Safeguarding Academic Interests 

If your studies are impacted by industrial action, we would strongly advise you to speak to your Academic School to see if they are able to mitigate the impact the strike action is having on you and your cohort. Although we cannot guarantee this will be the case, an open dialogue between students and the University may help to establish adjustments to your programme which allow you to succeed in your teaching, learning objectives and assessments.

You may wish to speak to academic or support staff within your School to see whether adjustments can be made. If you intend to submit a complaint about the industrial action in due course, we would encourage you to keep a trail of evidence to demonstrate where you have attempted to raise concerns with the Unviersity throughout the semester. More information on this matter can be found here.

In addition to speaking to staff within your Academic School, you may wish to disclose your concerns to:

• The Academic Rep for your cohort - Academic Reps are individuals from within your cohort that attend a monthly forum with other students, and staff from across your School, College, Campus and Students' Union. They may be able to relay your concerns within the forum, with a view to seeking remedial action that may benefit you as an individual, or the cohort as a whole.
   
• The Sabbatical Officer Team - The Students' Union has a team of 'Sabbatical Officers' who are a team of individuals that are elected from the student community to lobby for political change, coordinate campaigns within the student interest, and represent the student body in discussion with the University. You may wish to speak to the Sabbatical Officers about the impact the strikes are having on you and/or your cohort, to see if they can offer any informal support. 

If you believe that you have suffered an academic detriment as a result of industrial action and you would like to request an academic remedy that has not already been offered by the University, there are some options available to you:

• Extenuating Circumstances Procedure - if you have an upcoming assessment that has been impacted by circumstances that are severe and exceptional, unforeseen or unavoidable, and close in time to the assessment, you may be eligible for an academic remedy through the Extenuating Circumstances Procedure. Please take a look at our guidance on the Extenuating Circumstances Procedure for more information.
  
  Successful declarations of extenuating circumstances may result in:
   
  • A coursework extension of one week.
  • A deferral of an assessment.  
  • An Examininig Board Remedy.
  • A four week extension to a postgraudate dissertation. 
    
     
• Interruption of Study Procedure - If you are seeking a temporary break from your studies, you may be able to request a break from your programme otherwise called and Interruption of Study or an IOS. An IOS can be requested for a minimum of two weeks absence, and a maximum of 12 months. The IOS must be granted prior to the absence and you will need to provide evidence to support your application. There are grounds under which you must apply for an IOS, these are expanded upon on this page of our website. 
  
   
• Academic Appeals Procedure - Upon receipt of your results, if you recieve an Examining Board Decision that you are not happy with, you may be able to appeal this decision. The Appeals Procedure specifically allows students to challenge their grades, progression and awards, but they do not allow students to challenge academic judgement. Appeals must be submitted by a deadline so we would encourage you to seek advice upon receipt of your transcript at the end of they year.

The Academic Appeals Process does not allow students to request non-academic remedies. If this is an outcome that you are seeking, you may need to engage with the University Complaints Procedure.

It is possible to seek an academic remedy and a non-academic remedy at the same time. However, to do so, you will need to engage with both the Academic Appeals Process and the University Complaints Procedure. 

In some cases, a student may be required to engage with both the appeals and complaints processes at the same time, in order for an appeal to be upheld. We refer to this as an Appeal-Complaint. In order to have the best chance of success when submitting an academic appeal, you must provide indesputable evidence of the circumstances that you are referring to. In cases where a student does not have sufficient evidence to demonstrate their case, an upheld complaint may help to validate the students' narrative:

• If you are considering submitting an appeal on grounds that relate to a service, your supervision, or another student or staff member, the Appeals Procedure says that you should submit a complaint under the Complaints Procedure. It does not go as far as to say you must, but failure to do so may result in your appeal being rejected.
   
• Similarly, in some cases, you will need to submit a complaint to try and get more evidence to support your appeal. For example, if you are appealing a result because you received negligent advice from a module leader which had a detrimental impact on your assessment, the University will almost certainly require a complaint on this ground to be upheld before accepting it as grounds for appeal.

If at the end of the current academic year you do not feel that we have taken actions to satisfactorily mitigate the impact of industrial action on your studies, you can make a formal complaint under stage 2 of the procedure by completing the industrial action complaint form and emailing it to studentcomplaints@cardiff.ac.uk

In the meantime, we would encourage you to:

• Monitor updates to the Industrial Action on the Student Intranet. This page is updated regularly and may contain information that is integral to your understanding of the options available to you. 
   
• Speak to your lecturers and module leaders and understand what is going to be expected of you during the assessment period or in coursework assignments. It is important that you know what you need to study, practise or develop in order to meet your learning objectives. 
   
• Refer to your Module Handbooks and Learning Central. There should be information within these documents that specify what topics and resources you need to engage with in order to build a foundational understanding of the subject matter. Try to keep up to date with these suggestions where you can, and do not be afraid to approach your lecturers, module leaders or personal tutors with any questions you may have when they become available.

If you have any questions about any of the information provided on this page of our website, please do contact us. We are contactable via the webform below, or the details provided.

Contact Student Advice
(0) +44 029 2078 1410
advice@cardiff.ac.uk