Mitigating circumstances

What are mitigating circumstances?

NTU understands that prospective students can experience significant interruptions to their studies, due to circumstances outside of their control and events that happen above and beyond everyday life. These are known as mitigating circumstances, and may include illness, bereavement or be as a result of difficult home situations.

What does NTU consider to be mitigating circumstances?

Mitigating circumstances usually refers exceptional, unforeseen and unpreventable events and/or circumstances that impact a student’s ability to achieve the grades that they are capable of, including but not limited to:

• the serious illness or death of a parent, child, sibling or partner
• extended hospitalisation following illness
• serious domestic disturbance / abuse
• victim of crime
• depression / anxiety / mental health
• young carers
• diagnosed eating disorders
• leukaemia / cancer

Please note that where reasonable adjustments have already been put into place (for example, as a result of a disability, long term health condition and/or learning differences) and/or special consideration has already been applied via the Examination Board(s) or Awarding Bodies, NTU will be unable to take mitigating or extenuating circumstances further into account. You should first speak to your school/college to understand if they have or are going to submit your circumstances to the Examination Board(s) or Awarding Organisations before submitting a request to NTU for consideration.

The University is unable to consider requests relating to teaching, learning or assessment irregularities (including, but not limited to, teacher absence, use of supply teachers, curriculum teaching errors, interruptions to timed assessments, transport issues travelling to assessments, and IT issues relating to work), general pressures of school/college and/or periods of high workload.

How do I request consideration of my circumstances?

All requests must be made via the submission of a Mitigating Circumstances Notification Form.

All sections of the form must be completed and appropriate evidence must be provided such as hospital/GP letters, a letter of support from school/college/social workers or death certificates. For students in full time education, the section relating to your school referee must be completed before the form is submitted.

Once you have completed the form in full, please return it along with all supporting evidence to rmcadm@ntu.ac.uk.

What happens to my information?

By submitting a request, applicants are consenting to their information being shared with the mitigating circumstances contacts, including colleagues from Admissions and Student Support Services. This information is kept securely and is only shared with NTU staff required to make a decision.

The Associate Director of Admissions and Student Recruitment will assess the circumstances and consider if adjustments need to be made. These may include:

• A reduced offer, adjusted to account for the impact of the circumstances
• An offer for an alternative course or year of entry
• Accepting lower grades upon receipt of your results

If your circumstances are accepted and you join NTU, the information will be shared with Student Support Services to ensure any appropriate ongoing support can be put in place.

My circumstances were rejected and I would like to appeal my decision

NTU reserves the right to make a judgment about whether any mitigating circumstances should have been dealt with by prior mitigating processes, and whether it believes it has impacted an applicant’s education as described. In some cases, and regardless of the seriousness of the circumstances, the University may not be able to make an offer or confirm a place.

The NTU Appeals procedure for applicants can be found in our Admissions Policy along with the full details of our policy on Mitigating Circumstances (section 13).