Senate Academic Appeals

Once the Faculty Appeal stage is completed and the final outcome communicated to you have 14 calendar days from the date the communication was issued in which to submit a Senate Appeal. 

There are only two grounds under which you can appeal to the Senate Academic Appeals Committee:

1. a) that you have evidence that parts of the relevant documented procedure were not applied correctly at the Faculty Appeal stage and this procedural defect was significant enough to have materially affected the decision, making it unsound

Note that appeals under this ground will only result in a review of the process followed at the Faculty Appeal stage, not a reconsideration of the original case itself. If you are simply unhappy with the outcome, this does not constitute a procedural irregularity.

 and/or

1. b) that there is substantial and relevant new information that was previously unknown to you, or which for a valid reason you were unable to disclose at the Faculty appeals stage and that the information is significant enough to have materially affected the Faculty Appeal decision, making it unsound.

Note that new evidence relating to circumstances already considered at the original Exam Board and/or Faculty stage may not constitute new information if it simply verifies those circumstances that have previously been disclosed. Where new evidence is presented, it must also be accompanied by a sufficient explanation as to why this could not be provided at an earlier stage.

If you are unhappy with the Faculty Appeal Outcome, but do not have grounds for an appeal to Senate, it may be possible for you to submit a case to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator. For more information on this see the link below.

OIA Information

How to appeal

Download the Senate Appeal Proforma which, once completed, should be emailed, with any evidence attached, to student.appeals@durham.ac.uk

Your appeal will be examined by a member of the Academic Quality Service Appeal team and may be rejected if it does not meet on of the specified grounds for appeal, is out of time, is not fully completed or is deemed to question academic judgment.

If the appeal is accepted, within 28 calendar days it will be reviewed by a panel comprising a Chair/Deputy Chair of the Senate Academic Appeals Committee along with a Deputy Executive Dean from a faculty other than your own. Normally the outcome will be communicated within 10 working days of the panel date.

Appeal Outcomes 

If the appeal is upheld it will generally result in the case being referred back to the Faculty or to the original decision-making body, for example the Board of Examiners, for reconsideration. As per the Faculty Appeal stage, this will not result in marks being changed and may not result in a change to the original decision.

For cases referred back to the Faculty / original decision-making body, once the final outcome is communicated then the final stage would be to submit a case to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator.

OIA Information