Academic appeals - taught

For all students on taught programmes a student may appeal against:

(a) one or more of the following recommendations of a Board of Examiners:

• the mark awarded for any assessment component or the overall module;
• the overall outcome of a programme of study, e.g. degree classification;
• failure at any stage of a programme of study (including progression decisions);
• decisions in relation to submitted exceptional circumstances;
• action taken a a result of the Student Attendance and Engagement Policy

(b) a procedural irregularity in the way the University followed and applied its academic regulations and procedures which either affected your ability to undertake assessment(s) or which led to your assessed work not receiving the mark it merited;

(c) the decision to terminate your studies as a result of a perceived failure on your part to enrol or re-register for your studies by the required deadline, or as a result of you exceeding the maximum period of registration allowed for your programme under regulation C1.

For all students on taught programmes appeals may only be made on the following grounds:

(i) procedural irregularity in the conduct of the assessment or examination board processes, or the application of the Student Attendance Monitoring procedure

(ii) exceptional circumstances, providing that:

• the circumstances were not already considered by an Exceptional Circumstances Panel;
• the circumstances can be verified by appropriate evidence (see University guidelines); 
• there is a valid reason for not submitting an Exceptional Circumstances claim relating to these circumstances (and/or appropriate evidence) by the specified deadline in accordance with the relevant provisions of Regulation B.3. (see note about exceptional circumstances below)

Note about exceptional circumstances

The Appeals Panel will reject your claim even if your ECs are valid, if there is not a genuine reason why the EC claim was not brought forward at the appropriate time. Reasons such as reluctance to reveal exceptional circumstances, wanting to find out the outcomes of assessment or shyness are not normally accepted as valid reasons for not submitting ECs at the appropriate time.

Please click the link for a list of Common Student Appeal Scenarios.  These are some of the types of typical cases that the Appeals Panel receive on a regular basis. These types of appeals will be accepted/not accepted for the reasons given.

You must submit your appeal on the approved Appeal Form no later than 10 calendar days (not including University closed days or Bank Holidays, but including weekends) from the date of the email or letter sent to you informing you of either the decision of the Board of Examiners or actions taken under the Student Attendance and Engagement Policy or within 10 calendar days of the official notification that your studies have been terminated due to failure to enrol or re-enrol for your studies. If you submit your appeal later than 10 days after the official notification of results, your appeal will only be considered if you can provide valid evidence why you were not able to submit within the deadline. 

If you wish to appeal against an award you must inform the University of your intention to appeal before Senate confirms the decision of the Board of Examiners. Information of how to do this will be given in the email or letter informing you of your award. Your name will be removed from the list of awards submitted to Senate for approval. You should note that this could mean that you will be unable to graduate at the next available opportunity.

Upon receipt of your appeal, a member of the Student Appeals team will email you to confirm its arrival. Please note, staff can be very busy processing appeals at certain times of the year (particularly June/July and September), but we aim to respond within 3 working days. If you do not receive an email within three working days, please email us again to check that your form has arrived. During the processing of your appeal, we will communicate with you via email, so please check your email account on a regular basis.

The form for all students (apart from research degree students) to submit an appeal can be downloaded here :

Appeal Form 2025 Word

Guidance for filling in the Appeal Form is listed in the concertina below.

If you require the form or any other materials in an alternative format, please let us know. On request we can provide you with an electronic copy, enlarged print on coloured paper, audio recordings or Braille. 

Appeal Form 2025 Word

Guidance on how to complete the Appeals Submission form

Please complete the form by downloading it and typing in the information required. If you are
unable to do this, please ensure that your handwriting is legible.

Privacy Notice and how we will process your information

The information that you give in your appeal, together with any supporting evidence, will be
processed by the following:

• Members of the Student Appeals, Complaints and Conduct Team who process
your appeal.
• Representatives from your school(s) who may be asked what information your
school(s) Exceptional Circumstances Panel knew about (if the information is not readily
available in Evision) or to comment on any procedural irregularity. The information will
only be given to those staff members who are able to respond to the issues raised.
You will be allowed to see and comment on any information the school provides.
• Any other person or service named in your appeal who we may need to contact to
check the issue you have raised. e.g. Finance, Disability Support and Inclusion, I.T.
Services.
• Members of the University Academic Appeals Panel who will consider your appeal.
Other than verification checks (see Supporting Documentation below), your data will not be
shared with any third parties without your further consent.

Please see Section D for information on what to do if you do not wish certain personal
information to be made known.

Information Gathering

Once your appeal is received, Student Appeals, Complaints and Conduct may seek
information relating to your appeal so it can be considered. This includes, but is not limited
to, information on your student record, previously submitted claims for exceptional
circumstances, and information from your school(s) or any other staff member or service
named in your appeal. You will be given the opportunity to respond to any information
submitted by your school(s) or staff member/service.

Our legal basis to process your appeals data

The provision of an appeals process is provided as part of the contract we have with our
students, and as part of our public task as a university.

Where you have provided any sensitive personal data (Special Category*) we will need your
explicit consent to process this information. If you do not consent to us processing your
sensitive personal data, then we will remove this data from your submission, and this will not
be considered. Please also see Section D for information on what to do if you do not wish
certain personal information to be made known.

*This includes data related to your health, racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade
union membership, sex life, sexual orientation or genetic/biometric data.

Personal Data of others

Please do not submit any unnecessary personal information, particularly about third parties.
For example, if your exceptional circumstances are based on the health of a family member,
we do not need to see detailed information about that person. Instead, we need to see
evidence about how the circumstances affected you. If you do decide to give information and
any supporting evidence about another person, it is your responsibility to tell that person that
you have done this and how the University will be processing their information.

