Supporting evidence is required for each EC request, must be dated to within one month of the affected assessment or deadline, and must indicate how the circumstances have affected a student’s performance and/or may have affected a student’s ability to attend, complete, or submit an assessment on time.
In cases where it is not possible/appropriate for you to get independent evidence of your circumstance, you may submit a statement instead; however, you must explain why it is not possible to get any independent evidence. The absence of supporting evidence will result in your application being rejected unless you can provide a satisfactory explanation in your application description as to why you have been unable to provide such evidence.
The University recognises that it will be difficult for some students to obtain evidence in some circumstances and will consider applications sympathetically if appropriate explanation is provided.
All supporting evidence must be submitted as a Word document, JPEG or PDF. The faculty systems are not able to read supporting documents that are in HEIC format.
Examples of appropriate evidence are:
- Doctor’s letter or certificate.
- Hospital admission and discharge letter.
- Death Certificate / Order of Service / Funeral Director’s Letter.
- Police Report, a crime reference number on its own will not be sufficient.
Supporting evidence must:
- Be supplied by a third party and submitted by the student.
- Clearly explain the circumstances.
- Confirm the time period affected by the circumstances.
- Be dated within one month of the affected assessment.
- Supporting evidence must be provided by you within 5 working days of the date that you submit your EC request.
- Where documentation is written in a different language an official translation must be provided.
The type of evidence that will be accepted depends on the circumstances. Below are some examples of supporting independent evidence that will be considered:
- For technical issues (ie. wifi/connection disruptions, Canvas access issue, etc) you will need to provide evidence to support your request. Evidence can include:
- screenshots of error messages with a date and time indicated.
- a dated service disruption notification from your service provider.
- an update from a network provider page.
- communications outlining the disruption, including email or social media posts.
- correspondence with a service provider or technical team to indicate the issue, date and time, and outlining what you have attempted to resolve the issue.
- Evidence for technical issues that will NOT be accepted: Broken equipment and loss of files/work/notes are NOT normally accepted as eligible for ECs, and photos showing a broken laptop/equipment will not be accepted as evidence. Please see the information below regarding laptop loans and Library PC spaces for support with this issue.
- For a health or Wellbeing/mental health related circumstances, evidence can include:
- A note from your doctor, GP or health centre indicating the circumstances and the dates affected.
- An Inclusive Adjustement proforma from the university Wellbeing or Disability teams confirming the condition or circumstances. Please provide a copy of your proforma as part of your application so that we have the application and supporting document together when reviewing the request.
- If you test COVID positive, evidence will need to include:
- A photograph of your positive test with the test serial number clearly visible.
- Your positive test should be placed next to a note containing your student number, full name, date and signature attesting to the test being yours.
- For bereavement, we realise that this is a difficult time for everyone involved and that it can be difficult to obtain evidence. The types of evidence we can consider include, but are not limited to,
- A copy of a death certificate (if available),
- A copy of an order of service, or a funeral notice.
- Evidence of serious illness/death of a close relative/family member (defined as a parent/primary carer of the candidate, sibling, partner/spouse, child/dependent).
- If you find that a bereavement means that you are struggling with your Wellbeing or mental health, you may provide evidence of the Wellbeing/mental health issues rather than the actual bereavement (please see the notes above regarding supporting documents for health, Wellbeing/mental health circumstances).
- The above are just examples, and if you are struggling to obtain evidence, please do speak with a member of the Student Information Team.
- For other circumstances that are eligible, such as domestic arrangements or caring responsibilities:
- Please try to describe the circumstances in as much detail as possible and provide as much evidence as you are able, and the Student Information Team will contact you if further evidence will be required.
- In the case of short-term caring responsibilities and domestic difficulties, a statement from a family member/friendmay be considered as evidence if no other supporting documentation is available.
