Failed your exams, huh?

Last year, a friend of mine failed his PhD. He turned to me for advice.

I reviewed the case, and discovered that he had not been offered a second viva, contrary to the university’s regulations. Without a second viva, he had no opportunity to defend his thesis orally. The examiners had little experience of examining PhDs and there was evidence of bias in the assessment of the thesis. When the examiners told my friend the bad news, they barely gave any reasons.

A few weeks after receiving my friend’s appeal letter, the university’s appeal board held that the regulations had been breached. My friend was allowed to resubmit his thesis with new examiners. This experience inspired me to set up Alpha Academic Appeals, which advises and assists students in their appeals.

When I was a lecturer, I marked hundreds of exam scripts. Few academics will deny that marking is, on the whole, a soul-sapping task. On one occasion, a student contacted me to say there was an error in his script. My office partner at the time, a more senior academic, advised me to say that the result is final and to refuse to revisit the script. I thought it fair to double check. To my surprise, the marks were added incorrectly. Examiners, however experienced, will occasionally make mistakes, and those will not always be picked up by a second examiner.

So what if you fail an exam and want to appeal? There are two grounds for appealing against a decision of the Board of Examiners, and you will note that disagreeing with the academic judgment of the examiners is not one of them. They are:

1. That the exam(s) was not conducted in accordance with the relevant instructions, regulations or requirements.
2. Where new evidence is provided of circumstances which might have adversely affected your performance in the exams.

Whatever your reasons, they must fit within at least one of the above. You must therefore find out what the relevant “instructions, regulations or requirements” are. They can be found on the Imperial website (http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/registry/proceduresandregulations).

Illness and bereavement are often invoked as reasons for appealing an exam result. The ‘Guidance to Students’ is clear on this issue:

“You are reminded that if you believe your performance in exams may be affected by illness (or by other personal circumstances) you should report the matter to your tutor before sitting the exams, or as soon as possible thereafter. You should not wait for your results before deciding to notify the College of the situation.

“Information regarding extenuating circumstances received after the exams will not be considered as the grounds for an appeal, unless there are exceptional reasons why this information could not be provided at the time.”

If you have been withdrawn from your course, there are different grounds of appeal, which can be found in Appendix 1 of the Regulations. Whatever the appeal, the key point is to refer to the appropriate grounds of appeal and to the rules and regulations which were allegedly breached.

Finally, Imperial College is a university, and universities, like NHS trusts and local authorities, are public bodies. This means that, in making decisions, Imperial must adhere to recognised principles of public law. It must, for example, follow a fair procedure and avoid bias. In short, its decisions must be fair.

All this can be daunting, especially after receiving the bad news of a failed exam or withdrawal from the course. You may wish to contact a College Tutor or the Imperial College Student Adviser for help. It costs nothing, but remember to act promptly. You generally only have four weeks from the date of receiving official notification of your results to submit your appeal, along with supporting evidence.

You want to give yourself plenty of time to read the rules and regulations, write a persuasive appeal letter, and gather any evidenceto support your claims. Ask others to read your appeal letter and make suggestions on how to improve it.

One final point. Statistically, the chances of a successful appeal are low. Most appeals are weak and rightly dismissed. There is no entitlement to passing exams, however high the tuition fees. Yet, some appeals have strong grounds and good prospects of success. In such cases, students should be encouraged to appeal.