Firstly, you need to make sure you have discussed the matter informally with your department as far as possible, and only after this proceed to appeal.

At this point, make sure that it has been less than 21 days since you were informed of the result you wish to appeal – appeals must be made within this time and extensions to that deadline will only be granted in exceptional circumstances.

Undergraduates

An appeal must be submitted using the new Faculty Student Appeals App which can be found here. If you no longer have an active Durham University account, for example, if you have been withdrawn from the University, you will be unable to access the Faculty Student Appeals App. Please contact your Faculty Office, stating your full name and student ID number, to request an alternate submission method. (See Faculty Academic Appeals - Durham University for Faculty Appeal contact emails.)

Postgraduates

The Postgraduate Faculty Appeal form must be completed, which can be downloaded from here and then sent by email, with any supporting evidence attached to student.appeals@durham.ac.uk

At this stage, you could contact the SU advice centre using our enquiries form here.

Possible outcomes at Faculty level are:

• The result in question is sent back to the board of examiners to be re-examined
• A concession is granted which will impact how the result is taken into account
• Faculty may pass the case up to the Senate Academic Appeals Committee for examination
• No grounds for appeal are found and the appeal dismissed. In this case, you may wish to progress to the Senate Academic Appeals Committee, about which more information can be found below.

After investigation at Faculty level has concluded, you may wish to continue appealing if the Faculty finds no grounds for appeal. You need to either have evidence that the procedure was applied incorrectly at Faculty level, or that there is substantial new information which would impact the case that you were either not aware of or were unable to tell the Faculty appeal about, in order for your appeal to SAAC to be valid.

Please note that at SAAC level, a decision being ‘unreasonable’ is no longer grounds for an appeal.

An appeal at Senate stage must be submitted to the Academic Quality Service (AQS). The form to file a senate level appeal can be found here.

On this form, you need to:

• Clearly state what decision you are appealing
• The grounds for that appeal, and a detailed supporting explanation for each point
• Outline a desired outcome, for example that it is reviewed and mitigating circumstances are taken into account
• Attach relevant documents which may support your appeal.

SAAC appeals are submitted to Academic Quality Services (student.appeals@durham.ac.uk) and need to be submitted within 14 days of the outcome of your Faculty appeal.

Your case will be reviewed by an Academic Appeal Review Panel (AARP) within 28 days and you will be notified of the outcome in writing, normally within 10 days of the panel.

The AARP may dismiss the appeal or uphold the appeal and refer the case back to the appropriate party, for example the Board of Examiners.

Exceptionally a case will be referred to a full meeting of SAAC, and the SAAC meeting will usually include the head of your department, the head of your college, and the chair of the relevant board of examiners (or a supervisor in the case of some Postgraduates). You will be asked to present your own case in person, though in some circumstances you may be able to nominate a proxy to attend in your place.

Judgments are normally reached within 10 days of the meeting, at which point SAAC can grant a concession, return the decision to the board of examiners for review, or they may find no grounds for appeal and disallow it. When one of these decisions is come to, a ‘Completion of Procedures’ letter will be issued. At this point, you may appeal to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIAHE), about which more information can be found below.