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;

• Severe financial difficulties; 

• Prolonged exposure to a difficult/challenging home environment; 

• Exceptional and significant change in employment commitments, where this is beyond the student’s control; 

• Significant and prolonged problems with access to teaching and learning materials, e.g. due to connectivity, power, or equipment issues; 

• Catastrophic technical failure preventing submission of an online assessment by the relevant deadline; 

• Lack of access to library resources where there are no viable alternatives. 

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

Support for long-term chronic health conditions

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.

Covid-19 guidance

If you are required by the NHS to self-isolate, you may find that you are:

• Unable to get to essential resources to complete assessments;
• Unable to attend an essential in person assessment.

Your School Student Support Team and/or Personal Tutor can give you advice on what type of support you can apply for (e.g. extension and/or special circumstances).  You can apply for an extension to get up to seven additional days. If the assessment does not permit extensions, or if you will be impacted for longer than seven days, you can apply for special circumstances.

Special circumstances applications will need to be evidenced by a screenshot of the notification of the requirement to self-isolate.

If you are ill with Covid-19, you can apply for an extension and/or special circumstances.

Late exam submission

If you are taking an exam, you may run into issues that prevent you from submitting on time. If this happens, please alert the course-owning School as a matter of urgency once you realise there is a problem. Following this, please complete a special circumstances application. Please review our guidance below on what needs to be included in your application: 

Late Exam Submission (22.29 KB Word)

Delay of Start of In Person Studies

Any student approved to delay the start of their in-person studies does so at their own academic risk. In the assessment of your request, your School will have determined that it is possible for you to stay on track with your studies if you maintain appropriate engagement. Your late arrival to Edinburgh will not be accepted as grounds for an extension request or an application for Special Circumstances unless there are additional extenuating circumstances. Any student who arrives late without approval from their School (or who arrives after the extended deadline given to them by their School) cannot apply for an extension or for Special Circumstances on that basis. Please note that in these instances your application will be rejected.

Special Circumstances Policy

Contact Student Disability Service

You can submit an application for special circumstances via MyEd. 

When to apply

You should apply for special circumstances no earlier than four weeks before the original deadline. Applications received any earlier are unlikely to be accepted, and you will be advised to apply again closer to the deadline. 

Tell us what happened

If you are unsure whether your situation qualifies for special circumstances or an extension, you can notify us by completing the first steps of the application process. You will need to tell us what happened and when did it occur. You can select a category of special circumstances (e.g. mental ill-health). If your situation falls into more than one category, select the category that is most relevant and use the 'Tell us what happened and 'Impact statement' sections to explain your situation in more detail. 

Eligibility decision

If you’re unsure what your circumstances qualify for, you can wait for the ESC team to make an initial eligibility decision on your application. We will make a decision within two working days, and this will be displayed on your application.  The available decisions are: 

• Extensions only (CE) 

• Special circumstances only (SC) 

• Both extensions and special circumstances (Both) 

• Not eligible for support (None) 

You do not need to wait for our decision to complete the application— you can move onto the next steps at any time. 

Complete application

You can then select your assessments, tell us how these were impacted, and provide evidence. 

Please contact the school in which your course is based to ask whether you should continue to work on your assignment after submitting a special circumstances application. There may be cases, for example, ill health, where the circumstances may prevent this.

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.) If you want both an extension and special circumstances for the same assessment, you will need to make a separate application for each type of support. You will be able to submit several applications throughout the academic year if needed. 

For a step-by-step guide on how to apply, please go to our ‘Applying for support’ page.

If you are experiencing technical issues, please get in touch via the webform below.

I can’t see my assessment on the system

If the assessment you wish to apply for has an incorrect deadline or is missing from the system, please contact your School/Course Administrator.

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

If you are required by the NHS to self-isolate, you may find that you are:

• Unable to get to essential resources to complete assessments;
• Unable to attend an essential in person assessment.

Your School Student Support Team and/or Personal Tutor can give you advice on what type of support you can apply for (e.g. extension and/or special circumstances).  You can apply for an extension to get up to seven additional days. If the assessment does not permit extensions, or if you will be impacted for longer than seven days, you can apply for special circumstances.

Special circumstances applications will need to be evidenced by a screenshot of the notification of the requirement to self-isolate.

If you are ill with Covid-19, you can apply for an extension and/or special circumstances.

