Policy on Student Academic Appeals & Academic Complaints
Students seeking to submit an appeal against an academic judgement (such as a mark or grade given for a piece of assessed work, or a decision relating to a student’s academic progress) should use the processes and procedures outlined in this Policy. Students seeking to submit an academic complaint (for example, a complaint expressing dissatisfaction with the academic provision or service received from the University) should also use the procedures described in this Policy. The Policy can be viewed at the link below and students should fully read the booklet before preparing their submission:
Policy on Student Academic Appeals & Academic Complaints (PDF, 372 KB)
This Policy excludes appeals and complaints about non-academic matters or the Students’ Association and/or Athletic Union, for which separate procedures exist. Issues of Fitness to Practise Medicine are also dealt with under a separate policy. The relevant links to these policies can be found at the end of this page.
Step 1 - Raising an initial concern
The University will normally seek to resolve matters of concern as close as possible to the level at which they arise. Only when such channels are fully exhausted will procedures be initiated to escalate appeals and/or complaints to a higher level. Students must therefore complete the first stage of appeal (to the School or Dean) before beginning a second stage of appeal (for example, to the University Senate). Students should initially raise any concerns they may have with relevant members of staff within their School. An appeal and/or complaint can thereafter be formalised by making a subsequent submission, in writing, normally to the Head of School. The permissible grounds for making an academic appeal and/or academic complaint are clearly outlined within the Policy above.
Where a student remains dissatisfied after such formal review, and can clearly demonstrate that permissible grounds exist to have the matter considered further, then the student may make a final submission to the University Senate. This is the last stage of consideration under the University’s internal procedures.
Step 2 - Appeals and/or Complaints to the University Senate
Before submitting an appeal and/or complaint to the University Senate, students must fully exhaust the first stage of appeal (to either the School or Dean) as above. The Court & Senate Office will not consider cases that have not completed this compulsory earlier stage of local resolution. Students who make a premature submission to the University Senate will be referred back to School or Faculty level.
Having therefore first fully exhausted the earlier stages of the process at local level as described above, students wishing to submit an appeal and/or complaint to the University Senate must fully complete an Intention to Submit an Appeal / Complaint form (PDF, 1,598 KB). It is recommended that you save this form to your computer (right-click on the above link and choose 'Save Link As'). Please note, this file may take a short while to download.
This form should be completed only by students wishing to submit a Senate appeal and/or complaint and should not be used for making an initial appeal and/or complaint to the School or Dean. Fully complete forms should be sent by email to the Court & Senate Office (senate@st-andrews.ac.uk) within 10 working days of the decision against which the student is dissatisfied. Where an Intention to Submit an Appeal/Complaint form is submitted, the student shall have from that date a period of a further 15 working days to submit the full appeal and/or complaint together with all supporting documentary evidence. These timescales are designed to provide a student sufficient time for the thorough preparation of their case. Late submissions may not be considered further by the University.
Timescales
Please consult the appropriate section of the Policy above for further details on the relevant timescales covering submissions. In general, it is important that students act promptly in submitting an appeal and/or complaint. Submissions are normally time-limited and late submissions may not be considered further by the University.
Sources of advice
Students seeking impartial and independent advice on properly formulating an academic appeal and/or academic complaint submission should contact the Student Education Advocate at the Students’ Association. Further information for students related to academic appeals and complaints may also be found on the Advice & Support Centre’s webpage on appeals.