Assessment Appeal
** N.B. Appeals must be lodged within 30 days of the result of the assessment being made available to you on the web or otherwise. Appeals cannot be made on the basis of provisional results**
The appeals procedure established by the Academic Council for making an appeal against the result of an assessment may be described as follows:
- If you have grounds, you may appeal against the results of any assessment. In this context, the term ‘assessment' may mean a written examination script, a thesis or term paper, an oral assessment or any other part of the assessment process.
- The appeals process must be lodged within 30 days of the result of the assessment being made available to you on the web or otherwise.
- You must have adequate grounds for an appeal. The acceptable grounds may be summarised as:
Irregularity
i) There is evidence of substantive irregularity in the conduct of the assessment process. An irregularity might be, for example, a significant error on the exam paper or misleading directions given before or during the assessment.
Extenuating Circumstances
ii) In the first instance, appeals of this nature must be dealt with at School level by submitting an Extenuating Circumstances Form to the Programme Office. The Assessment Appeals Office can only accept an appeal on this basis if it has already been dealt with by the Programme Examination Board (PEB) or by the Dean. Appeals of this nature can be accepted if the PEB did not appreciate the seriousness of the extenuating circumstances OR if the Dean rejected your extenuating circumstances application because you did not submit the form on time and the Dean did not consider your reason for late submission to be valid.
In the context of an appeal, extenuating circumstances refer to a serious and unforeseen event in which you suffered from an illness or some personal or family trauma around the time of the assessment of which the examiners were unaware. You must have original medical certificates / police reports (etc.) to support your case and the illness or trauma must be shown to have affected you in the assessment itself or in the period immediately leading up to it.
Incorrect grade
iii) Following the findings of the School’s examination review process, a claim is made, on stated grounds, that the grade awarded is incorrect. An appeal on these grounds can only be made after you have contacted the school responsible for the assessment, inspected your script, seen how marks or grades were awarded and had your examination grade/mark explained to you by an examiner, preferably the module coordinator. An appeal based on this ground will require a coherent letter of appeal which is specific in terms of which parts of the assessment you know were marked incorrectly and which fully outlines the academic reasons why this is so. Drafting an appropriate letter to appeal on this ground will take some time and effort.
Please note, that appeals on the basis of Grade Point Average (GPA) will not be considered. Being close to a higher GPA is not a ground for appeal and such appeal applications will be returned.
- In order to lodge the appeal you must send the following to the Assessment Appeals Office:
a. Completed Assessment Appeal form (available to download here)
b. Appeal letter setting out, in detail, the grounds for your appeal
c. Original medical evidence (if applicable)
d. €75 fee per module
Send the application form, your letter of appeal, medical evidence if applicable and the fee (per module), to the Assessment Appeals Office. The money may be as a cheque, postal order or bank draft made payable to the UCD Assessment Appeals Office. PLEASE BE AWARE THAT ALL INCOMPLETE APPEAL APPLICATIONS WILL NOT BE PROCESSED AND WILL BE POSTED BACK TO THE APPELLANT.
- When the completed appeal is received in the Appeals Office it will follow this procedure.
Click here for Assessment Appeals Form