Special circumstances explained

A special circumstance is an exceptional situation outside of your control which has had an adverse impact on your studies. This circumstance has resulted in underperformance in an assessment or non-attendance/non-submission for a scheduled assessment.

Some examples include (but are not limited to): 

• Significant short-term physical illness or injury;
• Significant short-term mental ill-health;
• A long-term or chronic physical/mental health condition, which has recently worsened temporarily or permanently;
• Death or serious illness of someone with whom you have a close relationship;
• A relationship breakdown;
• Exceptional (i.e. non-routine) caring responsibilities;
• Experience of sexual harassment or assault;
• Experience of other types of harassment;
• Victim of a crime which is likely to have a significant emotional impact;
• Military conflict, natural disaster, or extreme weather conditions.

Covid-19

You should submit a Special Circumstances application if you have experienced a significant adverse impact on your performance in assessment due to circumstances such as those listed below:

• You have been or are ill with Covid-19;
• You have experienced the exacerbation of an existing health condition due to the pandemic situation;
• You have experienced the death or serious illness of someone close to you;
• You have taken on exceptional caring responsibilities due to Covid-19;
• You have been required to carry out more paid work than usual, as a “key worker” (e.g. in healthcare, retail, delivery);
• You have experienced significant and prolonged problems with access to teaching and learning materials, e.g. due to connectivity, power, or equipment issues;
• You have experienced catastrophic technical failure preventing submission of an online assessment by the relevant deadline;
• You have experienced prolonged exposure to a difficult/challenging home environment.

If you have a long-term or chronic mental or physical health condition, the University can support you by putting in place a ‘Learning Profile’. This includes details of the reasonable adjustments to be made to support your study and assessment, meaning you don't need to apply for special circumstances unless your condition has significantly worsened.  If you think this applies to you, please contact the Student Disability Service to discuss any adjustments you may need. 

You can find a full list of examples that are likely/not likely to be accepted in the Special Circumstances Policy (item 2.2).

Special Circumstances Policy 2020/21 

Contact Student Disability Service

You can apply for special circumstances for a single course or select several assignments across different courses, all in one application. This also applies to joint honours students. You will be able to submit several applications throughout the academic year if needed. 

You can submit an application for special circumstances by filling in the form below. We have provided some technical guidance for filling in the form with Microsoft Word 2016.

What should I do if Covid-19 affects my ability to complete an assessment?

You should contact your School as early as possible to let them know about your circumstances and how they are affecting your assessments. In many cases, it may be possible to offer an extension to deadlines, or take other steps to help mitigate the impact on your performance. Where this is not possible, or your performance in assessment has still been significantly affected, we would encourage you to use the Special Circumstances process to tell us about this.

Section one: Personal details

Please fill in your personal details. If you are unsure, you can find your details by going to your student record. To do this, login to MyEd, go to the Accounts and select 'My student record.'

Section two: Courses affected by special circumstances 

Please fill in the details for the assessments you wish to apply for, separated by course. 

You can find your course code on your student record. In the assessment tab, the course code is listed next to your course title. It is made up of numbers and letters, for example, ABCD00000. 

We have provided space for four assessments within each course. To add more, right-click on the lowest row, select 'Insert,' and then 'Insert Rows Below.'

We have provided sections for three courses. If you need to apply for more than three, copy and paste one of the course tables below your filled in courses.

Section three: Nature of the special circumstances

Select an option by double-clicking the appropriate box. The box will then display an X. You can select more than one if necessary. 

Section four: Your situation and its impact

Please fill in your personal statement and impact statement. For guidance on what needs to be included, please refer to the 'Personal statement and impact statement' section below. 

Section five: Supporting evidence

To insert a picture, go to the 'Insert tab,' and select 'Picture' to upload your picture within the form. 

You may copy and paste text evidence into the document. Please make sure you indicate what the evidence is and who is providing it.

For any other evidence, please email it to escteam@ed.ac.uk. Please label it with your name, student ID, and a description of the evidence. For example, 'Jon Doe - S1234567 - GP letter.'

Once completed:

Email the form to escteam@ed.ac.uk. Please include your name and student ID in the subject line. 

Special Circumstances form (73.06 KB Word)

Submit your form

Personal statement:

• Here you will need to describe the events that have happened from beginning to end, or up until the point you submitted your application if the situation is ongoing. 
• Select a start date (if you can’t remember the exact date, please provide an approximate date) for when the incident either first occurred, or for when the impact of an ongoing issue increased.
• Please keep your statement clear and concise. If there are multiple events or factors to describe, either go through them in chronological order or separate them under different headings.

Impact Statement

• Please describe how the events described in the personal statement impacted your work. We need to know how these circumstances affected your capacity to work, and how this impacted the quality and/or ability to submit the assessment on time, if you have submitted at all.
• Please be clear and specific— if you have multiple events affecting multiple circumstances, describe how each assessment was individually effected, whether you submitted and if it was late.
• A well-outlined impact statement will help the exam board make the best decision on how to support you academically.

Covid-19

If your special circumstances are related to a medical issue, you do not need to seek medical evidence to support special circumstances requests, in view of the current strain on healthcare providers. However, if you have medical evidence, you can provide this with your application. You can also approach others to provide evidence in support of your request, where this might be helpful. This might include evidence from your Personal Tutor, or Student Support Team.

All types of evidence need to be:

• Time-specific: The evidence must cover the period of time when you were affected by the special circumstance. Evidence obtained a significant period after the circumstance is unlikely to be accepted.
• Legible: Evidence must be legible, and in English where possible. If your evidence is in a different language, please provide a translation, or description of what is contained within the document.
• Sufficient: The most useful types of evidence are usually independent assessments from a relevant professional. For example, a doctor or counsellor. If you have registered with and attended the University's Student Counselling Service, the service may be able to provide evidence for special circumstances. You can find a list of examples under item 6.2 of the Special Circumstances Policy on page four.
• By a direct/indirect witness: The person providing evidence needs to have been in contact with you during or immediately after the time of the circumstances, or other University staff or third parties who directly witnessed the circumstances, or the impact of the circumstances upon you.

Special Circumstances Policy 2020/21 

You will need to submit a complete application (with evidence) no later than seven calendar days following your final assessment date of the semester. 

If you have received an extension on your last assessment of the semester, you can submit an application no later than seven calendar days following the revised deadline. 

If you have missed this deadline, please contact your Student Support Team as soon as possible.

Contact your Student Support Team

You should discuss your situation with your Personal Tutor (PT) and Student Support Team in your school. They will be able to advise you on your individual circumstance, and to ensure that you are being supported effectively in the future. 

Contact your local Student Support Team

We also have services within the University that will be able to help you:

If the situation is urgent, or the university is closed:

Before submitting, you have the opportunity to tell us whether you would like to repeat any of your assessments if your application is approved. You can do this by letting us know in your impact statement. 

You should ensure that you are fully aware of the implications that repeating or delaying assessment could have. Before selecting, we advise that you contact your school, as well as The Advice Place, which provides independent advice to students.  Staff at The Advice Place can help you to understand the impact and provide additional information in the following areas: 

• If you'd prefer to resit your assessment(s) or examinations, these resits may be delayed to a later examination diet. This could extend the point at which you are expected to complete your studies and could delay your graduation. 

• Delay to completion of your studies may affect your funding- either for payment of fees or for maintenance dependant on the source of that funding. You should contact your funding body or sponsor for further advice on how your plans will affect your funding or sponsorship. 

• Tuition fees increase every year and therefore you may be charged a higher fee on your return to study in the following academic session.

• If you return to study in the next academic session this may impact your accommodation arrangements, including eligibility for exemptions from council tax.   

• If you have a Tier 4 visa, you should seek advice to ensure you're aware of that the effect that any delay to the completion of your studies may have with regard to visa restrictions.

Please note that there is no guarantee that you will receive your preferred outcome. 

Contact The Advice Place

• Wherever possible, please continue to work on your assignments after submitting a special circumstances application. There may be cases (e.g. ill-health) where the circumstances may prevent this.

• Once you submit a complete application, a decision will be communicated to you by the Extensions and Special Circumstances Team within five working days. 

• If your special circumstances are accepted, your request for a special circumstance will then be passed to the Board of Examiners who will assess your situation at the end of the semester. They will decide what the most appropriate outcome is for you. Your School will contact you within one week of the meeting of the Board of Examiners to inform you of the outcome of the special circumstances request.

The Board of Examiners will consider what response is in your best academic interest and would not cause you or others disadvantage. Some possible outcomes include:

• offering the opportunity to repeat assessed work, or a whole course;
• disregarding late penalties for a particular piece of work; or
• disregarding a particular mark from the calculation for a course, or for a progression or classification decision.

You can find a complete list of possible decisions in the Special Circumstances Policy (item 10 for course level, and item 11 for progression/award level) and detailed guidance on assessment procedures in the Taught Assessment Regulations.

Special Circumstances Policy 2020/21

Taught Assessment Regulations 2020/21

If you have any questions please visit our frequently asked questions section. If you still require help, please get in touch by email. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Contact the Extensions & Special Circumstances Team