

If you are not sure whether your situation is appropriate for a mitigating circumstances claim, please speak with the firstpoint advisers, the Students’ Union, or email the mitigating circumstances team: mitcircs@worc.ac.uk.

Your claim should be submitted no later than 7 days after your deadline, exam or presentation. 

Any claim submitted after that deadline will be considered a “late claim”.  It is very important that your claim is submitted in good time as a late claim will not be considered, unless there are exceptional circumstances.

Remember, you can submit a claim without the accompanying evidence, as long as your evidence is provided at a later stage.  Never postpone your claim because you are waiting for evidence. This will not be accepted as an appropriate excuse for putting your claim in late.

A “Performance Affected” claim means you have submitted your work, but it is either not complete or not the standard that you would usually meet in normal circumstances.

If your claim is upheld, your work will be marked as usual and if it fails or you are unhappy with your grade, you have the option to re-do the assessment without a penalty.

If you are unsure what to claim for, please speak with the firstpoint advisers, the Students’ Union, or email the mitigating circumstances team at mitcircs@worc.ac.uk.

A “Late Submission” claim means you are submitting your work late, but not later than 7 days after your deadline.  For example, if it’s due at 3pm on Monday, you must have handed your work in by 3pm the following Monday. If your claim is upheld, then any work submitted within the 7-days will be marked as though received on time. 

If you are unsure what to claim for, please speak with the firstpoint advisers, the Students’ Union, or email the mitigating circumstances team at mitcircs@worc.ac.uk.

A combined claim of "Late and Performance Affected" means that you are submitting your work late but within 7 days of your deadline, but it is incomplete or not to your usual standard.

If your claim is upheld, your work will be marked as though it was handed in on time.  If it fails or you are unhappy with your grade, you have the option to re-do the assessment without a penalty.

If you are unsure what to claim for, please speak with the firstpoint advisers, the Students’ Union, or email the mitigating circumstances team at mitcircs@worc.ac.uk. 

A “Non-submission” claim means that your circumstances have impacted you so severely that you were not able to submit any work, even under a late or performance affected claim. 

This option is only considered for the most serious situations, and you must clearly show why you were unable to make any attempt at the work.

You can also use this option if you were not able to attend an exam or presentation.

If the claim is upheld, you will be able to do the assessment at a later date, without penalty.

If you are unsure what to claim for, or would like to discuss your circumstances, please speak with the firstpoint advisers or the Students’ Union, or email the mitigating circumstances team at mitcircs@worc.ac.uk.

Apart from an Independent Study, Research Project or Dissertation, it is not possible to request an extension or hand in your work any later than 7 days after your original deadline.  Anything submitted after 7 days is automatically considered a non-submission and will not be marked. 

You cannot have your grades adjusted or have sympathetic marking due to your situation. 

Before you make your claim, make sure you know what you are applying for and what the possible outcome may be.  If you would like to talk through which option is most appropriate for your circumstances, please speak with a firstpoint adviser or the Students’ Union, or email the mitigating circumstances team at mitcircs@worc.ac.uk.

Mitigating Circumstances claims are submitted online, via your SOLE page. Go to the assessments tab, and you will see a link that says “submit and view a claim for mitigating circumstances”.

Once you’ve clicked on “Create/Continue Claim”, and agree to the terms and conditions, you’ll be taken to a screen which shows you which assessments are available to claim for. Reassessments are shown on a different tab. You can select multiple assessments or reassessments within one claim.

For each assessment you select, you will need to choose what type of claim you are making. If you are claiming for more than one assessment, it is possible to select a different claim type for each one. For example, while one of your assessments might be submitted under a performance affected claim, you might choose to have non-submission on another. Choose the most appropriate option based on your circumstances and the assessment.

You can review all your choices before selecting “Next” and continuing your claim.

If you have questions about completing your claim, please speak with a firstpoint adviser, the Students’ Union, or email the mitigating circumstances team at mitcircs@worc.ac.uk.

After you have selected all the assessments you want to claim for, and chosen the type of claim, select Next to continue.  From the drop-down menu, identify the main reason for your claim. You can choose the “other” option if none of these categories fit your circumstances.

You will then need to provide a written statement describing your circumstances and explaining why you are making the claim. You will need to present a compelling account of why the circumstances have impacted on your studies and assessments.

Once your statement is written, you will be given the option to upload your evidence now or, if you don’t have it ready, choose to upload your evidence later. Do not delay submitting the rest of your claim while waiting for your evidence.

You will have the opportunity to review the content of your claim before you submit it. Make sure to scroll to the end and click you submit, rather than just saving it. Once your claim is submitted, you will receive an email confirmation.

If you have any questions about making your claim, please speak with a firstpoint adviser, the Students’ Union, or email the mitigating circumstances team at mitcircs@worc.ac.uk.

All claims must be supported by evidence. Unfortunately, if you are unable to provide evidence then your claim cannot be considered.  Evidence should be provided as a scan or photograph and uploaded electronically via your SOLE page.

