Mitigation Circumstances Late Mitigation Help

[dshashni]

I had a submission on the 1st of August, however, I suffered an acute schizophrenic episode on the 30th of July which significantly affected my cognitive abilities and caused psychotic symptoms. Further, the antipsychotics prescribed to me had severe side effects as well. Despite the difficulties, I managed to submit the assignment, however, I was a minute late. The University has failed me in that module as it is standard policy to mark zero in referred modules. I now wish to make an appeal for retrospective mitigation claiming that I wasn't in a position to submit a mitigation application at the time. Moreover, I suffered additional schizophrenic episodes throughout august. My doctor can corroborate this.

One other thing I would like to mention is that although I was diagnosed with schizophrenia a year and a half ago, my symptoms were mild and never interfered with my daily life and academic responsibilities. This episode was sudden and was something I had never experienced before. the severity of the cognitive disfunction and psychotic symptoms were completely new to me.

What chances do I have of successfully appealing? I am requesting them to remove the cap on my late submission.

Furthermore, could the university reject my application on the basis that they would have expected me to disclose my condition at the start of my masters degree even though my condition wasn't severe then and had not caused any significant difficulty at that point?

Speaking as someone who adjudicates on student appeals and complaints at a high level in a university, I would accept this late submission of circumstances, providing there was appropriate supporting medical evidence. Good luck.

Exactly this, this would have been approved when I was on panels.

Re your second point, you don't have to disclose anything and many students do not. If it's medically evidenced re this specific incident, that should be all you need.

It probably depends on the university's policies which should say for example whether or not there is any discretion to accept a late application. Is there a students union or someone else you can seek advice from?

The policy should say, but where it's an event that renders you unable to submit mit circs on time, which this sounds like, and all the medical evidence is dated correctly, it would definitely be considered. Good luck.

Thanks for your response.

The University has an appeals procedure which has listed this condition as a possible ground for appeal:

(a) Material circumstances affecting your performance of which, Assessment, Progression Awarding Committee / a Board of Examiners or the Education Board/Postgraduate Research Board (or the Dean acting on its behalf) had not been aware before reaching its decision, only if you can present reasonable grounds why such circumstances had not been presented to the relevant Board in advance of its meeting (see 5.2);
An example might be where there is evidence that the student's health was impacted to the extent that they were unable to prepare and submit a mitigation application at the appropriate time (please see the University's Handbook in relation to Mitigation), i.e. where they were unexpectedly hospitalised or had confirmed severe mental health difficulties. It is not sufficient to say that the student was unaware of the procedure for submitting a mitigation request, or that they chose not to do so at the time.

There is a students Union at my Uni but there response time is around 10 days. I submitted an enquiry with them about 4 days ago and haven't heard back from them. There are no appointments available as well.

Point A) there looks positive. Have you also spoken to your personal tutor? I imagine the SU are bogged down with start of term stuff, so you may have a delay there.

First of all, thank you for your time and response.

I do have a personal tutor and I have spoken with them, however, I got the impression that they don't know the appeals process very well. When I first raised the matter of filing an appeal, they weren't sure if there was a ground for appeal due to severe/exceptional health circumstances. They then went through the procedure and confirmed that I can appeal based on health reasons.

I have messaged them seeking further advice but haven't heard back from them. Hopefully they will reply soon.

What would your two cents be for me based on my circumstances?

Additionally, the students guild page has the following advice on its webpage:

A) Material circumstances – Generally if you are appealing on material circumstances, you will need evidence from a medical or health professional confirming that your condition at the time of the assessment would have impacted your academic performance and your ability to navigate and engage with the mitigation procedure. If you have been able to previously engage with the mitigation procedure, the evidence will need to demonstrate why this time was different and why your ability to navigate and engage with the mitigation procedure was impacted/ inconsistent.

Thanks once again for your help.

To be honest, I'd try the admin person for your course. They tend to know more than the academics about the procedure. Have you put in for mit circs before? If not, the last paragraph doesn't really apply other than being able to supply the medical evidence. If you have you might need to look at what was different this time re severity of the incident and evidence that.

September is often a big conference month for academics, so hopefully the tutor will get back to you soon, but they may well be away at present.

I have previously engaged with the mitigation procedure but not for schizophrenia. This episode was sudden and unexpected. I had never felt like this before. I was experiencing tactile sensations and hearing voices.

Also, my condition affected my performance in one other module as well but this was an exam. Would you recommend appealing for a resit? I mean to say do committees accept appeals for retrospective mitigation for multiple modules and is it advisable to do so? although I am not particularly keen on resitting an exam. I just want to graduate.

Yes if the incident affected more than one, which with bunched submission dates/exams it can do. So I think from what you've said your last mit circs wasn't related to this one in any way, so you just have to evidence how it affected you for the late submission of the form, the essay and the exam. As I say, try to contact an admin team member but it sounds pretty clear to me and I wish you luck.

