Progress After the Re-sits

The options available to you for progression after the re-sit diet may be slightly different depending on if you are an undergraduate or postgraduate student. We've outlined the different options and processes below.  

Contents

Undergraduate students

1. Progress Committees
2. Can I submit something in writing to the Progress Committee?
3. What should i send to the progress committe?
4. Do i need to submit evidence about my situation?
5. What can or should I ask the Progress Committee to do?
6. What if I am unhappy with the Progress Committee’s decision?

Postgraduate students

1. I am not allowed to progress, what are my options?

Undergraduate courses

Progress Committees 

If you’ve just received your re-sit results and haven’t done as well as you’d hoped, your academic situation will be reviewed by a progress committee within your School. This is where various members of staff (chief advisers and course conveners) review your academic performance up to this point and make a decision on whether you should progress on to the next stage of your course, be allowed a repeat year or be discontinued from the course. The Progress Committee will be able to take any challenging circumstances you have faced into account, before arriving at their decision.

Key communications on this from your School will be sent to you after the resits, so make sure you are checking your university email regularly.  

Can I submit something in writing to the Progress Committee?

Yes, all students have the right to make a written submission to the Progress Committee regardless of the School they are studying in. If you would like us to check over this statement before you submit this to your School, please get in touch with our SRC Advice Centre. We can review your statement and make sure that you are putting forward the best case you can to achieve your desired outcome. 

What should i send to the progress committee?

This would typically be a statement within which you:

• Provide a chronological timeline of the academic year you have just completed
• Highlight when challenges arose, what they were and how they impacted your studies
• Advise whether you had discussions with academic staff about these and what happened as a result
• Provide an update on your situation - are your challenges now behind you or do you still have these? If you do, have you gained more support for these that would help a successful return to study?
• Highlight any positives in grades you may have achieved that help to make the case that you have the underlying capabilities to be successful on the course
• Highlight your commitment in progressing on this course and what this would mean for you
• Clarify the outcome you are seeking
• Itemise any documents you are including along with your main document, e.g medical letters, email threads with staff etc

Some Schools may send you a template document to fill in, which will provide prompts for capturing the relevant information on your situation. If this is the case, try and incorporate the areas above into this document. 

Do i need to submit evidence about my situation?

Yes, ideally you will submit any evidence along with your statement that you think is relevant to your situation. If you have a medical condition or experienced a downturn in health, ideally this should be evidenced by a medical professional. You may also submit a letter from a friend or family member, if this is relevant to your situation and strengthens your argument.  

What can or should I ask the Progress Committee to do?

The options open to a Progress Committee would be to reaffirm the initial decision not to allow progress, permit progress to the next year, permit a repeat year or an exams-only year of study. 

We would suggest that you think carefully about what the best route forward is for you. For example, if your performance has been affected in the last year because of personal or medical circumstances that are ongoing, a repeat year of study may be more sensible than asking to progress to the next and more difficult year of your course. If you aren’t sure what to ask the committee for, you should discuss it with your Adviser of Studies or the SRC Advice Centre beforehand.

It's really important that you are aware of the key impacts these different ways forward have on you as they can impact your visa, funding, finances and your eligibility for exemption from Council Tax.

The information underneath highlights some of the impact your registration status may have:

Registration status	Will I be eligible to apply for a maintenance loan/bursary as usual?	Will I be eligible to apply for tuition fee support from SAAS/SFE/SFNI or SFW?	Will I be able to attend lectures and tutorials as normal?	Will I have access to my student account, the library, Moodle etc	Will I be exempt from Council Tax?
Full-time student	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Part-time student	No	Yes, but at a reduced rate in comparison to full-time study	Yes	Yes	Generally, no, unless you can demonstrate that you are studying for more than 21 hours per week over 24 weeks of the academic year.
Repeat year	Yes	Possibly. UK students can typically access additional funding for 1 or in some exceptional cases, 2 repeat years	Yes	Yes	Yes
Exams only	No	No	No – you can only attend for the exams you are scheduled to repeat.	Yes	Yes, if you are enrolled on at least 63 credits in the academic year
Dissertation Extension (PGT)	No	No	No – you are only required to submit your PGT dissertation/project	Yes	Yes, if you are enrolled on at least 63 credits in the academic year
Leave of absence	Only if you have already started the course and the period of absence is the result of medical or caring reasons.	No	No	Yes	Yes
Registered with Attendance	Yes, if you have not previously repeated a year of study.	Yes, if you have not previously repeated a ear of study.	Yes, but only for those subjects you are repeating.	Yes	Yes

What if I am unhappy with the Progress Committee’s decision?

You may be able to appeal against the Progress Committee’s decision if you can demonstrate one of the 3 grounds for appeal — please read the SRC Advice Centre’s academic appeals webpage for more information about this.

Postgraduate courses

I am not allowed to progress, what are my options?

If you are currently studying on a taught postgraduate course you may still go through a progress committee as outlined above, but not always.

In most cases, if, after re-sits you have not achieved a Grade Point Average of 12.0 or higher, you will be discontinued from the course and notified via email / letter. This means you will not be permitted to progress to the dissertation part of the course, and instead will be offered either a Postgraduate Diploma (120 credits) or Certificate (60 credits), depending on your results to date.

Once you receive this decision you should always reach-out and discuss this with your adviser of study or course convener, to see if there is any possible scope for a change in this position.  If after doing this, the situation remains the same and If you believe that personal or health challenges affected your performance and your inability to reach a GPA of 12, an academic appeal to your College is the route to challenge this decision. If successful, this may allow you to then progress and continue with your study. Please read the SRC Advice Centre’s academic appeals webpage for an overview of this process.

If you need any further help or advice please get in touch with the SRC Advice Centre.