BU Academic Rules and Regulations 2014-15

bu-logoThe University’s Academic Rules and Regulations have now been published for the 2014-15 academic year.

This includes documents such as the assessment regulations for your programme. If you are a returning student, it is important that you familiarise yourself with any changes that will come into effect for your forthcoming academic year. A summary of key changes are available on the Rules and Regulations page on the Student Portal and will also be referred to in your e- newsletter once the new academic year has begun. If you need to access documents or information relating to the 2013-14 academic year, please contact your programme administrator for help.

Mitigating Circumstances: update to policy

We have made an important change to the process for mitigating circumstances and introduced a new short-term sickness notification procedure for the 2013-14 academic year. Please take a moment to understand what this could mean for you if you need to submit evidence of short-term sickness for a coursework extension, exam postponement or Board consideration of circumstances.

Previously, you needed to provide a medical certificate / other appropriate independently verified evidence for all mitigating circumstances requests which may have been difficult or costly to obtain for cases of short-term sickness. Short-term sickness is an illness which lasts no longer than 5 days. ย The University has now introduced a new procedure whereby you can notify us of short-term sickness. The key points to be aware of are:

  • You must phone your Programme or Course Administrator on the first day you realise that your assessment performance may be affected by sickness or prevent you from meeting an assignment deadline/sitting an exam. Other forms of communication will not be accepted.
  • The Administrator will complete a โ€˜Short-Term Sickness Notification Formโ€™ and email this to you. You then need to submit this as evidence along with the relevant completed Extension/Exam Postponement Request Form or Board Consideration of Circumstances Request Form.
  • NB You will not be able to inform us of your sickness retrospectively, i.e. after your assignment deadline/time of your exam under the short-term sickness notification procedure. Where necessary, the telephone call can be made on the day of the assessment, but must be before the submission deadline/start of the exam and no later than 4pm.
  • NB If your sickness lasts more than 5 days, you must provide a medical certificate/other appropriately verified evidence in order for your circumstances to be considered.

The full short-term sickness procedure can be found in 6J โ€“ Mitigating Circumstances including Extensions: Policy and Procedure (see Section 1.2 in Appendix 3 and Appendix 6 in particular). This document and other academic regulations, policies and procedures concerning students can be accessed throughout the year on the Student Portal under Rules and Regulations should you need to consult them. If you find you have a query in relation to any of the documents, please discuss these with the relevant member of your course team, your administrator or the SUBU advice team.

 

 

Mitigating Circumstances and what it might mean for you

A mitigating circumstance is something that:

  • was not within your foresight and/or control
  • is not already registered with BU’s Additional Learning Support service.

and which BU believes might adversely affect your academic performance in one or more elements of assessment.

If you have any mitigating circumstances that mean you cannot meet an assignment submission deadline or attend an exam, or if you have circumstances that you feel may have affected your studies during the academic year, you may ask for them to be taken into account by the Board of Examiners. You will need to complete and submit the Mitigating Circumstances Form to your Programme/Framework Administrator together with appropriate supporting evidence (e.g., GP note) BEFORE THE DEADLINES STATED IN 6J-MITIGATING CIRCUMSTANCES INCLUDING EXTENSIONS: POLICY AND PROCEDURE.

Further details and the mitigating circumstances form.

Information about the BU Academic Appeals Policy and Procedure.

Please make sure you read these documents carefully before submitting anything for consideration.

For additional information and advice please contact:

askBU Students Service
Email: askBUstudents@bournemouth.ac.uk
Tel: +44(0)1202 969696 – (internal ext: 69696)

And

SUBU Advice
Email: studentadvice@bournemouth.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1202 965779 – (internal ext: 65779)