I posted on someone else's thread a while ago, and what I thought was going to happen has happened - but it's such a borderline case I'm reluctant to take it on the chin without at least trying to mount a challenge.
For background - this is a healthcare based course, with a placement module which is quite heavily weighted (the bulk of our final year marks come from dissertation and placement modules). Dissertation scored highly as a very solid first. Placement module came out at 69 and final degree mark was a 69 but I wasn't up-rated by exam board - I fell foul of the algorithm process on that one.
I'm autistic and really struggle with face masks - uni have been aware of this throughout - placement for this year was intended to be a 8 week block of 3 days a week plus an additional placement project day. My original placement allocation was pulled because of the face mask thing and it took a long while to find an alternative one - so I was in limbo for a bit. Eventually I ended up with a strangely set up placement - two placements in essence at one day a week for each, over a stretched length of time to make up the right hours, plus my "project" work was university-department-set tasks to produce various resources - and I scored very highly with that strand as well. Hopefully that makes sense so far.
So I had two placements in completely different client groups, which means I had two placement reports, and two sets of placement marks. One I absolutely smashed, to the point that my clinician was desperate to keep me as a permanent staff member but there weren't vacancies around at the moment - scored solid firsts for every single strand of the placement. The other - has had a real problem with me being autistic and very much not fitting into her view of what the profession should be throughout - couldn't pick fault with my communication and rapport with patients, or how I did the task - but complained about my volume of voice (which is highlighted in my ASD diagnosis report as a feature of the condition) and just generally things she found to be a bit annoying personally. When this was being raised I took advice from the uni Autism team and my uni tutor about it - and have the email trail of booking appointments to flag this as a concern and I tried to resolve this throughout. I also have my placement reflection logs where I talk about this being raised and me trying to address it - but I have my ASD diagnostic report which specifically highlights the bits of "me" that she finds irritating were a feature of the condition. End of the placement I have been marked down by her on these features of my communication, plus marked down because the one day a week structure of the placement meant she felt I hadn't had the chance to develop how she thinks I should. We're talking a discrepancy on some scores between the two placements of 20 marks and uni were made aware this was going on throughout.
If it was a middling 2:1 I'd ended up with I would have let it lie - but this mark is directly what has pushed me onto the borderline between grades and if I'd not been penalised in that way I would have got the first, or been at the point where I would have gone to consideration panel as a borderline case.
My argument is that I have grounds to appeal that poor placement report on the grounds of direct discrimination against my autism, which I've got a clear paper trail of raising concerns and I can pull elements out of my diagnostic report (which uni have) that are directly complained about in the final rating.
I also feel I have grounds to dispute the negative scoring based on the one-day a week element of the placement - I did not choose to have that unconventional placement structure, it was inflicted on me by uni not finding me a better placement (I really really don't want to have to complain against my department - I love those guys) as a consequence of my conditions - and that that placement has not apparently been able to meet my assessment needs.
I know the MN academics are quite against students appealing and crying unfairness - but after some views on those lines of appealing one module element because of the impact it would have on my final degree classification. I had expected to be sitting on something like 67 as a final mark and then I would have shrugged, grumbled a bit and felt mildly irked - but as it's SO borderline and so clear-cut in terms of me trying to resolve these issues since January - I think I'd hate myself for not trying if that makes sense.