Important: for all non-academic related issues, please follow the schools Complaints Procedure available on www.em-normandie.co.uk

For the purpose of this procedure, and in line with the Quality Assurance Agency’s UK Quality Code for Higher Education, an academic appeal is defined as ‘a request for a review of a decision of an academic body charged with making decisions on student progression, assessment and awards.’

The School’s Academic Appeals Procedure allows students to appeal against a decision of the Final Exam Board, if it is believed that an error occurred under the grounds outlined below. 

Grounds for appeal 

You may only request an appeal in the following cases where, in your opinion:

(i) there has been an administrative error materially affecting your assessment results 

(ii) there was bias or prejudice, or the perception of bias or prejudice, on the part of at least one of the markers or examiners

(iii) the assessment has not been conducted in accordance with the academic regulations of EM Normandie and the assessment procedure outlined on the assessment instruments, marking schemes or the relevant assessment instructions. 

(iv) you missed or failed one or several assessments because of an illness or other compelling factors which you were either unable to disclose or had reasonable grounds for being unwilling to disclose to the school before the relevant assessment board reached its decision. 

Claims lodged on this ground must be supported by independent and compelling evidence, such as medical certificates, for example. Retrospective medical certification will not usually be accepted as valid. Any medical evidence will need to contain the signature of the relevant health care professional(s). Such evidence should be submitted in English. If this not possible, then you should provide an authorised transcript of the relevant documents. The school may contact the organisation that is providing such certificates in order to establish authenticity of such certificates that are submitted as evidence. 

The following matters do not themselves, form grounds for an academic appeal disagreement with a mark or grade 

(i) challenges to academic judgements of examiners on assessment outcomes

(ii) claims that the academic performance was adversely affected by factors such as ill-health, where there is no independent, medical or other evidence to substantiate this

(iii) complaints against the delivery of teaching and methods of assessment 

If you are dissatisfied with teaching, academic advice or other service provisions during the course, you may submit a complaint under the School’s Students Complaints Procedure. You must raise any such concerns as and when they occur, as these cannot be considered later as grounds for an academic appeal. 

It is possible that some cases may involve a combination of issues, some of which are related to an appeal and others are not.  The School will assess each case individually and you will be informed which issues will be considered under which procedure. If it is decided that several procedures have to be followed, one may be suspended until the other is completed. Where there is significant overlap, the School may decide to consider matters together. For example, if an appeal includes matters that could also be dealt with under other procedures, such as the Student Complaints Procedure, a joint investigation may be carried out. In such cases, you will be informed where responsibility for the overall investigation lies and who will issue the final decision. 

Informal stage 

If you have concerns about your assessment results, these should be raised with the Head of Programme in the first instance no more than five working days after notification of your results. A brief record of the discussion will be made by the Head of Programme and shared with you. 

If your concerns cannot be addressed in this way and/or a solution has not been found and/or you feel that the proposed solution does not adequately address your concerns, you may want to consider making a formal academic appeal. 

In this case, please put the details of your formal appeal and the reasons why you feel that the proposed solution is not adequate in writing to : EM Normandie UK Limited, The Principal, Jericho Building, Oxpens Road, Oxford OX1 1SA or via e-mail to academicappealsoxford@em-normandie.co.uk

Please use the ‘Formal Academic Appeals Notification Form’ (Annex 2) and attach copies of any supporting documents during each stage of the Academic Appeals Procedure.

All formal academic appeals have to be submitted within 10 working days after you have received notification of the relevant results. Any submissions received after 10 working days will only be admitted if there are compelling reasons why you have not been able to make their submission on time. 

In the event of a formal academic appeal the following procedure will apply 

Formal Academic appeals – stage 1

Once the appeal has been received, the Principal of the school will undertake an eligibility check in order to determine

(i) that the appeal falls under the scope of this procedure on the grounds for appeal as outlined  above, and will be forward for further consideration, or

(ii) that the appeal does not set out valid grounds as outlined under ‘Grounds for appeal’ above, in which case the appeal will be dismissed, or

(iii) that you have failed to comply with the deadline for the submission of an appeal and have failed to demonstrate good reason for not having met this deadline, in which case the appeal will be dismissed.

You will be informed of the outcome as soon as practical. 

If your appeal is eligible, EM Normandie UK (EMN UK) will then investigate the substance of your formal academic appeal under supervision of the school’s Principal. 

On completion of the investigation the appeal will be referred to a meeting of the Academic Appeals Committee which consists of three members of staff of EMN UK for a decision. 

The Committee shall decide whether to

(i) uphold the appeal, in whole or in part, and ask the Final Exam Board to consider its decision

(ii) dismiss the appeal

You will be provided with a written response within 5 working days  of the decision. 

Formal Academic appeals – stage 2

If you remain dissatisfied with the outcome to the investigation, EM Normandie UK Limited will convene a hearing in front of the Academic Appeals Committee. 

You will be invited to attend the hearing, to present your case and any supporting evidence. If you wish, you can ask to be accompanied by one other person of your choice who are also invited to speak on your behalf.  

Your Head of Programme or in their absence, your course lecturer will be asked to present the case in support of the decision(s) taken by the Final Exam Board. 

Any previous written submission in relation to the appeal shall be notified to each member of the Academic Appeals Committee. 

At the opening of the hearing the chairperson will outline the procedure that the panel will follow. 

After due consideration of the arguments and the evidence presented, the Academic Appeals Committee shall decide

The Committee shall decide whether to

(iii) uphold the appeal, in whole or in part, and make recommendations to the Final Exam Board to consider its decision

(iv) dismiss the appeal

Following the panel hearing, you will be notified by electronic mail or otherwise of the outcome within 5 working days and a copy of the decision will be addressed to the Academic Board. 

Formal academic appeals –  stage 3 Review

If you remain dissatisfied with the outcome of the academic appeals procedure, you can request a review . Any such request should be made within 10 working days of notification of the Academic Appeals Committee’s decision. This is not an opportunity to submit new evidence but for an overall review of all the evidence previously submitted by the school’s Academic Board.

The request has to be made in writing and can only be made on the following grounds

(i) there has been a procedural irregularity

(ii) there was prejudice or bias on the part of the Academic Appeals Committee

(iii) the decision was unreasonable

You have to indicate on which of these grounds you are requesting the review and why this is justified.

The Academic Board will undertake a review of all the evidence, documents and minutes of the hearing in front of the Academic Appeals Committee.

Having concluded its review, the Academic Board will then decide, whether;

(i) your appeal was justified, and the decision of the Final Exam Board will be reconsidered either by the same or a fresh Exam Board

(ii)   to uphold the original decision by the Final Exam Board and your appeal be dismissed

You will be informed as soon as practical.

The decision taken by the Academic Board and any subsequent decisions by the Exam Board will be final.

At the end of this process, you will be issued with a Completion of Procedures Letter containing

• a summary of the student’s appeal
• the title of the regulations/procedures that were applied
• a summary of the issues considered at the final stage of our internal procedures
• the final decision taken
• the reasons for this decision