Academic appeals

Your Personal Tutor can advise you on the mark verification processes followed in your school and can advise you on who to approach. 

The UPSU advice team (staff and peer advisors) offer advice and support throughout the appeals procedure.

A representative from the Students’ Union can go with you to any interviews, panels and hearings.

Please contact the Advice Service by following this link, or emailing advice@upsu.net.

Your Head of Department has a good understanding of how the assessment boards work. They can advise on procedural matters, including whether you need to approach the Module Assessment Board or the Board of Examiners for your appeal.

If you're an International student, the International Student Advisers can offer advice about visa implications relating to appeals. 

Contact them by following this link, or emailing student-visa@port.ac.uk.

If you are a Degree Apprenticeship student, then the End Point Assessment Organisation may have their own appeals procedure which should  be followed where the decision was made by them. 

The Student Casework team can provide advice on all aspects of the Appeals Procedure, although as the team responsible for the Appeals procedures, they cannot advise you on whether your appeal is likely to be valid. Get in touch at studentcasework@port.ac.uk.

All appeals begin at Stage 1, and cannot be submitted until you have received the official communication from the University outlining the decision you wish to appeal against.

The decision letter will provide details on who to contact to submit your appeal. For example, if you are appealing a Board of Examiners’ decision to exclude you from the course, you will need to refer back to the exclusion letter, which tells you who to contact. Similarly, if you are appealing the outcome of an Extenuating Circumstances application, the ECF outcome email gives details of who to contact to appeal.

You will have 10 working days from the day you received the decision to submit your appeal to the designated person/team. If you are unsure where to send your appeal, please contact your Head of School.

You should send your appeal by email, including the following information:

• Context of your situation, what decision you wish to appeal and why;
• Your grounds for appealing (as explained above);
• Any supporting evidence you may have;
• Your desired outcome.

The member of staff will have 10 working days from receipt of your appeal to consider it and inform you of the outcome in writing.

If you are still unhappy when you receive the Stage 1 response, or you have additional information which you were unable to provide at the first stage (for a sound and acceptable reason related to the circumstances themselves), you can submit a Stage 2 appeal.

You have 10 working days from the date you received the Stage 1 decision notice to submit a Stage 2 appeal.

Complete Stage 2 Appeal Form

We will acknowledge receipt of your appeal within 5 working days. 

Once the submitted information has been reviewed, one of the following outcomes will occur:

1. The appeal may be referred to another University process, such as the Student Complaints Procedure. In this case, the Student Casework Team will contact you to explain the next steps.
2. The appeal may be rejected because it does not meet the criteria in 3.2.2 above. You will be advised of this by the Student Casework team. You will then have the right to request a review (see below) at this point. 
3. If the appeal meets the criteria, it will be accepted for formal consideration and assigned to a member of the Student Casework Team.

You will receive the outcome of your Stage 2 appeal within 20 working days, including the following information: 

• Whether the appeal has been upheld or not upheld;
• The reasons for the decision;
• Any actions that either you or the University staff need to take;
• Information about your right to request a Stage 3 review;
• The valid grounds for requesting a review (see Section 3.3.2);
• The deadline for requesting a review—10 working days from the date of the Stage 2 outcome letter.

We aim to resolve all appeals at the first two stages of the procedure. 

However, if you consider that your appeal meets one of the following grounds, you may ask for a formal review of the second stage.

The grounds for requesting a review are:

• The appeal procedure was not followed correctly.
• The investigation was not completed within the expected time frame.
• You have new evidence that could not have been provided earlier for valid reasons.
• The decision reached was not reasonable given all the available evidence.

You have 10 working days from the date you received the Stage 2 outcome letter to submit a Stage 3 appeal. 

Complete Stage 3 Appeal Form

The Academic Registrar or their delegated representative will consider all requests for review and will provide an outcome within 10 working days. 

If your appeal is rejected at this stage, you will be issued with a Completion of Procedures letter

If you feel your appeal has not been properly handled, you can apply to an independent body, once the University has issued the Completion of Procedures letter. The Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA) handles individual complaints once a student has exhausted the internal procedures of their university.