If personal circumstances affect your exams or assessments, or your attendance at teaching activities, you can make a request for mitigating circumstances. This includes extension requests on assessment deadlines. A panel will assess each request, and where necessary take action to mitigate for any impact on your performance.
Mitigating circumstances might include a significant short-term illness or injury, a long-term or recurring medical or mental health condition, the death or illness of a close family member, acute stress from personal or financial issues, absence for public service (e.g. jury service), or technical issues during an online exam or assessment.
Universty of Manchester mitigating circumstances policy gives further examples of what are and are not considered mitigating circumstances.
When can you request mitigating circumstances?
If the issue affects you for seven days or less, and does not affect an exam or assessment, you do not need to request mitigating circumstances. You should instead complete the student self-certification of absence form and send this to your School support team.
If the issue continues for more than seven days, or affects an exam or assessment, you can request mitigating circumstances. You can do this either before or shortly after an assessment deadline or exam.
Check this page to find your department/school's email:
Personal Mitigation Circumstance (PMC) should be used as a last resort. Please make sure you have engaged with academic support services and guides on the Student Hub, which can help you avoid using the PMC Procedure and help you to stay on track for progression and/or graduation. Please read the FAQs below before submitting a PMC request.
Whilst evidence is usually need to support your PMC, there are some circumstances in which you can submit a PMC without the need for evidence. You can only use a PMC without evidence once in a trimester. Only use this option if you really must.
The university's Assessment Mitigation Procedure is designed to help you continue your studies despite unexpected disruption which may impact on your assessments.
For Royal Northern College of Music, If a student feels that their performance in examinations or other assessments will be adversely affected by extenuating circumstances, they are strongly advised not to take the assessment and to submit extenuating circumstances in advance for consideration by the Extenuating Circumstance Panel.
If a student takes an assessment they will have been deemed fit to do so and will not normally be able to submit an application for extenuating circumstances once an assessment has been undertaken.
Extenuating circumstances will, in all but exceptional circumstances, involve cases of illness or bereavement, as detailed below:
Illness diagnosed and certified by a doctor or other appropriately qualified practitioner/counsellor;
a recurrent or on-going medical condition (physical and/or psychological) diagnosed and certified by a doctor or other appropriately qualified practitioner/counsellor;
Injury diagnosed and certified by a doctor or other appropriately qualified practitioner/counsellor;
Bereavement of a close family member evidenced by death certificate;
serious illness/injury in the family diagnosed and certified by a doctor or other appropriately qualified practitioner/counsellor;
personal problems requiring medical intervention and confirmed by an appropriately qualified practitioner/counsellor.
