Appeals, complaints and conduct

Appeals against an Award Board decision must be submitted through a process on eVision. To do so, log into your e:Vision account, access the “My Student Information & Support” tab and follow the process to submit an appeal. This will ask you a series of questions to help to establish whether your appeal is eligible for consideration. It will also help to ensure you have provided all the information we need to assess your appeal. There are very specific reasons that students can appeal for, and if your appeal does not meet them, it will not be eligible, and we will not accept it.

You can appeal up to two weeks (excluding bank holidays and University closures) following publication of your results on e:vision. After that, we will only accept an appeal if there was nothing you could have done to submit it on time. You will need to explain and provide evidence to show why your appeal is late. You can find more information about the process on the Complaints and Appeals Procedure, and the Student Guides to Exceptional Circumstances and Providing Evidence.

If you cannot submit your appeal through e:Vision, you can submit it by emailing regulations@staffs.ac.uk  If you need to do this, you need to tell us as soon as possible, and explain why you have been unable to use the e:Vision appeal procedure. This might be because

• The option is not available on your e:Vision screen
• You do not have access to your e:Vision account because access has been removed

If you have forgotten your password, you will need to reset this by following the "forgotten password" link on the e:Vision login page. You will not be able to email your appeal to us in these circumstances.

If you would like guidance or support with your appeal, you can contact the Student Support & Experience team, the Students' Union Student Advice Team or your partner provider support team.

Complaints and Appeals Procedure

Here at Staffs we want to do all we can to make sure you have a fantastic student experience. If something isn't quite right, let us know and we will try to put it right quickly.

If you have not done so already, you should raise your complaint with the person or team which the complaint relates to in the first instance. If you have already done so, or it is not appropriate to do so, you should use the Formal Complaint Form.

If you are a Staffordshire University student studying at one of our partner institutions, you will need to raise any concerns with your institution in the first instance. You can find more information about the process in the Complaints and Appeals Procedure.

Complaints and Appeals Procedure

We want you to submit your assessments first time, on time.  If you need additional support, please contact your Personal Tutor as there may be something we can do to ensure you meet your deadline.

If something happens which you could not have planned for, you may be able to claim for Exceptional Circumstances to be taken into account. EC claims can be submitted 1 month before and up to 2 weeks after the deadline for an assessment. If you wish to appeal in relation to providing new evidence, you should first check to see if you are still in time to submit a new claim. If you are in time, we recommend that you consider submitting a new claim with the evidence. This claim will be considered separately from any previous claim and will likely result in a quicker outcome than the appeal process.

If you do need to appeal a decision, you will need to ensure that you provide the following:    

• Your student number 
• The ECR Reference number associated with the claim   
• The specific reason for appeal, as outlined in the Procedure  
• An explanation of how your appeal relates to these reasons    
• All relevant supporting evidence, which must be independent. For more information on the University’s expectations on evidence, please see the Student Guide to Providing Evidence    

If you do not provide all of this information, it may further delay a response while we ask you to provide this, or we may be unable to consider your appeal.

Exceptional Circumstances Procedure

To have good academic conduct you must study and complete your assessments honestly.  This means that:

• Your work is your own;
• You have acknowledged every source of information you have used;
• Your research has been done ethically.

Staffordshire University provides study skills support and guidance to help you understand what good academic conduct is.  Poor academic conduct is called academic misconduct.  There are different types of academic misconduct and you can find a list in the Academic Conduct Procedure, along with how the University will consider any cases of poor academic conduct.

Academic Conduct Procedure

We want to create an inclusive and safe environment for our University community.  Our Student Disciplinary Procedure supports that aim and will be used in a consistent and fair way to consider any student conduct which does not meet the University values.  We are Proud to be Staffs and we want you to be too.

Student Conduct Procedure

The Fitness to Practise Procedure applies to you if you are registered on an award leading to professional registration, such as nursing, social work or education.  If you are on one of these courses you will also need to complete a Disclosure and Barring Service application.  The Fitness to Practise Procedure explains how the University will consider fairly and consistently any criminal convictions, or behaviour which may be below the expected standard.

Fitness to Practise Procedure