An academic appeal is a request for review of a decision made by the College relating to a student’s academic studies

A student may make a complaint if they are dissatisfied with the provision of services (including teaching) or facilities by the College.

Before submitting a formal complaint, students are expected to raise the issue with the area of the College concerned to allow for early resolution, if possible.  A formal complaint is unlikely to be accepted until this step has been taken.

1. Exam Board decisions: 
   • For undergraduate and postgraduate students this includes:
     • Progression decisions (e.g. repeat or resit)
     • Degree award and classification
     • Termination of registration for academic reasons
   • For postgraduate research students:
     • Decisions made by an upgrade panel
     • Decision of an MPhil/PhD/DPS/DClinPsy/ Masters by Research viva panel
2. Termination of registration through the formal warning procedure
3. Penalties applied for examination offences and academic misconduct
4. Reconsideration of requests for access arrangements for assessment
5. Decisions made by a Fitness to Practise Panel 

Sometimes it may be appropriate to submit an appeal and a complaint.  If so, the College will determine whether they will be dealt with together or whether it is necessary to determine the complaint or appeal first (usually the complaint).  This will depend on the facts of each case and you will be notified of the College’s approach and the reasons for it.

Find out more about Complaints

You cannot appeal against:

• The academic judgement of examiners. Work will not be re-marked unless there has been a procedural error in the marking process
• Decisions made as a result of extenuating circumstances which have been accepted by the Exam Board. These decisions are the academic judgement of the Board of Examiners.

Please read our Academic Appeals Guidance and refer to the flowchart above. 

Make sure you:

1. Wait for your confirmed results to be released via CampusConnect (if you are appealing an exam Board Decision)
2. Submit your appeal in writing within 15 days of the decision you are appealing.  If you need more time to obtain evidence, submit your appeal by the deadline and indicate when further evidence will follow, and why you cannot yet provide it. We do not normally allow extensions for submission of appeals.
3. Provide appropriate supporting evidence (see below for more details)
4. Sign your appeal form. You may appoint a representative to act on your behalf

If your appeal is considered to be frivolous or malicious, you may be subject to disciplinary action under the Student Disciplinary Regulations

You may only appeal on the grounds listed in the appeal form, and they depend on the type of appeal so please read the appeal form and the Academic Appeals Guidance carefully. The followings reasons for an appeal will not be accepted:

• I wasn’t aware of the extenuating circumstances procedure
• I didn’t know there was a deadline for submission of extenuating circumstances
• I didn’t submit extenuating circumstances because I was worried about confidentiality/for cultural reasons
• I didn’t realise how my circumstances had affected me until I received my results

Please make sure you include:

• Your completed and signed Appeal form indicating the decision you are appealing against and the ground(s) upon which you are appealing
• All relevant supporting evidence, including all documentary evidence which you wish to be investigated and/or taken into account. It is helpful if you can explain clearly how each piece of evidence relates to your appeal
• Official English translations of any documents which are being supplied in a language other than English
• Where relevant, an explanation for why you were previously unable to disclose any of the evidence or information
• Where relevant, a record of all comments or remarks made by the examiners which, in your view, indicate bias.

It is important to check you have included all relevant evidence as the College is not obliged to take into consideration any additional matters which are introduced later in the appeal process, for example at the review stage.

Please send your appeal form and supporting documents by e-mail to the Academic Investigations team.

We may ask you to provide the originals of supporting documentary evidence and if so, they should be sent to:

Academic Investigations Team

Student Administration
Arts Annexe
Royal Holloway, University of London
Egham
TW20 0EX

We will confirm that we've received your appeal within 24 hours.

We aim to complete our investigation and provide an outcome within two months. However, sometimes it can take longer, especially if your appeal is complicated or submitted over the summer period when we receive a large number of appeals.  We will try and prioritise urgent appeals (where a decision may affect summer resits or academic progression) but cannot guarantee that your appeal will be concluded in time to affect the outcome. We will let you know by email if this is the case.

You can email the Academic Investigations team and we aim to respond within three working days. Please note that we are unable to discuss individual cases over the telephone.

Your appeal will be investigated by a senior member of Student Administration, who is known as the Investigating Officer.

The Investigating Officer will first decide whether or not:

• Your appeal has been received within the deadline;
• the issues you have raised fall under the appeals procedure;
• you have given enough information and provided enough evidence to investigate.

If your appeal is submitted after the deadline, or you do not provide sufficient information or evidence to allow us to investigate, it may be dismissed without further investigation and you will be advised in writing of this decision.

If the Investigating Officer decides to proceed with an investigation, they will begin by establishing the facts and which College regulations, policies or procedures apply. This may involve contacting other areas of the College including your School/Department, DDS or the Wellbeing Team and sharing information about your appeal with them. However, please be assured that the information will be treated as confidential by all members of staff, and will not be shared more widely than necessary.

Please remember that the appeal form is your opportunity to fully explain your reasons for appealing and provide all the information you would like taken into account. In exceptional cases we may contact you for clarification, but do not assume that you will have a further opportunity to make your case.

Once the investigation is complete the Investigating officer will decide whether your appeal should be upheld. In some cases they will seek guidance from a Vice Principal before a decision is reached.

You will receive an ‘Initial Findings’ letter which will explain the facts, relevant considerations and conclusions of the investigation. This will be sent to the address provided on your appeal form, to your College email and any other email address provided on your form. Please ensure that you check your email accounts regularly.

• If your appeal is not upheld, the original decision will stand.
• If your appeal is upheld, the Investigating Officer will already have taken steps to rectify the position, so far as it is possible to do so. This may include referring your extenuating circumstances back to your School/Department Sub-board of Examiners for retrospective consideration, or correcting a procedural irregularity.  However, it is important to understand that even if your appeal is upheld, this may not result in any change to the original decision.   If appropriate, the Investigating Officer may recommend that College processes are reviewed.

If you believe that your concerns have not been addressed in the initial findings letter you may request a review of the decision by completing a 'request for a review' form.  You must do so within ten working days of the date of the Initial Findings letter.

The review will not normally result in a full reinvestigation of your case. There are limited grounds on which you may request a review which are that:

• fresh evidence can be presented which you could not with reasonable diligence have been submitted with the initial appeal and which might cause reasonable doubt as to the fairness of the decision in the initial findings letter
• there is evidence of a failure to follow the procedures in the regulations which might cause reasonable doubt as to the fairness of the decision in the initial findings letter
• the decision in the initial findings letter was perverse given the evidence which was available at the time.

The review will be carried out by a senior member of Student Administration who has not already been involved at the appeal stage.

They will determine whether you meet the review grounds. If you do not, your request will be dismissed and the investigation will be considered complete.  You will be sent a Completion of Procedures Letter confirming the College’s final decision on your appeal and the completion of the College’s internal procedures.

If you meet one or more of the review grounds, your appeal may be returned to the Investigating Officer for reconsideration. Occasionally, in particularly complex cases or those which raise important questions of principle, the case will be referred to a Review Panel for a final decision. 

At the end of the review process you will be sent a Completion of Procedures Letter confirming the College’s final decision and the completion of the College’s internal procedures.

Once a Completion of Procedures letter has been issued, the College will not discuss or consider the matter further. If you believe that your concerns have still not been addressed you can ask for your case to be reviewed by the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIA).

Your Completion of Procedures Letter will explain how to contact the OIA and provide the deadline by which your case must be referred to them for review.  This will be 12 months after the date of the Completion of Procedures letter.