Your evidence needs to be independent and cannot be from friends or relatives.  It should be dated and on official, headed paper or have an official stamp.  It must also be written in English or have an official translated copy included.

If you are having regular appointments with the University’s Counselling and Mental Health service, then it is possible for them to provide a supporting statement, if appropriate.

If you are unsure what evidence would be appropriate for your claim, you can discuss it further with a firstpoint adviser, the Students’ Union, or email the mitigating circumstances team at mitcircs@worc.ac.uk.

Ideally, you should upload your evidence when you submit your claim, as it cannot be processed until the evidence has been provided.  However, we do understand that it can take time to collect your evidence when it is coming from an independent third-party, such as a GP.

Please do not to delay your claim because you are waiting for your evidence – it is important not to miss the claim deadline, as this can result in it being rejected.  Instead, submit your claim by selecting the option “evidence will follow” and provide your documents as soon as possible.

If you are experiencing exceptional circumstances and have no option but to submit the claim after the 7-day deadline, you will be asked to explain your reasons, for example, the timing of a very serious incident, or being admitted to hospital.  If your reason for making a late claim is accepted by the Chair of the Mitigating Circumstances Committee then the rest of your claim will be reviewed.

Don’t get confused between a late claim and a claim for late submission:

• a late submission is when you are handing in your work within 7 days of your deadline
• a late claim is when you make your mitigating circumstances claim after the 7-day deadline.

Once you’ve submitted your mitigating circumstances claim, you must then proceed with that course of action. For example, if you’ve applied for performance affected, you must submit something before the work deadline. if you’ve made a claim for late submission of an assessment, your work must be handed in within the additional 7 days. 

Do not wait for the outcome for your claim before you take action. In most cases, it is unlikely that you will receive the decision on your claim before the work submission deadline.

You can review your claim status on the SOLE page, by clicking on “Submit and view mitigating circumstances claims” and choosing the “Existing/Previous claims” section.

If you want to make a change to the claim that you have submitted, this can be done by emailing mitcircs@worc.ac.uk but you can also speak with a firstpoint adviser for more guidance.

Your claim, your supporting statement and your evidence is private and treated confidentially. In the majority of cases, your claim is only seen by the Mitigating Circumstances Officer, and their assistant, who make the decision on your claim. 

If your claim is particularly complex, it will reviewed by the Mitigating Circumstances Committee.

The firstpoint advisers can view whether you have submitted a claim and for which module, but do not have access to the content.

Your tutors are not informed when you make a claim and will never be given access to your statement or evidence. If your claim is upheld, your tutors will be notified during the module exam board, and they can view the claim outcome only via SOLE if required.  However, you might choose to tell your tutor that you have made a claim if they are supporting you through your circumstances.

Once a decision has been made on your claim, you will be notified by email that your claim has been updated and you can view the outcome on your SOLE page. 

Although your module tutors may be aware of your claim, the results will not be applied to your grades until after the exam board has met.

For example, if your work was submitted late, it will still show as late with a capped grade on SOLE until the exam board has taken place and the final grades are confirmed.

If you receive the notification that your claim has insufficient evidence, you have a further 10 days to upload additional documents that support your claim.  If you would like to discuss what alternative evidence you need to provide, please speak with a firstpoint adviser, the Students’ Union, or email the mitigating circumstances team.

If your claim is not upheld, your work is marked as though the claim was never submitted. For example, if you submitted your work late, it will be capped at a D minus grade. Your tutors are not told about the claim.

If you want the outcome to be reviewed, you must email the University Provost within 10 days of the decision. In this situation, we would recommend you speak with the firstpoint advisers or the Students’ union as soon as possible.

For reassessments, the outcome of your claim can be different. For example, if you make a claim for late submission on a reassessment, and the claim is not upheld, rather than being capped it will fail.

For more guidance on this, please speak with the firstpoint advisers.

If you need to request an extension for an Independent Study, Research Project or Dissertation, contact your supervising tutor first as they will be involved in the process. 

You can submit a claim via the “Extension - IS/Dissertation/Project EXTENSION Request” link under the “Couse Information” tab on SOLE.

The extension request must be completed at least 2 weeks before the work is due in.  If you miss this deadline, you can still apply for mitigating circumstances. 

More information can be found on the Dissertation FAQ page.

You can always ask for help with your claim from firstpoint and the Students’ Union Advisers, and there is information on their webpages about how to get in touch.

There are lots of reasons why you might struggle with assessments, that are not appropriate for a mitigating circumstances claim, but the University would still like to support you.

If you’re finding things difficult because of a learning difference, a medical condition or your mental health, we’d really recommend that you get in touch with firstpoint for specialist advice.  There’s also help if you have difficulties with academic writing techniques or using the correct referencing style – one-to-one guidance is available so please contact firstpoint to find out more, or view our study skills webpage: www.worc.ac.uk/firstpoint/study-skills