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Short-term support for illness, bereavement or other unexpected emergencies.
‘Extenuating Circumstances’ (often known as ‘ECs’) are events which are sudden, unexpected, significantly disruptive and beyond your control and which may affect your performance at summative assessment, such as a serious illness or the death of a close relative.
You can submit an Extenuating Circumstances claim to access ‘mitigation’ such as an extension or deferring an assessment to a later date.
How to apply
Step 1 | Read the EC procedures carefully | Make sure that you know what you need to submit and the deadline for submitting claims. | Short-term Illness and Other Extenuating Circumstances |
Step 2: | Check whether your circumstances are covered | UCL’s ‘Grounds for ECs’ explain what will normally be considered. | Grounds for Extenuating Circumstances |
Step 3: | Complete an EC application | You can make an EC claim through Portico. |
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Step 4: | Self-certify or get supporting evidence | You can self-certify for ECs within certain conditions. If you are not eligible for self-certification, you will be asked to provide supporting evidence. | Self-Certification
Providing Supporting Evidence |
Step 5: | Submit your claim | Self-Certified claims must be submitted before the assessment deadline/ date. All other EC claims should be submitted as soon as possible, and no more than one week (five working days) after the first affected assessment. | Self-Certification |
Step 6: | Your claim will be considered by your department | Your department will decide whether your claim meets the criteria and which mitigation is suitable for your circumstances. Your department may also need to seek approval from your faculty or from the Vice-Provost (Education and Student Experience) for some types of mitigation. | Mitigations |
Step 7: | You will receive a written response as soon as possible | You should receive a response as soon as possible and no more than ten working days after submitting your application (unless you are submitting your evidence late). There may be good reasons why a decision cannot be made within this timeframe – for example if your case needs to be escalated to your Faculty EC Panel. If this is the case, the panel will let you know, within ten working days of receiving your application, that more time is needed to process your claim. | If you miss the deadline for EC claims |