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Academy of Forensic Medical Sciences Courses

Academic appeals

These Regulations apply to all students who wish to appeal against the decision of a Board of Examiners or another academic body responsible for decisions on student assessment, progression and award. The consideration of the appeal will follow the procedure and timescales set out below. Students will be kept informed if there is a departure from the standard timescales.

The outcome which a student wishes for must be one which is permitted within the proper application of Regulations. Students are strongly encouraged to seek advice from the Academy to ensure that they understand why an academic decision has been made and what possible outcomes a successful appeal can lead to. Students who wish to challenge an assessment related decision should be aware that Boards of Examiners do not have the authority to change marks for individual students and a successful appeal will not lead to a change of mark.

A student may only appeal on the following grounds:

(a) that there are or were circumstances materially affecting the student’s performance, for which supporting evidence exists, which were not known to the Board of Examiners or other academic body at the time its decision was taken and which it was not reasonably practicable for the student to make known beforehand;

(b) that there were procedural irregularities in the conduct of examination or assessment procedures of such a nature as to create a reasonable possibility that the result may have been different if they had not occurred;

(c) that there is evidence of prejudice or bias or lack of proper assessment on the part of one or more of the examiners.

An appeal which questions the academic or professional judgement of those responsible for assessing a student’s academic performance or professional competence will not be permitted.

An appeal which seeks an outcome which is not permitted within Regulations will not proceed to a panel

Where a student’s appeal is based on mitigating circumstances as in (a) above medical certificates from a qualified medical practitioner or other independent documentary evidence must be provided to support the claim. The evidence supplied must be in English; where the original is in another language a certified copy in English must be submitted. Medical certificates or other documentary evidence should normally be submitted at the time of the illness or other circumstances. Retrospective evidence will be considered at the discretion of an Appeals Panel and students must provide an explanation as to why it was not possible to submit the evidence at the time. Panels will only accept evidence where it is considered there was good reason for it not to have been submitted at the appropriate time.

A student must submit an appeal on his or her own behalf. An appeal form with supporting evidence must be submitted to the Appeals panel.

If a student wishes to appeal against an award classification, notice of the intention to appeal must be submitted to the Academy Office/Appeals panel at least one calendar month before the award ceremony.

It is a student’s responsibility to submit an appeal by the given deadline. Appeals submitted after the deadline will be deemed to be out of time and will not be considered unless there is clear documentary evidence which the Academy accepts as demonstrating that a student was prevented from submitting the appeal by the deadline.

On receipt an appeal will be reviewed by the Appeals panel to determine whether eligible grounds and supporting evidence have been presented. Where this is not the case the appeal may either be rejected or a request for further information or evidence made. In reaching its decision, the Academy may also request a report from the relevant department.

On receipt an appeal will be reviewed by the Appeals panel to determine whether eligible grounds and supporting evidence have been presented. Where this is not the case the appeal may either be rejected or a request for further information or evidence made. In reaching its decision, the Academy may also request a report from the relevant department.

A student may request a review of the decision to dismiss the appeal for ineligibility on the following grounds:

(

a) there is evidence of a procedural irregularity in the initial consideration of the appeal and/or

(b) there is evidence of eligibility of the appeal provided within the submission which it would appear has not been fully considered.

Any request for review must be submitted within 14 days from the date the decision is issued. Requests received after this time will not be considered.

The request for review will be considered by a senior member of the Appeals panel who may decide that no valid ground for further review has been established and dismiss the case. This will conclude the Academy procedures. Alternatively the Quality Office may decide that grounds for further review have been established and will refer the case for consideration to the Examination Committee.

If it appears that the appeal has been made on one of the grounds specified in paragraph 3 above and sufficient evidence has been provided, the Examination Committee will obtain a report on the appeal from the Chief Examiner or their nominee. This report, along with the student’s appeal form and supporting evidence will be considered by the next available Appeals Panel. A copy of the departmental report will be provided to the student.

If on receipt of a copy of an appeal, a department considers that there is new evidence of either mitigating circumstances that were not known at the time for good reason or a procedural irregularity in light of which a Board of Examiners would have been likely to have reached a different decision it may request the opportunity to refer the student’s case back to the Board of Examiners.

An Appeals Panel will comprise three members of the academic staff of the Academy drawn from the annual list and approved by the Examination Subcommittee. No member of the Panel will be drawn any person who may have had previous involvement with the student.

A member of the Examination Subcommittee will serve as Secretary to each Appeals Panel. The student and department will be notified of the date on which an appeal will be considered.

All appeals are considered on the basis of documentation only, submitted by students.

Students may not attend Appeals Panel meetings but will be notified in writing of the panel’s decision within seven days of the date of its meeting.

After considering the evidence an Appeals Panel may decide:

(a)To dismiss the appeal;

(b) To uphold the appeal and require the Board of Examiners or appropriate academic body to reconsider its decision taking into account such information or findings that the Appeals Panel deems appropriate.

If the Appeals Panel determines that the appeal should be dismissed, the Panel Secretary will write within 7 days to inform the student of the decision giving an explanation of the reason(s) for that decision. The student will also be informed of the right to request a review of the decision.

A student may request a review of the decision to dismiss the appeal on the following grounds:

(a) There is evidence of procedural irregularities in the initial consideration of the appeal.

(b) There is evidence within the appeal which it would appear has not been fully considered

Any request for review must be submitted within 14 days of the receipt of the decision to dismiss the appeal. Requests received after this time will not be considered.

The request for review will be considered by the Examination Committee which may determine that:

(a) grounds for the review have not been established

(b) the appeal should be referred back to a Review Panel, having had no previous involvement with the student.

The procedure for the Review Panel will follow that for an Appeals Panel (17 – 22)

If the Review Panel dismisses the appeal, the Panel Secretary will write within 7 days to inform the student of the decision giving an explanation of the reason(s) for that decision.

At this point the Academy will close the appeal process and a Completion of Procedures letter will be issued notifying the student of their right to submit a complaint to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education, if it is eligible under its scheme.

The Academy reserves the right not to continue with the operation of the appeals procedure if the appeal is conducted in a way which is frivolous or vexatious. Examples of frivolous or vexatious appeals include:

The Academic Registrar shall decide whether to terminate consideration of the appeal, giving reasons for this decision. Alternatively the Academic Registrar shall issue a warning that the consideration of the appeal will be terminated if a further instance of vexatious or frivolous behaviour occurs.

If the Academic Registrar decides to terminate consideration of the appeal on these grounds then a student has a right to request a review of that decision by a Director of the Academy. A student wishing to request a review should make their request in writing to the Quality Office within 14 days of the notification of the Academic Registrar’s decision.

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