Make an academic appeal
You can appeal against your exam board outcome in certain circumstances.
Research students
This page describes the appeals process for undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes only. There is separate appeals guidance for postgraduate research students.
When you can appeal
You can appeal against an official decision of the Board of Examiners. Your programme outcome will state if it’s possible to appeal. This is published after the Board of Examiners meeting and you will receive a notification by email.
You should only appeal if you think you have valid grounds. Appeals that do not have valid grounds will be dismissed.
Grounds for appeal
a. there has been a material irregularity in the decision-making process sufficient to require that the decision can be reconsidered. Examples of this are if the University has not applied its regulations correctly or if the Board of Examiners failed to consider exceptional circumstances that you had submitted before the board meeting.
b. your performance in assessment was affected by illness or other factors (exceptional circumstances)which you were unable, for good reason, to divulge before the meeting of the Board of Examiners. Your appeal will need to explain clearly why you could not submit these in advance of the exceptional circumstances
Appeals on this ground are normally upheld where students have evidence to support being unable to engage at the appropriate time i.e. being hospitalised or imprisoned. Appeals on this ground are normally rejected where a student states they were unaware of the exceptional circumstances process, the deadline to submit exceptional circumstances or chose not to submit exceptional circumstances due to a reluctance to disclose personal circumstances.
c. a penalty for cheating or plagiarism is wrong or disproportionate.
When you can't appeal
You can't challenge matters of academic judgement. These are decisions that can only be made with the opinion of an academic expert, including decisions about what mark you have been given for a piece of academic work. Submitting exceptional circumstances does not mean your marks will change (except where a late submission penalty or word count penalty has been lifted).
You can only appeal against an official decision of the Board of Examiners as indicated in your programme outcome. Decisions about progression are usually made official at the end of the academic year in June or July (or in September where you have completed work during the reassessment period). Award decisions are normally made for undergraduate students in June or July, and for postgraduate taught students in November or December. In most cases, appeals are not permitted following mid-year exam boards, which take place in February or March.
If the appeal procedure is not applicable you may wish to make a complaint. Please note a complaint is not another way to challenge a Board of Examiners decision or academic judgement.
How to make an appeal
You have 21 days (includes weekends but not public holidays in England or university closure days) to submit an appeal from the date you receive your decision.
Start preparing as soon as possible. Submitting your appeal promptly gives you the best chance of receiving an outcome in time to prepare for your next academic year.
- Download a Student Appeal Form.
- Read the University Assessment Regulations, Section 10.
- Talk to your unit directors, personal tutor, programme director and/or senior tutor if there is anything you do not understand in your marks.
- Contact Bristol SU Academic Advice Team for
- Independent, free, confidential advice
- help understanding whether you can appeal
- help preparing an appeal, including to use their appeal wizard to create a draft form. The Academic Advice Team will review your draft and provide advice, including guidance on evidence to provide.
- If you are on a Student visa, speak to the Student Visa team. This will help you understand how the process and outcome might affect your visa status.
- Organise any evidence you believe supports your appeal. All evidence should be submitted with the appeal form. If there is a good reason why you cannot submit evidence at the same time as the form, please submit the form as soon as you can with an explanation of what evidence is outstanding. Do not delay submitting the form.
- Complete all sections of the appeal form.
- Keep your responses clear, succinct, and within the recommended word counts.
- You may want to include a timeline, use bullet points, or cite relevant regulations to help set out your information.
- When submitting evidence, give each piece a clear name and use that name whenever you mention it in your appeal form.
- Clearly outline which outcome you want.
- Your university email account will close soon after your studies end. Make sure on your appeal form that you provide another email address to your university address.
- Email the completed form and all evidence to student-appeals@bristol.ac.uk.
While you are awaiting your outcome
Until you receive the outcome of your appeal, the exam board decision as published still applies.
You must follow the exam board decision and complete any work required. Do not assume that your appeal will be successful. It may not be possible to process an appeal against the requirement to complete a supplementary year of study before the start of the next academic year or in time for you to re-join your programme in your original cohort.
Failure to follow the programme outcome that you have been given may affect your progression or award.
What happens after you submit an appeal
- The Student Resolution Service will acknowledge receipt of your appeal by email to your university email address and any others you provide on your appeal form. They will contact you if further information is required, or if your form is not fully completed.
- Your Faculty will review your appeal.
- The Student Resolution Service will keep you updated on the progress of your appeal.
- You will receive the outcome with next steps by email. This usually arrives within 35 days (includes weekends but does not include public holidays in England or University closure days) of submitting your appeal.
- If you do not hear the outcome within 35 days, you can contact the Student Resolution Service by email: student-appeals@bristol.ac.uk for an update.
Potential appeal outcomes
When making an appeal, you should ensure you are clear on which outcome you are seeking. Possible outcomes include:
- permission to progress to next year of study;
- permission to undertake a supplementary year to complete failed unit(s) to satisfactory standard (this may be with or without attendance);
- permission to repeat the year in its entirety;
- permission to re-register for programme of study following a required to withdraw decision;
- permission to remain on programme of study and not be required to transfer to alternative programme of study;
- uplift of degree classification;
- removal of penalties or caps to unit/assessment level outcomes.
You cannot use the appeals process to ask for your work to be re-marked.
After receiving your appeal outcome
The appeal outcome letter will include information on next steps, including how to progress your appeal if you are not satisfied with the outcome, as detailed in the University Assessment Regulations, Section 10. You will receive this letter by email directly from your faculty.
If you are dissatisfied with your local stage outcome, you can appeal to the University stage by completing the Appeal Progression Form and sending it to appeal-progression@bristol.ac.uk within 14 days (includes weekends but does not include public holidays in England or university closure days) of the local stage decision. More information will be provided in your local stage outcome letter.
If you are concerned or worried
Contact the Student Wellbeing Service if you'd like to talk to someone about:
- how you're feeling
- how you mightdiscuss your exam board outcome with your family
- any other worries related to the process.