Extenuating Circumstances

Candidates are welcome to access our extenuating procedure if they believe that their performance was affected by circumstances beyond their control. It might be that you have been unable to submit work by a deadline date or attend a micro-teach, presentation or any assessed activity. It might be that the circumstances have meant that the work you have completed has not been to your usual standard and so you have underperformed in the assessment task.

“Extenuating Circumstances” refer to those things which cause exceptional interference with performance during the course and which are of a very serious nature which is over and above the normal difficulties that happen in life, and which could not be avoided or prevented, or their effect on performance could not be mitigated. Extenuating circumstances should be capable of being verified by independent documentary evidence, and their timing should link to the timing of assessments. Even if exceptionally difficult, distressing or unpleasant events have happened, these are not in themselves extenuating circumstances. There must also be evidence and a demonstrable adverse effect on academic performance. If extenuating circumstances are formally notified in the way described below, Etutor Alliance will consider the information and evidence you provide, and any other relevant information such as dates of assessments, and will make a decision about whether or not extenuating circumstances might have adversely affected your performance.

It is also essential to recognise that illnesses and difficult or distressing life events do occur, and that it is a normal part of life to have to manage these and continue with work or study. Such difficulties are not normally accepted in mitigation for a candidate’s poor performance in assessment activities, and will only very exceptionally be accepted as extenuating circumstances.
All candidates are expected to conduct their work and study with maturity and diligence, and to cope with the type of difficult and distressing events, which unfortunately do occur in life. It is extremely unlikely therefore that Etutor Alliance would accept documentary evidence of such events (e.g. employment-related difficulties, domestic, personal or financial difficulties) as extenuating circumstances. In addition, candidates should try to avoid situations, which might otherwise lead to extenuating circumstances notifications, and should try to limit adverse effects on their performance.

What are not “Extenuating Circumstances”?

Some examples of situations that could have been avoided, or in which a candidate could have acted to limit the impact of the circumstances are:
• completing and submitting coursework too late and missing deadlines
• losing coursework not backed up on disk
• normal work commitments reducing the time available for study or
coursework
• a minor ailment such as a cold, or a domestic upset
• a long-standing condition, such as susceptibility to hay fever
• misreading the examination timetable
• oversleeping/alarm clock not going off causing you to be late for or
miss an exam or assessment
• holidays or travel
Situations which are sad, unpleasant, difficult or distressing but which do occur in life are unlikely to be considered as acceptable extenuating circumstances.

You should complete and submit the online ‘extenuating circumstances form’ located below no later than the deadline date for coursework assessment. If extenuating circumstances are submitted outside these specified timescales, the Extenuating Circumstances may not be considered, unless at the same time you give a valid and acceptable reason for submitting the form late. You are also advised to keep your tutor (s) informed of your extenuating circumstances and ask them to provide a supporting statement on your application if relevant and appropriate.

Please note; all candidates have a responsibility to manage their learning, revision and assessment activities. It is therefore essential that you carefully plan and manage workloads throughout this time, and do not leave too much coursework, learning, revision or similar activities to be undertaken until too late in the assessment period.

Please click here to apply for Extenuating Circumstances to be considered