Group mitigating circumstances

What to do when issues arise from group coursework

Occasionally, issues can arise from group coursework causing intra-group conflict and/or absence/non-cooperation of one or more group members.

In such instances, issues should be reported directly to the module leader at the earliest opportunity. According to the University Policy Statement on Group Working, the issues should then be addressed as part of the agreed arrangements for the delivery and assessment of the module concerned.

University Policy on Group Working →

Group Mitigating Circumstances Claims

Normally, individual or group Mitigating Circumstances claims relating to group coursework will not be an eligible reason for consideration. However, in cases where there are exceptional circumstance(s) which did not allow for the group issue to be reported to the module leader and addressed according to the University Policy Statement on Group Working, then please submit a MC claim.

The consideration of group MC claims may be initiated at the discretion of the Academic Registrar. This will be in relation to an incident or set of circumstances where a group claim rather than a series of individual claims is most appropriate. The initiation of a Group MC claim will normally be prompted by one of the following:

  • the submission of several individual MC claims all relating to the same incident/set of circumstances;
  • the submission of one MC claim signed by several students;
  • an incident or set of circumstances affecting multiple students being brought to the attention of the Academic Registrar by a member of University staff.

Process of Group Mitigating Circumstances Claims

Where a Group MC claim has initiated by the Academic Registrar, the following should take place:

  1. All affected students should be informed of the circumstances covered by the Group MC claim and advised to submit separate individual claims.
    • Additional supporting evidence should only be submitted if an individual student feels they were affected in other/additional ways that are not covered by the Group MC claim.
  2. Where the claim is one which relates to a group of students belonging to more than one programme, and which will therefore be considered by more than one MC Panel/Programme Board, the secretaries of the MC Panels/Programme Boards concerned should liaise in order to ensure consistency of decision-making (noting that this does not necessarily mean that the same action will be taken in relation to all affected students, as each student’s individual performance in the assessment(s) covered by the Group MC claim and in other assessments, both impaired and unimpaired, will be taken into account in the decision-making process).