How long we will retain your data

As stated In the University’s retention schedule, information regarding your appeal will be kept
securely for 6 years following the last action on the case.

Further privacy information

The University’s full Student Privacy Notice, which contains further information and details
your rights (including withdrawing consent), can be found here.

SECTION A – Personal and Programme Information
Write your full name as shown on your Keele card.
Your student number is the 8-digit number that appears on your Keele card. e.g. 00987654
State your programme of study, whether you are a postgraduate or undergraduate and your
year of study.

SECTION B – Grounds for Appeal
Tick the appropriate box to indicate on which grounds you are appealing. You should then
indicate the date on which you were notified of your results and the date on which you are
submitting your appeal. If you are submitting your appeal after the 10-day deadline, you must
give a reason as to why you are submitting your appeal late. If you submit the appeal late,
without good reason, your appeal will not be accepted.
If you are appealing on grounds of exceptional circumstances, complete Sections C, D and F
of the form. If you are appealing on grounds of procedural irregularity, complete Sections C,
E and F of the form.

SECTION C – Nature of Appeal
Indicate exactly what you are appealing against, e.g. requirement to withdraw, failure of
degree, degree class awarded, module mark(s), not being permitted a reassessment
opportunity. If you are appealing against a mark awarded for a module, you should write the
module name and code.

SECTION D – Details of appeal case relating to exceptional circumstances
Indicate whether or not you made your exceptional circumstances known to your school(s)
before the Exceptional Circumstances Panel met. If you did, you need to indicate what
documents you provided to the school and how you submitted them. If you made your
circumstances known to your school(s), state why you believe these circumstances were not
considered. If you did not make your circumstances known, you should state why you did not
do so at the time. Failure to give a valid reason will mean that your appeal will be turned down.
Tick the appropriate box(es) to indicate the type of circumstances that you are bringing forward
in your appeal. You should also indicate the period during which you have been affected by
these circumstances and list all the relevant evidence that you are submitting to support your
claim.
State in a clear and concise manner the details of the circumstances, in the box provided and
how you believe that they have affected your studies; it is not the role of the Appeals Panel to
determine this. You are advised to seek help from Advice and Support at Keele (ASK) in the
Students’ Union when completing the statement.
Your statement will be used to determine if you have grounds for appeal; please include
everything that you wish to be considered by the Appeals Panel, even if it is personal or
embarrassing. In such cases, you can ask for the contents of your appeal to only be made
known to the Appeals Panel (and the Head of School, if necessary). Alternatively, Regulation
B3 states that in sensitive circumstances where you do not wish the details to be disclosed,
we can accept a letter from a doctor, counsellor, or member of Student Services confirming
the severity of the circumstances and describing how they have affected your studies.
However please note that under normal circumstances the Counselling and Mental Health
Support service at the University will only provide evidence for those already accessing ongoing
counselling.

SECTION E – Details of appeal case relating to procedural irregularity
State in a clear and concise manner the details of the procedural irregularity. You should
describe what you believed went wrong during the process/procedure, and how you believe
this had an adverse effect on your assessment. List the supporting evidence you are
submitting to support your claim; this should be submitted with your appeal form.
Supporting Documentation for Sections D and E
You must have evidence to support your appeal, and this should be submitted with your appeal
form. Detailed information on the exceptional circumstances criteria and evidence
requirements can be found in the Exceptional Circumstances Code of Practice.
Evidence can be scanned and submitted via email, but you must retain original copies of all
evidence. This is important as original copies may be required by the Appeals Panel later. The
evidence needs to be relevant to the time that the circumstances occurred. For example, a
doctor’s note saying that you were ill for one week will not be acceptable if you are claiming
that you have had medical problems for a month. If the evidence is not in English, an
authenticated independent translation must also be attached.
If your evidence is not available at the time of submitting the form, you should indicate that
you have requested it and when you will be able to hand it in. Do NOT delay the submission
of your form because you must wait for a piece of evidence, if this means that you will miss
the submission deadline.
There will be circumstances where it is difficult or impossible to gain independent evidence. If
this is the case, please indicate this on the form and say why you are unable to obtain any.
We may contact the organisation that has issued any supporting documentation to verify
authenticity.
Please note that the Appeals Panel reserves the right to reject an appeal if no evidence has
been provided.

Section F – Remedial Action
In this section you should indicate by ticking the appropriate box(es) what you are requesting
as the outcome of your appeal.

Declaration

The appeal form, with any evidence, must be sent by email as attachments to:
appeals@keele.ac.uk. Please do not send the documentation via a link. If your Keele IT
account is active, you must submit using your Keele email address. If your Keele IT account
is not active, please submit using the non-Keele email address you added to your student
record. If it is not possible to email the appeal, please contact Appeals to discuss the matter
via: appeals@keele.a.uk BEFORE the appeal deadline.

False Claims
You should note that submitting an appeals form that contains false information, e.g. forged
medical letters, will be regarded as an attempt to gain an unfair advantage in your studies.
This is academic misconduct and will be investigated under the terms of Regulation D4 by the
Academic Misconduct Committee. If proven, it is likely that the penalty will be exclusion from
the University. If you are registered on a programme that is subject to Regulation B5: Fitness
to Practise, you should note that any proven academic misconduct will also be referred to your
Head of School so that any implications regarding fitness to practise may be considered.

If you require advice and support, please contact Advice and Support at Keele (ASK) in the Students' Union:

If you have any questions about the appeals process, please contact Student Appeals, Complaints and Conduct Team.