Apply for special circumstances

Applying for support

Extensions explained

Type of situation

• You can select a category that best describes your situation (e.g. mental ill-health). If your situation falls into more than one category, select the category that is most relevant and use the ‘Tell us what happened’ and ‘Impact statement’ sections to explain your situation in more detail. 

Tell us what happened

• 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 'Tell us what happened' section 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 there are multiple events that are impacting your ability to complete your work, describe how each assessment was individually affected, whether you completed it, and if it was late (if the work is a submission). 
• A well-outlined impact statement will help the exam board make the best decision on how to support you academically.

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. You may provide your own translation; official or paid services are not required. 
• 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 a special circumstances application. You can find a list of examples of evidence that have greater weight 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.
• File type and size: All files must be under 4MB and be one of the appropriate file types. For a full list of the file types we accept, please review the ‘Applying for support’ page.  

There may be a delay in processing your application if any evidence is missing or unclear, and it is the student’s responsibility to ensure they submit a complete, legible application before the deadline. 

Medical evidence

If you cannot provide medical evidence for special circumstances, you can instead provide a statement from a staff member, and/or a self-certification form about your ill health.

Self Certification Form (58.28 KB Word)

Supporting statement

You can ask your student support officer, personal tutor, university professional, or someone who has directly witnessed the impact the circumstances have had on you to provide a supporting statement. It needs to include the following information:

• Date/time period: State when the circumstance occurred and/or when it was brought to your attention. If the situation is ongoing please include this.
• Direct witness: Please state this and describe what happened.
• Indirect witness: Please describe what you know of the situation to the best of your ability.
• Impact: Describe your experience of how the situation has impacted the student and their studies.

For further information on evidence please refer to item six of the Special Circumstances Policy. 

Covid-19 guidance

Covid mitigation guidelines are no longer in effect: 

• All special circumstances applications will need to be supported by evidence.  

If you are required by the NHS to self-isolate, you may find that you are:

• Unable to get to essential resources to complete assessments;
• Unable to attend an essential in-person assessment.

Special circumstances applications will need to be evidenced by a screenshot of the notification of the requirement to self-isolate.

Special Circumstances Policy

Applying for support

In order to be considered for special circumstances, all sections of the application must be completed before the deadline. If any of the below sections are incomplete, the ESC team will not be able to make a decision on your application. The required sections are: 

• Tell us what happened; 

• Select your assessments and submit; 

• Impact statement;

• Uploaded evidence or confirm that you have no evidence to upload. 

Please make sure you apply no later than seven days after your final deadline of the semester. If you have received an extension on your last assessment of the semester, you can apply no later than seven calendar days following the revised deadline. 

Some schools have a set deadline that applies to all courses. You can find this information on our ‘Special circumstances deadlines’ page. When checking the deadline, please check by your School rather than by courses you want to apply for.  

I have missed my School deadline 

Applications submitted past the deadline will not be accepted unless there is a good reason why you couldn’t submit your application before the deadline. Please explain your reason for applying late in your application.  

Retrospective applications 

Retrospective applications will not be considered. (This is when you want to apply after your marks have already been ratified following the relevant Board of Examiners meeting.) Please seek further support and information about available options with your Student Support Team and the Advice Place. 

Special circumstances deadlines

Useful contacts

Contact The Advice Place

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 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

• Initial application (Tell us what happened): After submitting your initial application, we will respond within two working days confirming whether your situation is eligible for special circumstances.
• Complete application: After submitting a complete application, we will respond within five working days and provide an outcome within the system—whether or not your special circumstances have been accepted.
• What happens next: Your School will contact you within one week of the meeting of the Board of Examiners to inform you of the outcome of your special circumstances request. The outcome will also be visible in the application next to your assessments. 

The Board of Examiners usually meet four to six weeks after the end of the semester, but can also be much later. For semester one courses, this usually takes place in January, and for semester two courses, this usually takes place in June. Once the Board of Examiners has made a decision, you will be able to view the outcome through 'My Applications' in the Assessment Support tool. Outcomes will not be visible until the mark has been published after the Board of Examiners have met. 

Outcome

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; offer an extension of more than 7 days to a deadline for coursework;
• Disregarding a particular mark from the calculation for a course, or for a progression or classification decision;
• No further action. 

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.

The ESC Team will share information about your situation with the relevant school staff, if they feel it is necessary, to ensure you receive support.

Managing your application

Special Circumstances Policy

Taught Assessment Regulations

You should discuss your situation with your Student Support Team and/or Personal Tutor (PT) 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:

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