Mitigating Circumstances

Mitigating Circumstances

If you're in a taught programme of study at King's College London, you'll be expected to take part in assessments at times specified by the university. Assessments include handing in coursework assignments and sitting exams. However, King's recognises that there are times when circumstances out of your control, such as illness or bereavement, might stop you from being able to complete assessments to the best of your ability. For this reason, the College has a process called the 'mitigating circumstances' procedure. 

 

The university defines mitigating circumstances as: 

"Significant, relevant, and unavoidable events which are beyond a student’s control, and which may affect a student’s performance in a summative assessment. "

‘Unavoidable’ means that the circumstances must be out of your control and could not have been prevented. 

‘Relevant’ means it must be clear that your mitigating circumstances are impacting you at the time you are working on or revising for the assessment. 

‘Significant’ means that the circumstances have had a demonstrably negative impact on your ability to study or complete an assessment.  

Summative means that mitigating circumstances only covers assessments that contribute to your overall module grade.  

Examples of possible mitigating circumstances include: 

• Serious short-term illness or injury 

• Worsening of an ongoing illness or disability, including mental health conditions 

• Bereavement or significant illness of a close family member or friend 

• Witnessing or experiencing a traumatic incident or becoming a victim of crime 

• Religious holidays 

• Having to attend court (including jury service) 

Examples of circumstances not usually considered as mitigating include: 

• Pre-booked holidays or house moves  

• Minor illnesses such as colds or hayfever, unless symptoms are particularly severe 

• Minor transport disruption 

• Normal exam stress or assessments being close together 

• IT issues where you should have backed up your work 

• Misreading an exam timetable or deadline submission date 

 

You can read the university’s mitigating circumstances policy in full here: Mitigating Circumstances Policy | King's College London (kcl.ac.uk).  

Applying for mitigating circumstances  

You can apply for Mitigating Circumstances via student records – a full guide can be found here: mitigating-circumstances-student-guide-student-records.pdf (kcl.ac.uk) and information is available here: KA-01744  · Student Services Online (kcl.ac.uk). 

We cannot advise on technical aspects of submitting the request, but we can assist by providing practical guidance and advice on completing the request to best convey your circumstances. There are two primary components to completing a mitigating circumstances request: 

1. Summary statement 

2. Evidence  

Advice on writing a good summary statement:  

• Your statement should explain the mitigating circumstances you are struggling with and how they have affected you. It must be clear, concise and under 2000 characters.  

• You should include key dates including when your circumstances started, including any dates of diagnosis if your difficulties are health related. If you have been experiencing the same mitigating circumstances for an extended period, then you should give the key dates of any recent deteriorations in these circumstances.   

• If you are applying for mitigating circumstances on the grounds of physical or mental health, you should explain specific symptoms including the frequency, severity and duration. It’s helpful to clearly explain how specific symptoms impact specific aspects of study e.g. ‘depression caused physiological symptoms for me such as exhaustion, being exhausted meant I found it hard to concentrate on my work’ 

• You must clearly explain how your circumstances have affected your ability to complete coursework or revise for and sit your exam(s) – this is the key section to focus on as this will be used to assess your request. 

• If you are applying retrospectively (meaning you have already sat an exam or handed in coursework) then you must also include a section explaining why you did not apply for mitigating circumstances in advance. For example, this could be due to an unexpected onset of difficulties within the assessment itself or not realising the impact they were having on you at the time. Additional evidence showing why you did not submit a request in advance will be needed in this case. 

• You should include bullet points if it helps you explain things more clearly. 

 

If you would like your statement to be checked before you submit to your department, KCLSU Advice can read a draft of your summary statement and provide advice on it. 

Advice on providing evidence: 

• Evidence should be signed, dated and on headed paper to show it is an official document. 

• It should be written evidence in English (or with a certified translation) from a professional, independent third party i.e. doctor, counsellor, social worker, lawyer, housing/money/visa advisor, chaplain. 

