Special Circumstances

Special Circumstances - TMAs and iCMAs

If something happens which negatively affects a students performance in an assignment, they can ask the Module Result Panel to take this into account when the module result is agreed. It can relate to a TMA, iCMA or any other part of the continuous assessment. It must be something that affected the student for four weeks or more up to the submission cut-off date. To inform the University about special circumstances affecting a student in a prison or a secure hospital unit, complete and submit the Special Circumstances form. This must be received before midnight (UK local time) four calendar days after the cut-off date of the final piece of module assessment.

Special circumstances - Exams, EMAs and emTMAs

If something happens which negatively affects a student's performance in an exam or EMA/emTMA, they can ask the Module Result Panel to take this into account when the module result is agreed. It must be something that affected the student during the three weeks up to and including the exam date, EMA or emTMA submission cut-off date. To inform the University about special circumstances affecting a student in a prison or a secure hospital unit, complete and submit the Special Circumstances form. This must be received before midnight (UK local time) on the day after the exam, speaking assessment, EMA submission or emTMA cut-off date.

Special circumstances can only be considered if the student sat their exam or oral assessment, or they submitted the EMA or emTMA on time. They can't be considered if the student didn't go to the exam or submit at least a partial EMA or emTMA. 

What are special circumstances?

Special circumstances can only be considered in exceptional cases, so please think carefully whether your case merits attention before completing the form. The kinds of special circumstance we may make allowance for include:

• serious and prolonged illness
• bereavement
• serious disruption of studies caused by the Prison
• serious disruption of studies caused by the University
• the loss of more than 10 minutes of exam time, due to circumstances beyond the student's control
• inadequate adjustments made by the University for any disability or additional requirement the OU has been told about.

How to submit special circumstances

To inform the University about special circumstances affecting a student in a prison or a secure hospital unit, complete and submit the Special Circumstances form. Please email the completed form to SiSE-Accessibility@open.ac.uk 

A separate form must be submitted for each module where the student feels the circumstances affected their performance.

The form(s) must be received by the deadlines on the sections above.

Written third party evidence of what happened to adversely affect their performance must be provided and must be received within 14 days of submitting the form.

The information provided about the students special circumstances will only be used to their benefit. It’s passed to the Module Result Panel for them to consider when they meet to agree the final result. However, the Panel can only give limited weight to any information provided and don't consider events that could have been anticipated

For more information about special circumstances please contact your regional SiSE support team