The University recognises that sometimes students are unable to undertake examinations due to unforeseen and unavoidable circumstances, such as illness, traumatic life events, personal difficulties, etc. These are known as ‘exceptional circumstances’, and there are guidelines in place to allow you to recover if you are affected during an assessment period.
Circumstances acceptable under this policy must be exceptional (i.e. serious and unusual) relative to the normal daily challenges that academic study presents, and unpredictable in that you could not reasonably have been expected either to avoid them, or to allow for them in planning the assessment work or preparation. For example, it is recognised that the assessment process itself can cause students to be more anxious or stressed than at other times of the academic year, and this should be considered to be one of the normal challenges that academic study presents. Therefore, such responses would not be considered as a valid exceptional circumstance, with the exception of a very small number of cases, where the impact is serious and incapacitating.
If you believe that your performance in an assessment has been affected by unforeseen circumstances that were outside of your control, you can make a claim to have these circumstances considered.
For information about exceptional circumstances and links to current policy and guidance, please visit the University Exceptional Circumstances webpage. You'll find detailed information on what qualifies as valid exceptional circumstances, examples of evidence that would support a claim, reasons for non-acceptance of exceptional circumstances, and the general claim process.
To submit a claim, please complete this form, which will be processed by the ECA Committee in the Department.
We cannot consider a claim without evidence, with the limited exception of the circumstances provided for in the Self-certification Policy (see point 4 below). All claims made under the Exceptional Circumstances procedure must be supported by current, independent and reliable documents. It is important that you provide as much evidence and information as possible to support your claim.
For an application of any kind to be considered at all it must be received no later than 7 days after the examination/assignment submission deadline, unless there are extenuating reasons why you cannot do so. Please note that claims which do not meet the definition of Exceptional Circumstances affecting Assessment will be rejected.
Self-certification means that students do not need to provide medical or other supporting evidence. This procedure allows students to “self-certify” when experiencing short-term, acute illnesses or short-term unforeseen circumstances prior to submission of an open assessment or commencement of an examination. This results in a deferral or a 4 calendar-day extension, depending on the particular assessment.
From 2022/23, students may use self-certification for a maximum of 3 assessments/exams per academic year; this will be automatically limited in the central e:Vision system.
This can be done via the Self-certification Task in e:Vision and approval will be automatic as long as the criteria are met and the request is made on time.
The limited circumstances in which some assessments are covered by self-certification processes includes:
Whether you are eligible to self-certify or not will depend on the type of assessment; for instance, oral examinations do not qualify for self-certification (but you can still apply for a standard ECA claim).
Please note that deferrals can only be made before the start of the exam window, and up until the submission deadline.
Important considerations in relation to Self-certification
Please bear in mind that while the University recognises your ability to manage short-term illness and disruption without the need to engage in formal processes, it is critical that you consider carefully the impact of using self-certification on a number of assessments. If you use self-certification, this may have a knock-on effect on assessment and progression. For example:
For queries on self-certification for assessments, please contact your academic supervisor or linguistics-ex-circs@york.ac.uk.
Student Support Plans (for students with a disability) allow students to request occasional extensions as part of their Plan's adjustments or to defer an examination attempt. The way to request such an extension or exam deferral is by completing an SSP claim form. Please make sure you choose the SSP option; your request will then be forwarded to your departmental Disability Rep directly.
Your circumstances will normally be considered by an Exceptional Circumstances affecting Assessment Committee (ECA), which will meet when necessary. Students cannot attend these meetings.
The Committee can consider your claim only if you have both completed the ECA claim form and submitted relevant evidence supporting your claim. Your claim will remain confidential and will be disclosed only to the Committee and those administering the Committee. For this reason your claim cannot be anonymous. If, however, you appeal against the decision of the Committee, members of the University's Special Cases Committee and its administrator will see your claim and the associated evidence.
If your claim is accepted, you will be granted an extension to the submission deadline equal to the number of days your circumstances hindered you from working on your assessment. This will not normally exceed seven days.
Please note that if you do not submit your evidence with your form, your extension is conditional on valid evidence being supplied by the deadline given. If you do not provide valid evidence in time, your extension will be void, and you will be subjected to the University late penalty of 10% deduction from your assigned mark per day or part of a day up to five days, at which time a mark of zero is awarded.
If you miss or become ill during an exam and your claim is accepted, you will be offered the opportunity to resit the exam "as for the first time". For first and second year students, all resits, whether from the Autumn or Spring/Summer term, take place during the third week of August (the August resit period). For final year students, resits for Autumn term modules may be rescheduled during the Summer exam period (weeks 5-7). However resits for Spring/Summer modules are rescheduled for the August resit period, and thus will necessarily delay graduation.
If you are offered a resit and you accept this option, any mark you may have received for your original attempt becomes void and is replaced with the mark for the new attempt.
If your claim is not accepted, the original mark for the assessment will stand. This mark could be a mark of zero if you have not taken the original assessment.
You will receive email notification of the ECA Committee's decision. You will be informed of the reason if your claim is rejected.
If you fall ill during an assessment period, you must provide evidence from a medical professional stating the nature of your illness/injury and the length of time you were not able to engage with academic work effectively. This evidence must be dated within the assessment period you are claiming for.
If you attend the University Health Centre, you can ask them to fill in a Confirmation of Illness Affecting Assessment form (see box to the right) for you. This service is available for all students even if they are registered with another doctor.
Alternatively you can obtain evidence from another doctor. You should take a copy of the Confirmation of Illness Affecting Assessment form with you for them to fill out, or ask them to send a letter to Rachel O'Brien, Department of Language and Linguistic Science, University of York, York YO10 5DD.
Other third party medical evidence can also be considered, such as evidence of emergency treatment (eg from a dentist, Accident and Emergency doctor and others).
Any evidence you supply in support of your claim must be dated within the assessment period you are claiming for and must state the nature of your illness/injury and the length of time you were not able to engage with academic work effectively.
If you have suffered from long-term illness you should provide a medical certificate or letter from your usual doctor or hospital consultant. Letters from the Open Door Team regarding medical conditions should specifically state that the Open Door team is in possession of documentary medical evidence to support this request and state who has provided the evidence. (Letters from the Open Door Team regarding non-medical conditions are discussed below.)
Circumstances normally accepted and the required examples of evidence that would support a claim based on this circumstance.
In addition the following circumstances are never accepted:
You can appeal to the University Special Cases Committee but only if you believe that a procedural irregularity has occurred. Students may not appeal on the basis that they disagree about the way in which exceptional circumstances were considered, unless there is clear evidence that the defined procedures were not followed by the Exceptional Circumstances Affecting Assessment Committee.
You should do this within 28 days of receiving notice of the Committee's decision.
Information and advice on appeals is available from:
We encourage students making an appeal to contact the University of York Students' Union for assistance and support with the appeals process.
University's Academic Appeals Regulations and the Appeal Form can be found online: