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Assessment Appeals

Procedure

• The Assessment Appeals Board is responsible for processing student appeals in relation to courses/ qualifications with elements of/or full internal assessment.
• The Assessment Appeals Board via the Chair is responsible to the College’s Curriculum & Quality Improvement Board.
• All candidates should be aware of the existence of the appeals procedure and what action they need to take to make use of it.
  
• All appeals must be received in writing within 10 working days of the student being informed of the assessment decision. They should be addressed to the Vice Principal Curriculum & Quality.
• All appeals will be acknowledged within five working days and a full investigation will follow.
• All candidates who register an appeal will receive a formal reply within 15 working days.
• There are only two sets of circumstances in which the decision of a course team may be changed by a higher authority within the College. These are:
  a) Material error or irregularity, if there has been an administrative error, if the assessment was not conducted in accordance with the programme regulations or if any other material irregularity has occurred.
  b) Personal circumstances not known to the assessors or course team. If a student can prove mitigating circumstances, he/she is responsible for reporting to his/her Personal Tutor or Course Director any condition which is confirmed by supporting evidence, for example, a doctor's note. Any information must be lodged at least a week prior to final moderation. All information will be treated in confidence.
• When an appeal has been received by the Chair of the Assessment Appeals Board a request for an investigation of the circumstances of the particular case will be sent to the Head of Faculty, Head of School and Course Director.
• The Assessment Appeals Board will meet to consider the appeal and ensure that all the criteria laid down by the Awarding Body have been met when assessing the candidate’s work.
• The decision of the Assessment Appeals will be communicated to the student and the Curriculum & Quality Improvement Board by the Chair of the Board.
• In instances involving Edexcel the External Verifier (or person acting in that capacity) must be involved in any discussion and should countersign any change to recommended grades which have already been reported to BTEC.
• Where City & Guilds are involved and changes are sought to NVQ competence or the log book after the visit of the External/Verifier, he/she must be contacted and approval sought for any alterations.
• Where the OCR is involved and changes are sought to NVQ competences or log books after the External Verifier visit, an additional visit will be required. If the student wishes this visit to occur prior to the next planned External Verifier visit costs will be passed on to the student.
• Where the appeal is against a decision made by OCN (Open College Network Eastern Region) details of the procedure are available from the Head of Adult Education.
• West Suffolk College Assessment Appeals Board will comprise:
  Vice Principal Curriculum & Quality (Chair)
  Examinations Officer
  Two Faculty Heads (one representing Faculty with appeal)
  Two course team members from the course with the appeal
  A member of staff from another Faculty
  One internal verifier or assessor as available
  The Centre Co-ordinator for Internal Verification.