Case Summaries
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Case summary April 2025 | Not Justified
A student on a one-year postgraduate taught course was living with depression which affected their ability to meet some coursework deadlines. The provider agreed several extensions to deadlines. 14 months after beginning the course, the student had one piece of coursework outstanding, which they were attempting for the second time. On the submission date the student asked for their circumstances to be considered because they were not able to submit the work in full. The provider responded by email on the same day saying that the request was refused. The student submitted their unfinished essay. Three weeks later, the provider told the student that they had not passed the module, and that their studies would be terminated.
After three weeks the student made an academic appeal. The provider responded the next day accepting the appeal and saying it had made a mistake when rejecting the student’s earlier request. It confirmed that the student could continue their studies and have a further attempt at the outstanding coursework.
The student made a complaint about how the mistake had affected them. The provider again accepted that it had made a mistake. It apologised to the student and offered them £500 compensation in recognition of the distress this had caused.
The student remained dissatisfied and complained to us. The student explained that the error had caused them very serious distress and that they had been suicidal for several months afterwards. They said that they had lost a job offer because they had not been able to complete the course and obtain the required professional registration in time to accept it. The student requested £20,000 in compensation.
We did not uphold the complaint (we decided it was Not Justified) because we thought that the provider had already offered the student a reasonable remedy that was proportionate to the mistake it had made. It had acted quickly to tell the student they could continue with the course. The mistake had not delayed the student in achieving their professional registration; unfortunately, because the student wasn’t able to meet the original deadline it would never have been possible for the student to achieve professional registration in the timeframe required to take up the job.