DD's Uni asked her to repeat a whole year without marking her work because she missed their emails asking her if she was going to meet a certain deadline. DS has been suicidal and is not talking

[sayitwithcolors]

DD's Uni asked her to repeat a whole year without marking her work because she missed their emails asking her if she was going to meet a certain assignment submission deadline. She made a later deadline and they would not mark her work at all. The reason she missed the deadline was because DS has been suicidal and is not talking to her or me.
AIBU to be mad at DD's Uni. We appealed the first time and gave them this reason and they refused. Please could anyone advise on what constitutes a compelling argument to make them change their mind. DD is freaking out and is now very depressed. Help please as I'm at a loss of what to do.

Extenuating circumstances almost always need to be requested before the deadline is missed. Some lecturers don't accept certain types of extenuating circumstances though. My "pastoral tutor" couldn't understand why a stillborn baby may affect my course, for instance.

Part of her course is probably continuous assessment and perhaps what she missed, not matter what happens now would stop her passing? She should have engaged somewhat, some courses, some universities would expect this, because they are as much about academic achievement as they are about individual responsibility and drive; but it is not the end of the world. Look at @me4real post above. She may benefit from it all in the end in knowing no matter what; there are some things you have to take care of and your parents are not as responsible anymore; people will help, but can't if they are unaware at the time. (Don't want to sound harsh and I hope your son is in a better place now0

I think it’s worth speaking to them but there’s no point her saying she ‘missed’ the emails. They would have sent out several across a fair time period. It won’t have been one quick email then nothing.

If nothing else it might not be a bad thing to repeat.

I too suspect you are not getting the full story.
If she missed the deadline, how could she get in her work for a later deadline? How did this second deadline materialise?
Normally with mental health issues, which this would have to be, they would expect evidence. For example a previous visit to the GP about depression or anxiety. Or having talked to a tutor about how she was struggling.

There is perhaps something else going on here, I work in this environment and in the past we have also not marked a students work that has been given in late because we know the mark we would have to give would not be a fair reflection on that students capabilities.

In these cases we ask the student to resit the entire year with the aim that the 'missing year' essentially becomes a year out. When they resit we take their work from the resit year not the 'lost year'. This gives the student a far better chance of getting a good degree at the end of it. it may take them 5 yrs to get the degree not 4 but the one they end up with is the one they more often than not deserve rather than a poorer one because of circumstances.

When you say refuse to mark her work, do you mean the pieces that weren't handed in before the deadlines? We had to always hand extenuating circumstance forms in before the work was late, this was probably what the emails were mentioning. Its absolutely understandable that she wasn't in the right mindset to prioritise university (I've been in the same position with a sibling); but the rules are pretty standard across the board. It sounds like they tried to reach out, were ignored, and if they make allowances for her they'd have to do it for everyone.

This doesn't make sense to me. Its October. Which year is she having to repeat? Last year? The academic year has already started so why has this only come up now? Or is it her current year? In which case why is she being written off so early on?

I also don't think you're getting the full story...

If she made any approved deadline- including any authorised extension then it would have to be marked. It sounds more like she didn’t communicate with student support to get an extension put in place- so would be classed as a non submission.

A lot of posters on this thread need to remember that different universities (and even different courses/departments/disciplines/schools/colleges) within universities have different rules and policies so statements such as resits being capped etc are not entirely helpful.

One would imagine that the late submission of coursework is not the issue but rather by not submitting coursework your daughter has failed to meet the learning outcomes for the course. This can come about several ways encompassing non engagement with course. This could include not attending (enough) compulsory teaching and not submitting coursework at all. Most if not all courses require that students submit X% of the assessments (my institution is 75%).

Universities do have extenuating circumstances committees to deal with these events but unless a student informs the university that there are issues that may have affected their performance there is little we can do.

I would suggest your daughter contacts the university student support/student counselling as soon as possible - i.e. this morning - to arrange an emergency appointment. The student services may be able to help her case.

Posted too soon. Meant to add...

However, if your daughter has not met the minimum requirements for the course (attendance) then there may be little that can be done other than allowing her to repeat the year as a first sit (rather than as a result student).

Many courses are subject to accreditation requirements which must be fulfilled.

Has she been to a board already as they normally make them decisions there. She would have a support representative attend with her that the uni sorts. Perhaps she missed the emails inviting her for this as I am sure if she took some evidence of what happened they would give her an extension.

I worked as the school exams officer during my last lectureship. Its not a personal decision, they are following procedure. I don't think you're getting the whole story here but if someone missed multiple deadlines with zero communication they would have to repeat. We literally can't mark work after a certain point - it's unfair on the people who submitted on time.

Either the OP is being deliberately vague or she is not getting the full story here. Given that it is now October, I suspect the DD has missed the cut-off for either submitting the work or mitigating circumstances evidence in time for the exam board. Once past this date, marking the work is not an option. Normally, departments bend over backwards to get students through the exam board and will mark work at the eleventh hour.

I’m not sure you have the whole story. Nowadays work is usually uploaded to the online system (e.g. Moodle) by a deadline. If you haven’t handed in by then the link disappears from the module page so you can’t hand it in. We mark everything that has been submitted.

Are you sure your DD handed in work? Students need to have passed 120 credits at each level to progress to the next year (though they can proceed with fewer and do the resits). However, they do need a minimum number of credits to proceed and it sounds like your DD has not achieved that. If she hasn’t achieved that it would not be in her best interests to proceed as she almost certainly would be unable to handle the higher level work.

