Student Services

Student Academic Appeals and Complaints

The university is committed to ensuring that your student experience is an exceptional one- but sometimes student life can be challenging. Things can go wrong, and when they do, the university has robust systems in place to ensure action is taken.

Academic Appeals (Taught)

This information on academic appeals only applies to undergraduate and postgraduate taught students.  There are separate procedures for postgraduate research academic appeals.

WHAT IS AN ACADEMIC APPEAL?

The Academic Appeals procedure is in place to support you. It allows you to request a review of a decision made by a Progression & Award Board (PAB) or an Assessment Offences Panels. This includes decisions relating to modules, results, degree classifications, Extenuating Circumstances decisions and Assessment Offence Panel outcomes.

WHAT YOU CAN APPEAL

Extenuating Circumstances (ECs)

  • You could not submit a claim for ECs at the correct time but would still like your circumstances to be considered because you believe they either affected your performance in an assessment or stopped you from undertaking an assessment.
  • Your EC claim was rejected and you don't think that the evidence supporting your claim was properly considered.
  • You do not believe that you were given an inadequate explanation for the EC outcome.

Administrative or procedural errors

  • If you feel that any part of the assessment process was not applied or was applied incorrectly and that this may have negatively affected the decision of the Progression and Award Board (PAB).

Assessment Offences Panel (AOP)

  • The Assessment Misconduct procedure was  not applied correctly.
  • You have new relevant evidence that the AOP did not know about.
  • The AOP decision was unreasonable, or the penalty was unfair.

WHAT YOU CAN'T APPEAL

You disagrees with a grade you have been given

We cannot accept appeals against what is known as 'academic judgement'. This means that you cannot appeal if you feel the grade that you received was not high enough even though you did your best or believe that you met all the criteria.

You are unhappy with the teaching or supervision on your programme

We are unable to consider an appeal in which you are unhappy with the teaching, feedback, supervision or support you have received. This should be addressed via the Student Complaints Procedure.

The Progression & Award Board (PAB) haven't published your results yet

Your grades are provisional until the Progression and Award Board (PAB) have approved them. You cannot submit an appeal until your results have been published under the 'Student Results' heading on the portal.

You cannot appeal on academic decision that you have already appealed

We are unable to consider an appeal where the substance of the appeal relates  to a matter that you have already appealed and received an outcome for.

You cannot appeal against an Assessment Offences Investigative Interview outcome

If you unhappy with the outcome of your investigative interview, you need to request that your case is escalated to an Assessment Offence Panel. Further information can be found in the Assessment Misconduct Procedure.

WILL MY GRADES BE INCREASED IF MY APPEAL IS SUCCESSFUL?

No. Even if your appeal is successful, the outcome can never uplift or change your grade. You may be offered an opportunity to improve your grade through reassessment.

WHEN SHOULD I SUBMIT MY APPEAL?

You must submit your appeal no later than 14 calendar days after you have received the decision that you are appealing against:

  • The publication of your results on the portal (the deadline for submission of an appeal will be confirmed on your results); or
  • The date of the outcome email after an Assessment offences Panel

HOW DO I SUBMIT AN APPEAL?

You need to submit your appeal using the Academic Appeals Form. The form and further guidance on submitting an appeal including filling out the form can be found in the Academic Appeals Procedure.

HELP AND ADVICE

If you are considering submitting an appeal, we advise you to contact the Greenwich Students' Union  Advice Team or your Personal Tutor or Programme Leader.  They will be able to help you decide if you have valid grounds for an appeal and discuss your options and next steps.

Further help and advice can be found in the Guidance Notes and Academic Appeals Policy & Procedure.

Student Complaints

We welcome your feedback on all aspects of your university experience, both positive and negative, and we consider complaints to be a valuable method of helping us to improve services and enhance the student experience.

We're committed to ensuring that you have the opportunity to make complaints with no negative impact on your student rights or experience. Your complaint will be investigated fairly on its own merits based on the information and evidence that you provide us.

WHO CAN MAKE A COMPLAINT

  • Undergraduate, postgraduate taught, postgraduate research and apprenticeship students currently registered on a University of Greenwich programme.
  • Students on an approved leave of absence (for instance, interruption of studies)
  • Graduates or former students (only if you make your complaint within three months of completing or ending your studies).

If you are studying for an award at a partner institution, you should follow...

WHO CAN'T MAKE A COMPLAINT

  • Graduates or former student that did not make a complaint within three months of completing or ending their studies.
  • Postgraduate research students complaining about a role as an employee of the University - these are dealt with by Human Resources.
  • Anonymous complaints - It's not usually practical for us to investigate anonymous complaints.

WHAT YOU CAN COMPLAINT ABOUT

You can complaint about any academic or non - academic service provided by the University, such as:

  • Misleading or incorrect information provided by us
  • Aspects of your learning and teaching experience including PGR supervision
  • Facilities, learning resources or other services provided by us
  • Other organisations or contactors providing a service on our behalf
  • Issues with University managed accommodation

WHAT YOU CAN'T COMPLAINT ABOUT

WHEN SHOULD I MAKE MY COMPLAINT AND HOW DO I DO IT?

When

You need to raise your complaint within 4 weeks of the issue or incident that you are complaining about.

How

Raising a complaint with staff in the area where the issue occurred is usually the quickest and most effective way to resolve an issue, which is why we expect you try to resolve your issues informally first.

You can raise a complaint with any relevant member of staff who works in the area the issue arose. If your complaint is about academic-related issues, this may be the Module Tutor or Programme Leader, or your Research Supervisor. If your complaint is about a University service, then you should talk to an appropriate member of staff from that service.

When raising a complaint it is best to:

  • Avoid being personal, using offensive language or acting in an inappropriate way
  • Present your concerns in a positive and constructive way
  • Be firm and polite, but try to avoid seeming aggressive or rude
  • Be calm and concise
  • Provide any evidence if needed and appropriate

WHAT CAN I EXPECT FROM THE COMPLAINTS PROCESS?

We aim to resolve all issues quickly and effectively during Stage 0, but for those cases that are slightly more complicated, or you feel that best outcome hasn't been reached, there are additional stages in the process.

You can see an overview of the whole process here

Additional written guidance and all the forms that you may need can be found here:

https://docs.gre.ac.uk/rep/sas/student-complaints-procedure

HELP AND ADVICE

Students’ Union

Free independent advice and advocacy is available from the Greenwich Students’ Union at any stage of your complaint:

Email: suadvice@gre.ac.uk

Web: www.greenwichsu.co.uk/advice

Online contact form: www.greenwichsu.co.uk/advice/triageform

For students at Medway, please visit: www.greenwichsu.co.uk/medway/advice

Listening Ears

Listening Ears provide confidential support to students across the University. They provide point of contact, informal and confidential support services, and referrals to relevant services as appropriate. To make an appointment with a listening ear, please email listening@greenwich.ac.uk.

University Chaplaincy

Faith communities appoint our University Chaplains to work at the University to care for students and staff of all religions and beliefs, and also for those who do not have a faith background. They are here to listen to you about anything that matters to you, and for those who would like it, they can provide faith related guidance and support.

You can contact the chaplains by dropping in to one of their regular events, or by emailing them on chaplaincy@gre.ac.uk.

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