Extenuating Circumstances

Extenuating Circumstances & Concession

Extenuating circumstances are where a student experiences an unforeseeable or unavoidable circumstance prior to or during an assessment/examination which may have a negative impact on their academic performance.

These circumstances may:

  • Be affecting a student at the moment they are due to submit their coursework or sit an examination, stopping them from sitting/submitting
  • Have affected a student at the moment they submitted their coursework or sat their examination, having an effect on their performance

If applying for Extenuating Circumstances, you would be granted a concession if the decision makers accepts that extenuating circumstances, which have been supported by evidence, have affected your assessment. This concession would be the elimination of that assessment attempt and would not result in any increase in marks. If your application is successful and the assessment attempt is cancelled, you would be expected to resit this assessment at the earliest opportunity.

You may make an application if you believe that your assessment has been affected by unforeseen circumstances out of your control and these circumstances have either prevented you from fully doing your assessment or had a negative effect on the standard of work for your assessment. Applications need to be made within the first 10 days after your assessment. Late applications will not be considered unless you are able to show that you were mentally or physically unable to submit your application within the time limit. This must be accompanied by evidence which also supports your reasons for handing in the application late.

Your application must be accompanied by factual and trustworthy evidence which shows the time and nature of the circumstances. This evidence should be original signed documentation from an appropriate third party (eg. A doctor or psychiatrist). The evidence should be relevant to the assessment/assessment period. If you obtain evidence which is not in English, you must also provide an independent translation. Please see the section of this document on Evidence Guidance for more information on obtaining objective and authoritative evidence.

If you are aware before your assessment deadline that you are being affected by unforeseen/unavoidable circumstances, you should notify your school by applying for a coursework extension or submitting a Query Form on the Hub/VLE and then completing an Extenuating Circumstances application.

The process for submitting an Extenuating Circumstances application is on the Hub:

You will need to log in or create a new account on the following link: https://www.bpp.com/account. Then on the left-hand side select ‘My Applications.’ You can then select to “start new application” and select your ‘BPP University Extenuating Circumstances’ from the drop-down menu.

When submitting your application, you must use your BPP student email address. You will receive an email that confirms that BPP have received your application. Make sure you keep this email as proof that your application has been received.

Once you have submitted your application, the Office of Regulation and Compliance (ORC) will determine, normally within ten working days, whether the information you have provided presents a case that meets the criteria for an extenuating circumstances application. Generally to meet the requirements for this, the application must:

  • Be made on the correct form and accurately contain all the information requested on the form
  • Clearly identify the unforeseeable and unavoidable circumstance(s)
  • Include objective and trustworthy evidence which shows that the circumstance is connected to the assessment
  • Have been received within the 10 working day time limit

If your application is rejected, you may need to apply for an Academic Appeal. The information on how to do this will be included in the rejection email.

The Extenuating Circumstances and Concessions procedure is intended to cover circumstances which, though they may cover a period of time, are short-term and do not stop students from continuing their studies. If you are affected by serious ongoing circumstances, you may be referred to the Inclusion and Learning Support team or given other options.