Did you pass the exam? If so, you wouldn't resit, but the mit circs would be taken into account if you were close to a grade boundary. If you didn't you should get an uncapped resit if the claim is accepted, but in some cases you can carry a fail if it's not a core module, you'd need to look at your programme spec.

I did not pass the exam.

i would just like to one final thing, I used mitigation for schizophrenia yesterday for the first time and this was accepted. However, this is for my thesis and my appeal relates to the assignment that was due about a month back. Now this seems like a stupid question but will the appeals panel look into mitigation applications made after the said late submission that I am appealing or not? If they do then can I say that I am better now and learning to live with schizophrenia. I am also extra careful now so that I don't forget to submit any more mitigation applciations.

Thanks for your advice. I will try to contact the admin team tomorrow.

Do you mean if you need to submit a claim for future assignments? I would have thought so, yes, depending on the severity of the incident and how it affects you at the time in the future. You'd need medical evidence as for all claims. But let's deal with this claim first. I wonder if you might want to disclose to the disability team, but that's entirely up to you, and if you don't want to and it's being managed, that's fine and totally your decision. Have a chat with the admin team akd good luck.

I am an academic who sits on mitigating circumstances panels and am a former admissions tutor.

Firstly, I am so sorry to hear you experienced a bad episode.

I agree with @murasaki 's excellent advice, although would say as a general point and more for the benefit of anyone reading in a similar position: it is always worth disclosing any health issue that qualifies as a disability to disability services as soon as you find out, because it gives you protection against discrimination and the right to reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act straight away, even if you don't need either. It's a measure to ensure that if anything did worsen or go wrong, as has happened here, your'e covered as the university know.

Telling disability services does not mean that your lecturers will be told or need to know, you'll have to give your consent to that. I

n terms of what you can do now I would inform Disability services immediately and see how they can help. They are often very good at advocating on a student's behalf.

In terms of meeting the criteria, do you have evidence that the episode you had was 'witnessed' eg treated by HCPs that day? If so, that will mean you're definitely covered as being eligible to apply. I ask because it's not clear from your messages whether your doctor can only confirm that he prescribed you medication after the episode.

Wishing you well.

@sonnetsandspirits The episode was 'witnessed' and treated by my doctor that day. I have a note from them where they have confirmed this. Furthermore, the prescription for medication is also from that very day. I have been under his care ever since I was first diagnosed with schizophrenia a year and a half back. Before this particular episode, my symptoms were always very mild and didn't affect my daily life. This episode was sudden and unexpected.

I should also probably mention that I am an international student and my doctor is a registered health professional based in my home country. As mentioned previously, I have been under their care ever since I was first diagnosed. I find them caring and feel comfortable discussing my mental health with them. I am also not registered with a GP in the UK ( I came to the UK a year ago and have been under treatment for the past year and a half). The University can verify the evidence, if they wish to. Also, I have come across a number of students who get treated by the doctors in their home country and their mitigation application is accepted.
Will this be a problem?

Thank you.

Hello, OP -

I am another former admissions tutor and Mit Circs panelist. I logged on to write almost an identical copy of @sonnetsandspirits ‘s letter.

For the purpose of a successful appeal, I was also concerned to confirm your involvement with HCP during the episode commencing st the end of July. That will be important evidence.

I too think you have great advice from @murasaki and am optimistic for the outcome.

Very best wishes

I hope you managed to get through on the phone (not sure if there are time differences) as I do think it's more effective than emails.

Usually student services/student union are the ones best placed to help you with the appeals process and will even help draft them

@poetryandwine This is a silly question but would a doctor fall in your classification as HCP? especially the one who had previous knowledge of my condition. They diagnosed me with schizophrenia about a year and a half back and I am most comfortable speaking about my mental health condition with them.

@murasaki I spoke with my business school info point and they're not sure about the appeals process. I also emailed my module lead who said my best hope is to appeal but they said they were not the best person to advise me.

I have email the programme director as well but haven't heard back from them. I am expecting their response anytime tomorrow but frankly, I am not very hopeful. This entire process and lack of information around it has made me hopeless and dejected.

@Spirallingdownwards you're right, almost everyone i have spoken with has asked me to get in touch with them. However, the next available appointment with them is in January. Looks like they're extremely busy with incoming students. I left a query with them about 5 days ago but my appeal deadline is day after tomorrow and I really don't think they'll get back to me by then.

Phone them and keep trying and explain when the deadline is. However from what you say a brief explanation of what happened together with uploading medical evidence should be enough

OK, keep calm, i know it's stressful but the start of term is frantic. Have you tried the disability office? They will have seen appeals before, so is try them tomorrow. Good luck.

Yes, OP - a doctor is best!