Case Summaries

Pregnancy, parenthood and childcare - CS072207

Case summary July 2022 | Not Justified

A student in their final year of study asked for additional consideration of their personal circumstances for two pieces of coursework. The student explained that they had been feeling unwell in the early stages of a pregnancy, and that they also had a child who had been unwell. The student was given more time to complete their work.

At the end of the academic year, the student was awarded a 2:2. The student made an academic appeal saying that their performance in their final year’s assessments had been affected by pregnancy-related illness, and by their caring responsibilities for their children and parents. The student explained that as a single parent, their situation had been very stressful.

The provider rejected the appeal because the student did not have a good reason to explain why they had not asked for additional consideration of these circumstances when they were completing their final assessments. The student was unhappy with this decision and complained to us.

We decided that the complaint was Not Justified.

We could see that the student had a number of responsibilities and challenges to balance with their studies. But it was clear from the provider’s guidance that students needed to ask for their circumstances to be considered using the correct process each time they felt their studies had been affected. It was not reasonable for the student to assume the provider would automatically consider that their performance had been affected by their pregnancy.

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