Illness or other Circumstances Affecting Assessment
If you are not able to attend an examination or in-course assessment (e.g. assignments, projects, essays, tests, etc.) contributing a weighting of 20% or above to the assessment of a course due to extenuating circumstances such as illness, hospitalization, accident, family bereavement or other unforeseeable serious personal or emotional circumstances, you need to inform your home academic unit offering the programme in which you are enrolled.
Present your case together with supporting documents via AIMS. Submit original of the uploaded supporting document(s) to the home academic unit as soon as possible and no later than 5 working days of the examination, or the scheduled date for completing the in-course assessment. If you are a student from the College of Business, please use the College of Business Online Mitigation Request System. To protect your own privacy, make sure that you have exited from AIMS and logout from "e-Portal" before leaving your computer terminal.
Steps of submitting your case
- AIMS [Student Record > My Applications (for Undergraduate and Taught Postgraduate Programmes) > Mitigation Request Related to Assessment]
- Fill in the required fields in the form
- Upload supporting document(s)
- Submit your request
- An acknowledgement will be sent to you via e-mail afterwards
This is for general guidance only and is not intended to be exhaustive or definitive. The University considers each individual case on its own merits.
Long Term Illness
An original letter or certificate from a registered medical practitioner confirming the nature of the illness and the likely impact it had on the student’s ability to undertake assessment.
Short Term Illness
An original letter or certificate from a registered medical practitioner. A short term illness such as colds, headache, stomach upsets, etc. will not normally be regarded as an extenuating circumstance with regard to assessed coursework, where the student is given a number of weeks/months to complete and submit such work.
Hospitalization
An original medical letter/certificate from the relevant hospital confirming the period of hospital confinement and the nature and severity of the student’s circumstances and the likely impact it had on the student’s ability to undertake assessment.
Bereavement
A death certificate and supporting documentation where there is a demonstrably close relationship between the student and the deceased.
Serious Personal or Emotional Circumstances
An original letter or certificate from an appropriate professional confirming the nature and severity of the student’s circumstances and the likely impact it had on the student’s ability to undertake assessment.
Transport issues
It is the students' responsibility to ensure that they arrive at the examination on time, irrespective of the form of transport used or relied upon.
Misreading the examination timetable
It is the students' responsibility to ensure that they know and remember the location, time and duration of all formal assessments.
Stress
Stress as a result of examination pressure is a common experience of many students and is not considered to be an acceptable extenuating circumstance.
Holiday and family events
- The home academic unit will investigate your case and convey it to the Assessment Panel(s) of the concerned course(s) for decision if your presented circumstances are accepted.
- The Assessment Panel will determine whether to offer you a make-up examination, coursework or other alternative assessment. The Panel may also adjust your grade as appropriate.
- You can view the status of your request via AIMS (under 'Mitigation Request Related to Assessment') and the academic unit will notify you of the outcome in writing.
If there is any inconsistency or ambiguity between the page contents and the Academic Regulations (AR), rules and guidelines, the AR, rules and guidelines shall prevail.