King's mitigating circumstances: deadline and what to do

Send the request before the deadline

King's calls this mitigating circumstances, and the rules sit in its Mitigating Circumstances Policy. A request can be submitted any time before the affected assessment date. It will normally be considered if it arrives no later than 5 working days after that date. Those are working days, counted from the assessment date itself, not from the day a mark or a letter arrives.

The policy also allows a request after those 5 working days. That is exceptional, and it depends on you giving a good reason and supporting evidence for why you did not follow the standard procedure. No request is accepted after results are published, whether provisional or formally ratified. Your faculty considers the request.

The pages we read do not name the form or system you use to submit, so check your faculty's instructions or ask KCLSU Advice. Read the policy page and your department's guidance as well.

1. Find the affected assessment date and count 5 working days from it.
2. Send the request before the assessment date if you can.
3. Include the evidence you already hold, or say when you expect it.
4. Keep a copy of the request, the evidence and the date you sent each one.

Evidence runs on its own clock

Independent supporting evidence normally has to be submitted within 10 working days of the affected assessment date. You can submit the request first and add evidence afterwards, but the faculty cannot decide until the evidence is in.

If you cannot get the evidence within that time, tell your department as soon as possible and explain why. The department decides whether to allow more time, and it can extend the evidence deadline by a further 5 or 10 working days.

Evidence has to be true. Do not ask a clinician to certify an illness you did not have, and do not change a document. If a document is in another language, the policy expects an English translation and information about where the translation came from.

What the faculty can offer

If the faculty approves the request, some form of mitigation must be offered. The policy lists a replacement opportunity at a later date, an alternative assessment format at a later date, normally a minimum extension of two weeks, and a suspended late penalty. Where the gap between the assessment opening and its deadline is shorter than two weeks, the extension can be adjusted to match. A faculty can grant a longer extension, up to six months or in line with local submission schedules, but it must tell you about any effect on marking, ratification of results, progression and graduation.

If the assessment is a reassessment attempt, the reassessment regulations apply and the final module mark after reassessment is capped at the relevant pass mark. On a first attempt, marks are not capped.

Sitting the assessment can cancel the mitigation

If you are told your request is accepted and mitigation is offered before you complete the assessment, and you then decide to sit it, the request and any mitigation become void. Check what you have been offered before you sit anything.

Where a deferral or extension is offered, the feedback policy runs from the date of submission, or the original deadline, whichever is later.

If the answer is no

Read the decision for what it says you can do next. The policy says that if a request is rejected and you believe you still have mitigating circumstances, and you can obtain the necessary evidence, you submit a new request for your department to consider. The pages we read do not set out a separate appeal route or deadline for that, so confirm it with your faculty.

KCLSU Advice is listed under Free help and is free to use. Take your letter and the policy to them and ask them to read it with you.