1. Mitigation and Extenuating Circumstances
LEEDS BECKETT UNIVERSITY
Mitigation and Extenuating Circumstances
Quality Assurance Services
Please note, new regulations relating to mitigation will be rolled out to partners from 2013/14, the old regs will still apply for this year

2. Aims of session Overview Process
Membership of University mitigation panel
Remit of University mitigation panel
Case study exercise
Questions
1. Across the UK higher education sector, there is increasing importance placed on the role of the student, whereby students are seen as ‘learning partners’, benefiting from the opportunity to shape their own educational experience through engaging with quality assurance and enhancement processes.
2. The University’s Strategic Plan details our vision and values. It sets out our intentions for the next few years and defines a number of time bound KPIs against which we can measure our performance. Students are at the heart of all activity here at Leeds Beckett as described in the first theme of the University’s Strategic Plan: ‘Putting students at the centre of our activities and providing a flexible and relevant curriculum with excellent teaching and learning.’ This statement applies as much to our collaborative students as it does to students based onsite.
3. Student induction and student representation are key enabling mechanisms, ensuring students have the opportunity to get involved, to feedback, to direct their own learning experiences.

3. Overview
Issues that prevent students from fully engaging with their course, submitting pieces of work, sitting exams, poor performance
Submission of extenuating circumstances form
Mitigation at the point of assessment (extension)
Mitigation considered by a panel
Students may submit requests for consideration of extenuating circumstances in respect of:
Inability to meet deadline: Inability to submit assessed coursework by the required date
Non-submission: Failure to submit assessed coursework
Absence: Absence from examinations or other scheduled assessments
Poor performance
It is the student’s responsibility to:
Inform the Faculty/School of any extenuating circumstances which he/she wishes to be considered.
Submit his/her notification in writing, which is by completing a designated pro-forma, examples of which are provided in the Extenuating Circumstances Guidance and are available in the Operational Guidance for Franchise Delivery.
submissions are acceptable, providing they are accompanied by verification of the student’s identity (e.g. Student ID number).
Submit his/her notification to the correct person (often CL)
Submit his/her notification within defined timescales.
Provide relevant information (e.g. dates, modules affected).
Provide supporting documentary evidence.
Details of this process information should be given to students at induction and are also available in the Course Handbook.
Mitigation at the point of assessment for coursework submissions or scheduled assessments, will be considered and determined within the relevant area, and a report of any mitigation granted will be made to the relevant Mitigation Panel. (TO CHECK IF STILL THE CASE)
Requests for mitigation at the point of assessment (i.e. extensions) should be made before the due date of the assessment to the correct member of Faculty/School staff. Any extensions granted due to extenuating circumstances will normally be for 5 working days from the original hand-in date. The University considers weekdays and vacations to be working days but not Saturdays, Sundays or bank holidays. The outcomes of requests for mitigation at the point of assessment should be clearly communicated to both the student and any other relevant staff and subsequently reported to the Mitigation Panel. (Templates available within the Operational Guidance for Franchise Delivery).
All other requests for consideration of extenuating circumstances are submitted to the relevant Board of Examiners via a Mitigation Panel.
Requests for consideration of extenuating circumstances are considered by a Mitigation Panel. The Mitigation Panel makes appropriate recommendations to the Chair of the Board of Examiners on the basis of which the Board determines what action (if any) should be taken. The nature of the extenuating circumstances themselves is not disclosed to the Board.

4. Purpose of a mitigation panel Purpose of a mitigation panel
University authorises the establishment of
mitigation panels at scheme/ faculty level (may wish to undertake at partner/school level)
Purpose:
Consider extenuating circumstances
Make recommendations to the relevant Board of Examiners i.e. accepted / rejected
Practically important to note the locations of the two elements in the context of franchise (mitigation panel and Board of Examiners are both held at the University).
The University authorises the establishment of Mitigation Panels at Faculty, Scheme or School level to consider extenuating circumstances and make appropriate recommendations to the relevant Board or Boards of Examiners.
A Mitigation Panel should be convened prior to the meeting of the Board of Examiners, normally a week or two in advance, in order to consider requests for mitigation in respect of extenuating circumstances to be taken into account by the Board.
Students should be made aware of the dates by which requests for mitigation need to be submitted in order to be considered at a Mitigation Panel.
(For franchise partners, the dates of mitigation panels should be included in the Operational Plan, agreed at the start of the year).