• It should back up your statement, explaining your circumstances and how they directly affect your ability to study or complete coursework.  

• You should only include photos if they are screenshots of written evidence. 

Exceptional cases 

The university acknowledges that in exceptional cases, it might be impossible to obtain evidence and in such cases the requirement to submit evidence will be waived. Examples of exceptional cases include, but are not limited to: 

• Gender based violence and abuse 

• Coercive relationships 

• Students impacted by political unrest/conflict 

• Students estranged from parents/partner which is having a financial or emotional impact 

 

Deadlines 

There are deadlines for you submitting a mitigating circumstance request, and the university also has deadlines for getting back to you promptly. You can submit a request at any time before a deadline or exam date, and the university encourages you to submit a request as soon as possible. You do not need to wait until you have evidence. That being said, you should keep in mind the relevancy of the request when choosing when to submit a request i.e the university may be less likely to accept a request six months in advance for instance. 

If your deadline has already passed, you can submit a request for mitigating circumstances up to five working days after the date of the assessment. You will have slightly longer to provide evidence for the request as evidence must be submitted within 10 working days.  If you will struggle to meet the 10-working day deadline, you should discuss this with your department, and they will decide if a further extension is appropriate.  

If you have attempted an assessment, but in hindsight believe you had mitigating circumstances, you can also submit a request within five working days. In this case you you’ll need to also evidence why your judgement to attempt the assessment was impaired. 

If you have missed the deadline for requesting mitigating circumstances, you might still be able to apply, as long as you have not received ratified results yet. In this case, you must provide evidence as to why you missed the cut off for applying.  

Mitigating circumstances requests will never be accepted after the publication or ratification of results. At that stage, you should follow the appeals process. 

 

Outcomes 

You should receive an outcome of your request within five working days of the initial submission, as long all information and evidence for the request has been provided.  

There are a few different things that can happen when you submit a mitigating circumstances request. It will either be approved, rejected or possibly approved subject to further evidence.  

If your request is rejected, you must complete your assessment as planned, unless you can show evidence that your circumstances have changed since the initial request, or if you can produce further evidence that was not available at the time of the initial request. If you are not happy with the outcome of your request, you can appeal once your results have been ratified.  

If your request is accepted, the university must offer some kind of mitigation, for example, you may be offered an extension or there may be the option to defer your assessment.   

The mitigating circumstances procedure will never be used to adjust/increase marks or grades awarded. 

 

Disability and Personalised Assessment Arrangements 

In the UK disability is defined as a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on a person’s ability to carry out normal day to day activities (Equality Act, 2010). Examples of disabilities include mental health conditions such as depression, specific learning differences such as dyslexia or dysgraphia, neurodivergences such as autism or ADHD, physical disabilities like cerebral palsy or muscular dystrophy, or long term or chronic illnesses such as cancer or diabetes. 

If you are disabled, you can request a Kings Inclusion Plan (KIP) which sets expectations for reasonable adjustments the university will make as standard for your learning. More information about this can be found here: King’s Inclusion plans | King's College London (kcl.ac.uk). If you need additional adjustments for completing graded exams or coursework, you can apply for Personalised Assessment Arrangements (PAA). You can see technical guidance for applying for PAA here: KA-01036  · Student Services Online (kcl.ac.uk) 

Most PAA relate to exams, but you can also apply for the ability to request seven-day extensions for coursework. If your PAA request is approved, you will still need to complete a mitigating circumstances form for each assessment, but you would have the option to select the ‘extension granted by PAA’ option in the drop-down menu. This would mean that the mitigating circumstances procedure would be more straight forward for you, as you wouldn't need to provide additional evidence. Please note if you needed a further extension after one initially agreed as a PAA extension, then you would need to submit another MCF with an explanation and evidence. More information can be found here: KA-01863  · Student Services Online (kcl.ac.uk) 

 

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