Appeals

You can find your formal results on Results Online.
Please wait until your results have been formally published before submitting the appeal form.

If you are unsure whether your results have been published, please contact your course administrator to ask them.

You only have 15 working days from the date when your results are officially published on Results Online to submit the completed Appeal Request Form to the University. (The day of publication counts as the first working day).

No. You cannot appeal because you feel you should have been awarded higher marks – the University will refuse to accept this as a valid ground for appealing.

In order to appeal you will need demonstrate that you meet 1 or more of the 4 appeal grounds.

Computational Error - This ground refers to the calculation of your marks. If you believe that there has been a mistake you can ask to have them reviewed.

Material Procedural or Administrative Error - Examples of material procedural and administrative error may include the conduct of assessments or examinations. Appeals on this ground can also relate to the proceedings of a formal Board or Committee that has made a decision about whether you are able to progress to the next level of your studies or the final classification of your award.

Course Management Deficiencies - Students are encouraged to raise concerns about course management deficiencies at the time that they occur. This enables the University to put things right as soon as possible and avoid any ongoing disadvantage to you. If the processes for resolving issues weren’t available to you, or didn’t provide you with a suitable remedy, you may be able to appeal on this ground.

Previously Undisclosed Extenuating Circumstances – The University expects that any extenuating circumstances which a student wishes to have taken into account are disclosed at the time.
For extenuating circumstances to be considered you need to provide evidence needs to be produced showing that you were:

• unable to do this;


or

• for valid reasons, unwilling to do this.

Simple unwillingness to disclose personal circumstances is insufficient for permission for an Appeal Hearing to be given on these grounds.

Permission for an Appeal against a decision of a University Research Degree Sub Committee (RDSC) will only be granted where a research student can show grounds for such an appeal. There are four categories of valid grounds for appeal by research students:

• Procedural irregularity
• Inadequate supervision
• Unfair or improper assessment
• Previously undisclosed extenuating circumstances

There is more information about each of these grounds in the Academic Appeal Regulations:

(see paras 9.3.11 - 9.3.15 for research awards)

You will need to include relevant supporting evidence with your appeal form. What sort of evidence is acceptable will depend on your appeal grounds/reasons for appealing.

The University state that:

• Examples of evidence that would be acceptable might include doctor’s note including relevant dates, medical appointment letter, death certificate, crime reference number, confirmation of flight details (if you had to go abroad).
• Examples of evidence that would not be accepted include a note from a friend or un-dated evidence.
  

If you are unsure what type of supporting evidence to include with your appeal, contact the Student Union Advice Service.

The Student Casework Team will keep you informed of the progress of your appeal, and you can normally expect to receive an outcome within 30 working days of submitting your appeal. If your case is particularly complex, or if there is a particularly high number of appeal requests (usually July-Oct), there may be a delay in receiving an outcome.

We would suggest that you wait at least 30 working days after you have submitted your appeal before contacting the Appeals team for an update. You can contact Appeals staff directly to ask for an update on the progress of your appeal at boe-appeals@leedsbeckett.ac.uk.

If you do not receive a response within a week of contacting the University Appeals team, feel free to get back in contact with the Students' Union Advice Service. We can then make contact with them on your behalf, if you give us permission to do so, once the timescales above have elapsed.

The Students' Union Advice Service can provide advice on how to appeal including the procedure itself and by providing feedback on your draft appeal form to ensure that you have set out your case as clearly as possible.

Getting feedback on draft Appeal Request Forms from the SU Advice Service
The Appeal form is online but if you want us to provide feedback on a draft before you formally submit the online form then you will need to fil out this form, which is a word version of the online form.

We cannot advise as to whether or not your Appeal is likely to be successful, but we can provide feedback as to whether you have set your case out as clearly as possible.

Please ensure that when you send us your Appeal form draft you also send us a copy of your Results Online, including a screen shot of all of your module results and the Board of Examiners date and decision.

The University states that if the academic year has started and you have not received the outcome of your appeal request, you will normally be able to attend your next level classes until your appeal request is complete. If your appeal request is rejected, you will no longer be able to attend those classes.

If you are a student visa holder, it is strongly recommended that you speak to the Student Immigration Advice & Compliance (SIAC) team about how the appeal process and appeal outcome might affect your visa status.