5. Process At cognate subject area / partner level
As a minimum one per semester
Prior to Examination Committee
Feedback to students post panel meeting via a letter
Decisions recorded on template for recommendation to the Board of Examiners
All templates are available in the Operation Guidance for Franchise Delivery which will be made available to partners on the Collaborations and Partnerships webpages

6. Agenda of mitigation panel
Membership and Attendance
Consideration and determination of requests for late submissions
Reporting of requests for mitigation at the point of assessment
Consideration of individual requests for extenuating circumstances
Arrangements for notification to Chairs of Boards of Examiners
Arrangements for the retention of appropriate documentation
AOB
Date of next meeting
Agenda
The agenda for a meeting of a Mitigation Panel should provide for the consideration of the agenda items given in the indicative agenda below.
The following is an indicative agenda:
1. Membership and Attendance
2. Consideration and determination of requests for late submissions – The Panel will decide whether or not any requests for mitigation submitted after the deadline will be considered by the Panel.
3. Reporting of requests for mitigation at the point of assessment – If any extensions to assessment deadlines for students have been granted this should be reported to the Panel, possibly in spreadsheet form depending how many there are. A spreadsheet would need to report the student name, ID, modules for which mitigation at the point of assessment was requested and whether or not requests were granted.
4. Consideration of individual requests for extenuating circumstances to be taken into account (including determination of individual outcomes [A, B or C] and form of recording)
5. Arrangements for notification to Chairs of Boards of Examiners
6. Arrangements for the retention of appropriate documentation
7. AOB
8. Date of next meeting
Recording
The reasons for decisions taken should be recorded in sufficient detail clearly to indicate their rationale. This is particularly important in the case of rejected submissions since the student may wish to lodge a Request for an Appeal against a Decision of a Board of Examiners.
Attendance for the duration of the meeting
Panel members should attend for the entire duration of the meeting. Where early departure is unavoidable the minutes should indicate the point at which the member left as (for example) “after consideration of Joan Smith and before consideration of Jim Smithson”. A time point (for example “Dr … left at 3.30 pm”) is insufficient since participation may need to be able to be established in the case of an Appeal Hearing being granted.
Retention of Records
The Chair of the Mitigation Panel should make arrangements for the retention of documentation in line with the requirements of the University Regulations (Section C15.4)

7. Membership of mitigation panel
A Chair (senior member of academic staff)
One experienced member of academic or senior support staff external to the faculty/ school in which provision is located
A minimum of two members of academic staff internal to the faculty/ school in which provision is located
A secretary (student administration)
* All staff involved should be trained.

8. Outcomes of a Mitigation panel
Mitigation panels will consider the extenuating circumstances and will report to the relevant Board of Examiners:
Advise as to whether circumstances should be accepted/ rejected
Categorise the seriousness; A, B, C
Identify the assessments which were affected
Note any spent extensions to avoid double counting

9. Categories of mitigation
A - Very serious - a range of options open to the Board of Examiners
B - Sufficient to warrant deferral
C - Not sufficiently serious to warrant deferral

10. Disclosure
The precise nature of the extenuating circumstances will NOT be disclosed to the Board of Examiners
All discussion will remain confidential to the membership of the panel, except where a student late submits an appeal against a decision of a Board of Examiners
Minutes will be taken of the panel discussions for the benefit of any future student appeals. These will be kept for one year only but will not be presented to the Board (they are kept for appeal purposes only). The Board will be aware of the category granted against the mitigation claim and will base any decisions on that.

11. Documentation Independent supporting documentary evidence may include:
A medical certificate
A letter from a medical professional treating a family member
A letter from an employer
A letter from a transport company e.g. bus/ rail
A statement from an academic member of staff (at the request of the student)
A statement from a counsellor
Students will need to supply the relevant documentation along with the completed form (form available via the Op Guidance for Franchise Delivery on the CPG webpages)

12. Third party submission
There is provision for a third party to submit on behalf of the student where it is not possible for the student to submit – normally due to a serious medical condition.

13. These must be in writing and detailed information must be provided.
Statement by staff
There is provision for staff to present statements but these must be at the behest of the student and not the member of staff.
These must be in writing and detailed information must be provided.

14. Case study scenarios

15. Resources Academic Principles and Regulations: C15
Guidance on mitigation and extenuating circumstances
Registration of Extenuating Circumstances for Extension or Mitigation form
Franchise mitigation outcome letter
Outcomes of a mitigation panel template

16. Questions