Source · SPSO (Scottish Public Services Ombudsman)

University of Strathclyde

SPSO (Scottish Public Services Ombudsman) Partly Upheld Reference 201602660 Sector Education Category academic appeal/exam results/degree classification Decided 01 April 2017

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Full decision

Summary

Mr C complained that the university unreasonably failed to make him aware of an examiners' rule and that the university's consideration of his academic appeals was unreasonable.

The university acknowledged that the examiners' rule was not included in the course handbook for that academic year. Because of this failure on the university's part, which they corrected for the following year, Mr C was unable to make an informed choice about whether or not to submit a claim for mitigating circumstances. We therefore upheld this aspect of Mr C's complaint.

In relation to Mr C's appeals, we found no evidence that the university failed to follow the relevant process and we therefore did not uphold this aspect of Mr C's complaint.

Recommendations

We recommended that the university: provide us with evidence that they have taken steps to ensure students are notified of the examiners' rule in future.

Related reading

View Decision Report 201602660 as a PDF (11.98 KB) Updated: March 13, 2018

View original on SPSO (Scottish Publ… website

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