Her university will not talk to you as she is an adult so she needs to talk to them herself. Does she have evidence of work being completed by the deadline? Has she applied for Extenuating Circumstances (her Uni will have a Student Hub/Services/One Stop Shop where she will be able to seek advice and support) or spoken to her course tutor? She will also have known of this outcome for months. Progression boards, even for resits, are done and dusted by early September.

I don't think there's any excuse for missing emails. Doesn't everyone have a phone with email and notifications on them these days?

As someone who was liable to bury their head in the sand when I was stressed or depressed I can understand how this happened though. I hope you manage to get it sorted and that your son is okay.

My XH had to drop out of uni because he was a victim of DA. Nobody listened. I think the way universities treat students is appalling.

Whilst Unis can be very understanding and flexible you really need to engage with them and keep them informed - that is key. If your DD hasn't engaged, hasn't kept an eye on emails then things won't go well. I appreciate you have both been very stressed but she must talk to them first and foremost.

I think the way universities treat students is appalling.

I find that really hurtful. Most university staff are not upper management and have no say over general policies. The vast majority of us lecturers, researchers and supervisors have been work incredibly hard to support our students, far over and above our contracted hours. What we can't do is award degrees or marks that students have not earned, whether the student has been too sick to do the work, been in a personal crisis, or simply hasn't bothered.

Universities can only apply extenuating circumstances if they are aware of those circumstances.

Your DD would be aware of the assignment deadline from timetabling/course handbook

It sounds like she hasn't communicated with them or asked for special circumstances to be applied, missed the deadline then ignored the emails to her - is that right?

As it's now October, when did this happen? They can't be expecting her to repeat a year in October - so are you talking about last year? In which case she should have started the repeat already?

If it was last year and she's only just starting to address the issues now there will be nothing they can do. The academic cycle has entirely restarted

i dont think that argument is going to wash I am afraid. If your DD was suicidal i would have thought her flat mates would have been contacting the university direct and raising concerns or you as a worried parent would have been doing so. They have support in place for this.

I doubt she was sat in her whilst not talking to you. If she was like my son who claimed low mood, stopped talking to me as i stopped giving him extra money, he was out getting hammered with mates. He had to resit a year because he missed deadlines, ignored emails and sat the wrong resit. Lesson learned I am afraid.

Universities are not mind readers, your daughter chose not to contact the university regarding her situation.

Also work is handed in online (unless a physical item is produced), so if she had an extended deadline (which she also missed), this means she asked for the deadline to be extended.

Her deadlines will not only be emailed to her, they will also be available on the portal where she was handing in her work, if she for some reason couldn’t find any of those why didn’t she ask rather than handing things in at random times, or asking her course mates?

The new university year has now started, so what has she been doing for the last two weeks?

I became very unwell in my first year of university, I kept my tutor in the loop and I was able to ‘step off’ for six months before returning (module flexibility meant I just sat my exams in August rather than May). If I had decided not to hand in work of course I would be expected to resit the year.

Sounds like an awful time for you all, Op.

My dd went through something similar and I have the following thoughts for you. One - she didn't tell me the whole story. Turns out that her one missing of an email was in fact a whole series of emails with really important information that she willfully ignored. Two - she appealed against the decision. She was successful but it took months to go through the University process. She ended up having to take a year out from university whilst this happened.

For my dd, although it was awful at the time, it taught her that she can't simply assume that she can just break or ignore the rules with no consequence. She got loads of support from the student union, had to provide medical evidence (which she did have as part of her appeal was around her health and she had had an operation and then a hospital readmission). Go online and look at the appeals process for your dd's University and help her through it.

Good luck.

I don't think the way universities treat students is appalling at all.

We drummed into our DC that they have to be proactive if they need support. Uni isn't school, if a student disappears off the radar the uni won't come looking for them.

DD2 is about to restart her 3rd year with the full support of the uni. She is getting the support because she sought it and they were more than happy to give it.

@iloveeverykindofcat I totally agree. Also DD2 is very grateful for the support she has had from her uni. Her course leader knows the full reason for DD2's need for support and has been discretion personified in making sure that DD can have the support she needs without everyone getting to know the details.

As others have said, I suspect there's more to this than your DD has said. When I was at uni a couple of years ago it was made clear what support there was (and there was a lot!), and lecturers bent over backwards to help when needed. We even had mandatory 1-2-1 tutorials to prevent things like stress-related disengagement, and a clear mitigating circumstances procedure (which I actually had to use due to bereavements).

Bear in mind that the uni will be so used to students messing up because they couldn't be arsed, then panicking and claiming XYZ, that they have to have clear rules and boundaries, and proof of the cause of difficulties should you go down the mit cirs route.

Realistically I can't see how she could "miss" deadlines and multiple uni emails unless she wasn't engaging, and the bottom line is, if she didn't engage with the uni then this is the consequence. Regardless of the reasons, it's not the uni's fault unless they broke their own guidelines. Consider it a useful life lesson. If it's any consolation, I messed up my first attempt at uni but went back and ended up with a 2:1 in a hard science. Even if she has to stay an extra year, it really isn't the end of the world, even if it feels that way at the moment.

I hope she get's things sorted and that your DS gets well

Dd was in a similar boat where she had a bit of a nervous break down when covid started, didn’t do anything uni related, including not replying to emails. I didn’t know until June, she’d missed assignment deadlines, not applied for extensions, etc.

She didn’t have to repeat the whole year but did have to drop back a year and do the module she’d missed, so started in March. We had to fight for this a bit and put in evidence about her mental health….that was seen as extenuating circumstances for not communicating with the uni. She did by then have a formal diagnosis of ptsd which probably helped with the uni being sympathetic towards her. Dd got help and support from the student well being centre, they helped her respond to emails, deal with tutors, etc.