If you are experiencing any issues that are affecting your studies, always discuss them as soon as possible with your Tutor and Course Administration team.
Our Student Welfare team and
Student Disability team are also here to help.
In general, if you have missed an assignment submission deadline it is advisable to continue working on your assignment(s) and submit them as soon as possible after the assignment closing date. Contact your Course Administration team if you have any questions about submitting an assignment after the deadline.
Who can apply for Mitigating Circumstances?
The Mitigating Circumstances process is intended
to help students who faced severe unexpected difficulties at the time of submitting an assignment or taking an assessment.
If you are struggling with an upcoming assignment deadline, speak with your Tutor and Course Administration team, and consider completing a
Short-term Extension Request Form.
Refer to the follow sections of the
student handbook:
5.13 Assignment deadlines and extensions
5.14 Late Submissions and late penalties
5.15 Assignment deadlines and the Mitigating Circumstances Procedure
What Mitigation can I request with this form?This form makes a request that is brought before the Mitigating Circumstances Committee.
In the request, you describe why you were not able to submit a specific assignment, or why you submitted it late. The standard outcomes you can request on this form are:
Removal of some or all late penalties from assignment(s)
If you have submitted an assignment within the late submission window, you can request to remove the incurred late penalties.
Resubmission of assignment(s) (with no penalty)
If you submitted an assignment that you feel is below what you could have produced in better circumstances, you can request a chance to re-write and re-submit the assignment. This may include removal of any late submission penalties or mark capping.
Submit missed assignment(s) (with no penalty)
If you have not been able to submit an assignment at all, you can request another chance to submit. The Committee sets a new assignment deadline for you. The new deadline will normally be four weeks from being notified of the decision you will be excepted to meet this deadline. Late assignments will incur the standard late penalties. If you are unable to meet the new deadline you will be able to request a two-week extension via the Short-term Extension Procedure.
This is also the correct mitigation to request if you have submitted your assignment after the late submission window. If approved, this will prompt your full assignment marks to be released.
Please note that the Committee does not alter individual assignment marks.
When should I complete this form?
You can only complete a Mitigating Circumstances request after an assignment deadline has passed. This can be the original deadline, or a deadline given through a Short-term Extension, or a disability adjustment agreed by the ICE Disability Team.
We encourage you to submit your Mitigating Circumstances request as soon as you can after your deadline has passed, especially if you are requesting to (re)submit the assignment.
We understand there are circumstances where requests will be submitted after these deadlines have passed. The Committee will consider late requests individually but may reject them if there is no clear reason for their being late.
What do I need to complete this form?
In this form, you will be asked to describe the circumstances that prevented you from submitting an assignment (on time). You will need to provide exact dates during which you were affected. After completing the form, you need to email/send us documentary evidence to support your case. Examples of evidence that may be relevant to your application include, but are not limited to:
- Health: Correspondence from a doctor or health
professional or a dated prescription, medicine label or official test result.
Where this specific evidence is unavailable please include alternative
evidence. Evidence is necessary for the request to be approved.
- Employment: A headed and dated letter from an employer or
professional contract (this can be redacted to preserve anonymity). Where this
specific evidence is unavailable please include alternative evidence. Evidence
is necessary for the request to be approved.
- Family: Official documentation, e.g. birth/death
certificate, hospital appointment confirmation or other relevant, third-party
correspondence. Where this specific evidence is unavailable, please include
alternative evidence. Evidence is necessary for the request to be approved.
It is important that the evidence you provide is time-relevant to the period you are making an application for. If you are applying because of a long-standing health condition, or because of the death of a family member a number of months ago, providing a supporting medical letter that outlines how these situations continue to affect your studies is helpful.
Confidentiality
This form and any supporting evidence will be treated confidentially within ICE. The form will only be viewed by those necessary to consider your request and support you in the process. Any supporting evidence you provide will only be viewed by the Chair of the Mitigating Circumstance Committee (who will not see your name) and the Quality Governance team.
The information you supply on this form will be used solely for these specific purposes. Further details about our general uses of your personal information, and your rights under data protection legislation, are available at www.information-compliance.admin.cam.ac.uk/data-protection/student-data.
If at any point you feel you no longer wish your application for Mitigating Circumstances to be considered you may withdraw your application, without prejudice, by emailing the Quality Assurance team at qa@ice.cam.ak.uk.