If you are worried about engaging with your studies, or submitting/sitting and assessment due to ongoing or sudden personal or health circumstances, please be assured that there is a lot of support available to you. The information below covers the options you may wish to make yourself familiar with and the actions you can take to manage your studies if you are experiencing Mitigating Circumstances.
Full details on these processes can be found in the Student Handbook, as well as additional guidance on Mitigating Circumstances. Below is a summary of this information but it is important to review the guidance in full to ensure you understand these processes.
If you have any queries about any of the below, the Student Support and Advice Team can offer further support and guidance.
If you do find that your circumstances are affecting your studies, the first step should always been to seek support and advice on how to manage this. Below you will information on all the teams across the University that can support you with your studies, from personal wellbeing support to academic and study skills. Before considering your options outlined below, it is important to get in touch with these teams to see how we can support you with your assessments.
There are a number of different teams at the University of Northampton who can help you achieve your full potential. While these teams can help you if you're struggling with your studies, they are also there to help you if you're doing well but want to know how to do even better.
The main sources of academic support at the University are:
The Academic Librarians can help you with:
View more information about the Academic Librarians.
ASSIST provide support for students with:
View more information about ASSIST.
Learning Development can help you with:
View more information about Learning Development.
Your PAT is responsible for overseeing your academic and personal progress during your course. You can go to your PAT for academic advice and support with any queries that you may have.
Your PAT can direct you to other sources of help and support across the campus. This could include general help on university life, through to some of our more specialist services including financial guidance, welfare and health and well-being. Our staff in each of these areas work together to provide you with a comprehensive support team who can help you with the transition to university and throughout the duration of your studies.
View more information about Personal Academic Tutors.
The Student Support and Advice team can help you with:
View more information about the Student Support and Advice Team.
A full list of all the academic and non-academic support services provided by the University can be found in your NILE courses in the document titled, 'Help and support for UON students'. This will be in the 'About this module' section of all your module-level NILE courses, and in the 'My programme' section of your programme-level NILE course.
Extensions can be used to give a short amount of extra time for submitted assessments. These are only applicable for the following assessment type and full details of this can be found in the Student Handbook.
At the first opportunity, you can apply for a seven-day extension, and when appropriate, an extension of 14 days can be granted.
At the second opportunity (resit), seven days is the maximum extension that can be granted.
You should apply for an extension via the SRS Student Portal. Full information for applications, including how to choose Self-Certification and upload evidence, rules around the submission of work if an extension has been approved, and other FAQs can be found on the Mitigating Circumstances webpages.
Extensions must be applied for before 11.59pm on the day of your deadline and will not be accepted after this time in any circumstances.
It is also possible to submit late, without an extension, up to a week after the initial deadline. However, this will result in a ‘capped’ assessment mark of 40% for Undergraduate assessments, and 50% for Postgraduate assessments.
Late submissions will not marked without an approved extension at the second opportunity under any circumstances.
If you are not able to request an extension for your assessment due to the assessment type, or an extension will not provide enough time, you may wish to apply for a Deferral instead.
If a Deferral is approved at your first opportunity, this allows you to submit at the second opportunity/resit without affecting your module mark.
Deferrals can only be approved if the assessment has not been completed, and a mark for completed assessment will be used even if the deferral has previously been completed. The exception to this is if your mark has been officially approved as Unfit to Sit. If you have completed an assessment but believe you were not well enough to do so, you can also apply for this work to be discounted and a Deferral granted instead.
A Deferral can also be granted at the second opportunity, however please note that this will not grant an additional opportunity as each assessment only has 2 opportunities each academic year.
You can apply for Deferrals on the SRS Student Portal, and further guidance on this is available on the Mitigating Circumstances website.
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