Assessments and your personal circumstances
If you are worried your circumstances could affect your assessments, you should tell us as soon as possible, rather than waiting for your results. Read about the Exceptional Circumstances Policy and Procedure below.
Exceptional circumstances
We recognise that unplanned events, including ill health, may occur during your time at BU which could adversely impact your ability to study and complete an assessment.
It’s important that you let us know about any issues you may be experiencing as soon as possible so that we can assist you in finding the right support. Waiting until the end of the year before telling anyone will limit the options available to you.
If you feel that circumstances have impacted you to the point that they could affect your results, you should talk to your Academic Advisor, Programme Leader (PL) or Programme Support Officer (PSO) to see if you may be able to request a coursework extension or have your exam(s) postponed.
If you have completed your coursework or sat your exam before the full impact of your circumstances are known you should also discuss this with your Academic Advisor, Programme Leader (PL) or Programme Support Officer (PSO). If you have a valid reason for not reporting this earlier you may be able to request that your circumstances are considered by the Assessment Board when they are looking at your results. For full information please read the detailed Student Guidance for Exceptional Circumstances.
Specific guidance relating to Covid-19
If you or a member of your household has a suspected or positive case of Covid-19 which results in you needing to self-isolate we request that you continue to engage with your studies online where you are well enough to do so.
If you become unwell with Covid-19, or if you are caring for someone in your household who has been diagnosed with the virus and this impacts on your ability to study or complete an assessment, you will need to submit a request for your circumstances to be considered. For illness of up to 14 calendar days you can self-certify and no further evidence is required.
For full information on the Exceptional Circumstances Policy and Procedure please refer to 6J - Exceptional Circumstances Policy and Procedure.
As part of the action that the university has taken to mitigate against any disadvantage you may be experiencing due to the Covid-19 pandemic and to protect student outcomes in 2020/21, we introduced a more flexible approach to granting extension requests depending upon the nature and type of assessment you are undertaking.
In response to student feedback about this process, we have launched a new online extension request form to simplify the process of requesting an extension - please login to Office 365 first (with your BU student account) and ensure you select the correct link for your faculty.
- Extension request form – BU Business School
- Extension request form – Faculty of Health and Social Sciences
- Extension request form – Faculty of Health and Social Sciences (CPD)
- Extension request form – Faculty of Media and Communication
- Extension request form – Faculty of Science and Technology
To complete the form, you must also be logged into your own BU Office 365 account, not your personal Outlook or Hotmail account. If you are using a shared computer, you must ensure that you have logged in to BU Office 365 and that previous users have been logged out.
If you have already submitted an extension request by email, you do not need to submit a new request using the online form. If you have any queries, please contact the Programme Support Team for your course.
