This section explains the University's regulation in relation to long-term conditions or disabilities which affect students' ability to stduy or complete assessments and provides links to the relevant procedures and associated guidance.
The ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ has a long-established support provision for students who describe themselves as disabled, as covered by the Equality Act 2010. The ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ is strongly committed to equality of opportunity for all students.
Disability Support Services (DSS) work at the earliest possible stage with all students who declare a disability or long term medical condition. This ensures, as far as possible, reasonable appropriate support is available to meet the needs of the individual. All students who declare a disability at application stage are contacted by DSS before arrival at the university.
This regulation should be read in conjunction with the ‘Circumstances affecting students’ ability to study and complete assessments’ Regulation (link provided in Section 5 below).
3.0 Roles and Responsibilities
3.1 Responsibilities of Disability Support Services (DSS)
DSS consists of:
- Specialist Study Support Tutors who work with students with Specific Learning Differences, such as dyslexia, dyspraxia, and ADHD
- Disability Advisers who work with students with a recognised disability and/or long-term health condition, autistic spectrum conditions (ASC), and mental health difficulties
DSS will email applicants who have indicated that they have a disability, specific learning difference, autistic spectrum condition (ASC), mental health difficulty, long-term health condition or other long-term circumstances in their application prior to coming to the university.
All Students can contact DSS directly. They will be supported to identify their needs and put appropriate arrangements in place.
Where appropriate, DSS are responsible for identifying reasonable adjustments (referred to as ‘accommodations’) in the form of, for example, alternative examination arrangements and in-class arrangements. DSS will create a support plan which details these accommodations. This support plan is shared with relevant members of staff, including UNNC Faculty Senior Tutor (UNNC FST)/UNM School Senior Tutor (UNM SST) and Disability Liaison Officer (DLO) in the student’s academic school and the central examinations office.
DSS will liaise with the UNNC FST/UNM SST, DLO and other members of the academic school to discuss the individual support needs of a student if this is required.
DSS will provide staff and students with general advice in relation to specific learning differences and other disabilities, long-term health conditions or mental health difficulties at any point during the academic year. DSS will provide advice on accommodations for examinations and in-class arrangements, such as an extension to a coursework deadline.
DSS will provide a range of support services to students, including; one-to-one sessions, small group work, workshops and direction to screening tools.
3.2 Responsibilities of Students
In addition to core responsibilities set out in the Policy on circumstances affecting students’ ability to study and complete assessments:
i. Students who are aware of a disability, long-term health condition or other long-term circumstances (as outlined in the Principles section of this policy) that is expected to have an impact on their performance must make their School/Department/DSS aware of those circumstances at the earliest possible opportunity.
ii. Students must ensure that they access the relevant support services that are available to them to ensure that all possible assistance is provided.
3.3 Responsibilities of Schools
Following a coursework extension request submission by a student, this will be reviewed by either the School or student services.
Schools/student services must consider Support Plan extension requests for coursework in a timely manner and approve them wherever possible, on the grounds of the student’s disability or long-term medical condition. Where this is not possible (e.g. due to the nature of the assessment), it may be necessary to defer the assessment to the next assessment period.
4.0 Procedural Steps
4.1 Accommodations for disabilities and long-term medical conditions
Arranging a support plan for students requiring accommodations includes:
- Engagement with DSS to ensure core reasonable adjustments are identified and implemented.
- For circumstances which affect assessments, DSS follow a procedure to implement Examination Arrangements for students who have a disability or long-term medical condition.
Such arrangements are intended to make full adjustment for the condition/disability so no further adjustment or consideration would be appropriate.
Where there is a delay or an extended period required to establish these arrangements, it may be appropriate for students to consider voluntarily interrupting their studies until the necessary support is in place. In certain circumstances (e.g. diagnosis close to an assessment date), it may be appropriate for the student to make a claim using the EC procedure.
Further detail in relation to this is provided in section 4.3.1 below.For further information on how to arrange a support plan, see ‘Related Regulations, Policies and Procedures’ Section below.
4.2 Requests for extensions to coursework/assignment deadlines on the grounds of a disability or long-term medical condition
i. Students who have a Support Plan may have access to possible coursework extensions with that plan. This is not the same as an Extenuating Circumstance (EC) claim, which is principally for short term circumstances and the processes are different. Note, depending on circumstances, it is possible to have both a Support Plan extension and an additional EC extension for the same assessment.
A Coursework Extension Request form is available on the Student Services webpages (a link to the form is provided in section 5 below). A student making the request on the basis of a Support Plan must follow the guidance outlined on the relevant form and submit the request before the original submission date.
ii. If a Coursework Extension Request form has been submitted close to a submission deadline and a decision is pending, students need to submit the affected coursework, including the term ‘CERFPending’ in the submission file name. Having submitted the work done to date, students should continue working so that, should an extension be granted (which would be from the original submission date), they are able to take full advantage of any extra time allowed.
iii. Students who do not have a Support Plan that permits requests for extensions are not able to request an extension under this procedure. In this situation, students would need to submit a claim using the EC procedure and the EC regulations would apply (i.e. the basis for the claim would need to be an acceptable EC). Links to the EC procedure and regulations are provided in section 5 below.
iv. For students at UNNC, a coursework extension on the basis of a Support Plan should be requested through the Extenuating Circumstances (EC) process. Students with a Support Plan must declare it in the relevant section of the EC claim form. The Support Plan will then be automatically linked to the claim. The EC claim form is available on UNNC Student Portal.
