Help! University appeals system, mid-degree

You could include in the appeal that with the pandemic situation and upheaval of standard teaching norms, your son has not had the same robust structure in place needed to match his abilities and weaknesses, but has also not had the opportunities of a social group of students or peers around him to ask for help from.

You might also make light of the abnormal levels of stress placed on your son dealing with the lockdown, face coverings in public, vaccines and the prospect of vaccination passports, piled high on top of a huge disruption to the standard of teaching.

I was going to suggest, you, "Go postal."

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I'm fully expecting to be banned for the following advice.

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I've changed my mind.

Thank you Peter. I've shown him this thread now and he's working on it.

I strongly suggest he lodges that appeal even if it's very short and bare bones. The 4 points to get across

1. he is autistic (or if not formally diagnosed believes he is autistic)
2. his autism negatively effected his ability to adapt to the changes made to studying and assessment because of the lockdown.
3. he believes this inability to adapt has had a significantly adverse effect on his academic performance
4. he believes it would be reasonable to allow him to retake the entirety of year 2 to achieve a better grade.

that way they are on notice that there is an issue and autism is a factor. that's helpful if it ever gets into court later.

Again thanks, I'll speak to him about it this afternoon. 

He never made himself known to disability services at uni but I know they are aware of him, I'm disappointed there's been no kind of outreach but again that's the benefit of hindsight. We never thought he'd be in the situation he's in now.

And he only has until next Tuesday to submit an appeal with some kind of evidence, which just feels like another stress filled deadline that he's so worried about not meeting that he'll possibly just not attempt it. Even if he gets through that stage there's the '15 minutes to get your case across' interview, not exactly autism friendly!

Sorry for the massive brain dump.

ok that gives you a bit more space to manoeuvre. To start with it sounds like you haven't really engaged with the uni yet. Yes they can't speak to you with out him but they can speak to him with you present and able to interrupt. I'd look into that to start.

Now it sounds like he should of had reasonable adjustments of some sort, for his whole course. It doesn't nessicerally matter that he didn't have a note or piece of paper from the uni ... in fact under the circumstances you can argue that letting him retake year 2 is in itself a reasonable adjustment.

If he was forced to study, and was assessed, under conditions that placed him at substantial disadvantage in relation to his autism he's probably due a reasonable adjustment and retaking the year seems quite reasonable.

thank you for all this. It's my son but he's not in a good place mentally to seek answers. He is a gifted mathematician but has really struggled with studying from home, he felt overwhelmed by the whole online teaching and exam process which was admittedly necessary due to the pandemic. Unfortunately he is good at masking so we had no idea, he can't ask for help and so didn't 'raise his hand' to flag the issues. Hence he has no proof eg doctor's notes etc, not that he would have gone to the GP anyway. I just feel so frustrated for him that someone who could really benefit from support etc at uni has fallen through a loophole - he can't ask for help himself and I can't get it for him 'because of GDPR' unless it escalates to a massive wellbeing concern, which of course it now has but it's too late. 

He doesn't want to contest his results because in his own words he messed up. He's going to try an appeal under medical/other but doesn't really know what he wants from it because it's all just a massive curveball. Ideally he would retake year 2 but with support in place from the start.

either way *if* you have an argument and the uni won't negotiate your 2 choices are sue them in county court or take the matter to the office for students (but remember the office for students can't adjust marks, but it can force them to progress you to the next year or offer you more resits, it can also fine the uni)

then its very awkward. The equality act 2010 doesn't cover qualifications / marks awarded. You can't for instance say 'oh i'm dyslexic therefore all spelling mistakes should be ignored in my work.' However if you were due reasonable adjustments (more time, taking the exam in isolation etc) and didn't get them you may be able to ague for another resit as a first attempt. Also if the exam result isn't obviously nessicery for progression (eg requiring individuals on a physics degree to pass a knitting exam) and if your autism contributed to you failing you could argue preventing you from progressing with out the pass is discrimination. But generally speaking the law doesn't provide for the 'tweaking' of exam results because the person taking them had a disability. #notlegaladvice

Very difficult, unless you had health issues which affected your performance and you have proof to back it up.

Thanks Peter. It's exam results after August resits.

is the decision related to exam results, attendance, a disaplinory issue or something else?