Mitigating Circumstances

What are Mitigating Circumstances?

Mitigating Circumstances are situations beyond a student's control which led to a significant negative impact on a student's academic performance. Examples include:

Serious illness, including mental health deterioration
Serious illness of a family member or a close friend
Traumatic personal experiences
Extreme financial situations
Bereavement

Students can make the department aware of these Mitigating Circumstances by submitting a form on Tabula along with evidence.

For non-exam assessments, possible outcomes resulting from the submission of the Mitigating Circumstances form include assignment waivers, late-penalty waivers or, for larger pieces of work, deadline extensions (more details in the Assessment section of the Handbook).

For examinations, possible outcomes include deferrals or resits being taken as Further First Attempts.

Long-term conditions or neurodivergence should be mitigated via a reasonable adjustment which can lead to special examination arrangements or flexible deadlines, for example. Mitigating circumstances for a long-term condition might include flare-ups or sudden deterioration of the condition.

More information can be found in the University Mitigating CircumstancesLink opens in a new window guidance.

If you have questions about Mitigating Circumstances, speak to your tutor, and contact the Taught Programme Office.

Submission deadlines for Mitigating Circumstances

For the academic year 25/26:

the deadline for submission of mitigating circumstances in relation to assessed work is 27 March 2026.
the deadline for submission of mitigating circumstances to be considered in summer examination boards is 19 June 2026.
After this date, we will only accept mitigation for cases relating to exams that took place thereafter.
The deadline for the final mitigating circumstances board of the academic year (normally for cases related to resit exams) is [TBC].

Exam deferral requests are subject to different deadlines. See the deferral section below.

How to submit Mitigating Circumstances

Submission of Mitigating Circumstances is via the personal circumstances page on Tabula. Information on how to use the portal is available here.

The form must include evidence which should be third-party independent confirmation of the circumstances. This may include:

a medical certificate
a copy of a death certificate or funeral service
a letter from the University Counselling Service

You should submit your mitigating Circumstances form as soon as possible - supporting evidence can be submitted later but before the deadlines stated below.

The Department does recognise that, in a case where the mitigating circumstances are extreme and/or of a very personal nature, a student may not wish to divulge details of these unnecessarily. Nevertheless, for your circumstances to be considered, they must be conveyed formally to someone in the department (e.g. your tutor or Student Support and Progression Officers).

Deferral of exams

If you are experiencing severe personal circumstances around an examination period and if you feel that it would be in your best interests to postpone that examination period, you can request (through the Mitigation portal) that exams be deferred to the next examination period. This will then require the approval of the Senior Tutor.

It is advisable to talk to the Student Support and Progression Officers in the first instance.

Deadlines for exam deferral requests

Exam deferrals must already be in place before the exam period, and therefore your deferral requests must be made well before the exam period starts.

For the academic year 25/26:

To defer April exams, the deadline is 22 April 2026 (exam period starts on the 27^th)
To defer Summer exams, the deadline is 13 May 2026 (exam period starts on the 18^th)

More information can be found on the Deferrals, Resit without Residence and Temporary Withdrawal pageLink opens in a new window of the University website. This page also includes the full procedure for submitting a request for deferral.

Temporary withdrawals

With the most serious Mitigating Circumstances, you may feel that it would be best to temporarily suspend your study for a year.

A temporary withdrawal (TWD) is an approved period of time when a student is not studying for their award and is governed by University Regulation 36.1

More information on Temporary Withdrawal, can be found on the Deferrals, Resit without Residence and Temporary Withdrawal pageLink opens in a new window including this dedicated page for temporary withdrawals.