4.3 Late Diagnosis of Long Term Health Conditions/Disabilities
There are four types of late diagnosis that may occur, namely close to an assessment, after an assessment but prior to the relevant exam board, after an assessment and after the relevant exam board, or during the academic year for study support.
4.3.1 Diagnosis close to an assessment date
Where DSS has assessed a student as requiring adjustment to arrangements for assessment but there is not time to implement them for an upcoming assessment:
Centrally arranged examination:
Where possible, the School will arrange for the assessment to take place in the School. If this is not possible the student may request a deferral of the relevant examination(s) so that the necessary adjustments can be applied to a centrally arranged examination. In such cases, the student would need to submit a claim using the EC procedure.
Other assessment types (e.g., School arranged exams or coursework):
The assessment lead will discuss the assessment with the DLO and explore whether reasonable accommodations can be put in place. If this is not possible the student would need to submit a claim using the EC procedure.
4.3.2 Diagnosis after an assessment but prior to the relevant exam board
In this situation, the student would need to submit a claim using the EC procedure as soon as the diagnosis is confirmed. Students should confirm the date that the support plan was issued.
Where the condition is not covered by the Equality Act 2010, EC claims will be considered if submitted within the timescales provided for in the EC Regulation (see link in section 5 below).
Where the student’s condition is covered by the Equality Act 2010, and an EC claim is submitted before a Board of Examiners (or equivalent for PGR students) has reached a decision on the student’s results, the claim will be considered by the School EC panel. If necessary, the decision/support measure will be referred to the Board of Examiners. EC claims of this nature can be considered outside of permitted claim deadlines, as described in section 2.1.7 of the EC Regulations (link provided in section 5 below). If a student submits an EC claim in this circumstance, the claim must apply to all completed assessments within that semester or year, and an approved outcome would require a repeat of all assessments, with or without attendance.
Advice on the Equality Act is available from the University’s DSS website. For more information, please consult DSS through the link provided in section 5 below.
4.3.3 Diagnosis after an assessment and after the relevant exam board
In this situation, the student would need to submit an appeal. If the condition is diagnosed after the Board of Examiners (or equivalent for PGR students) has met, then the university will consider the circumstances if an Academic Appeal is submitted within 30 working days of the notification of an eligible right to appeal. For more information, see the Academic Appeals Code of Practice linked in section 5 below.
The Academic Appeal submitted by the student will need to demonstrate that new evidence was not, and could not have been, made available to the Board of Examiners at the time of its original decision. Any such matters which could have been raised before the meeting of the Board, but, without good reason, were not raised, will not be considered in the event of an appeal. For an appeal to be upheld, a student who believes their performance to have been impacted prior to their diagnosis of a disability or long-term condition would be expected to have made requests for support prior to the diagnosis being made,. This would be the case whether or not they were aware that any symptoms they were experiencing may have been related to a particular disability or condition. In the event of an appeal not being upheld, the application of a ‘late diagnosis’ may remain applicable as long as the diagnosis meets with the required standards of evidence. In addition the submission to the university must have been received within the required timeframe of academic appeals in relation to a progression, award or course termination decision. Diagnosis received after this deadline will not be considered.
In all cases where it is confirmed that a ‘late diagnosis’ outcome can be applied after results have been published (meaning after an Exam Board has met), a student will be offered the opportunity to repeat the current academic year’s assessments, with or without attendance, with adjustments in place, as to allow the opportunity for the student to gain representative marks.
In making a decision on the action to be taken, Schools/Appeal handlers must consider what adjustment would have been made had the disability, long-term health condition or other long-term circumstances been known earlier in the session. If any appropriate adjustments have already been applied, no further action is necessary, otherwise actions should be backdated to cover the most recent session only.
4.3.4 Diagnosis during the academic year requiring support for study
It may be appropriate to allow the student to repeat the relevant year or semester in attendance (for which a fee would be payable). In which case, further backdating of adjustments will not occur. Students in this situation would need to submit an EC claim requesting an opportunity to undertake a repeat period of study in attendance, for which tuition fees will be payable. This pathway is subject to this being an option supported by any sponsor or legal obligation and to the university’s policy on Maximum Period from Initial Registration.
4.3.5 Alternative or additional outcomes where a late diagnosis occurs:
(a) For any student:
- Support may be provided to the student to address the circumstances.
- Where such support is given and is intended to fully address the circumstances, the same circumstances cannot be considered under any other University procedure.
(b) For postgraduate research students:
One or more of the following may be applied, subsequent to the student submitting an EC claim:
- An extension to their review deadline (the student must select the relevant option on the EC form).
- A further review may be undertaken if the student fails their annual review.
- The student may be supported to apply for an additional period of registered study in accordance with the university’s policy on Maximum Period from Initial Registration.
Where a student requests an extension to their thesis pending period in accordance with the university’s policy on Maximum Period from Initial Registration, the School will support the student with this process. Links to the relevant pages are provided in section 5 below. The student will need to complete the ‘application for the extension to thesis pending period’ form which is also found on these pages.
In the first instance it is recommended that students discuss their situation with their supervisors.
5.0 Related Regulations, Policies and Procedures
6.0 Version Control Table
Version Control Table
| Version Number | Purpose/Change | Approving Committee | Date |
|---|
|
1.0
|
Reformatted to align with new ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Policy Management Framework based on content last modified on 8/04/2024
|
QSC
|
April 2025
|
|
1.1
|
Improved clarity around how procedures should be followed
|
QSC
|
April 2026
|
|
1.2
|
Further amendment following consultation with the Investigation and Resolution Team in Student Registry and addition of relevant links
|
QSC
|
August 2026
|