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Essential coronavirus info
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Extenuating Circumstances

Extenuating Circumstances (ECs) are defined as circumstances which are unexpected, significantly disruptive and beyond your control, and which may have affected your ability to meet an assessment deadline or the level of your performance at assessment. You do not need to submit an EC for online study.

If you are having difficulties, you may be able to submit an Extenuating Circumstances claim. We have prepared an FAQ sheet to explain this process:

Extenuating Circumstances FAQs, February 2021 (PDF 78KB) for students considering submitting a claim

2020/21 Extenuating Circumstances Regulations

Students should apply for Extenuating Circumstances via the Student Portal - by logging in and selecting the EC option from the 'My Assessments' tab.

Extenuating Circumstances Regulations 2020-21 (PDF 72KB)

These regulations are applicable for all units that begin from October 2020 onward

How to make a claim


Please read the guidance document before submitting your EC claim. Students should apply for Extenuating Circumstances via the Student Portal - by logging in and selecting the EC option from the 'My Assessments' tab. 

If you are experiencing problems submitting your Extenuating Circumstance via the student portal you can download the Extenuating Circumstances Claim Form 20-21 below and once completed, submit it to the EC address of your College:

You will receive an automated response to confirm receipt and will be updated in due course.

If you are a postgraduate research degree student (PhD/MPhil only) please contact the Research Student Team at researchdegrees@arts.ac.uk for information on Extenuating Circumstances, Time Out, or transferring to another course(/institute).

If you are unable to attend the on-campus sessions for your course you will no longer need to submit an Extenuating Circumstances (EC) claim to tell us this. From now on, you can let us know your intended study mode using the options set out within the Student Portal.

We have prepared an FAQ sheet to explain this process:

FAQs for students unable to attend in the Spring term (PDF 21KB)

Requesting time out from your studies


You may be able to take time out from your studies under certain circumstances but you should consult the guidance below as there are some restrictions: