Lawyer Destroyer Short answer Yes, in principle you can rely on a diagnosis obtained after the assessment took place, but whether it helps you depends on what you are trying to achieve, the wording of your university’s regulations, and how convincingly you can link the diagnosis back to the period of the assessment. A later diagnosis is … Read more
The key distinction: administrative error versus academic judgment If a marker has genuinely failed to mark an entire answer or an entire page of your submission, that is not a disagreement about academic judgment. It is a clear administrative or procedural error in the marking process, and this is one of the strongest and most … Read more
Legal framework The duty to make reasonable adjustments comes from the Equality Act 2010. It applies where someone has a disability, meaning a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. Some conditions, such as cancer, HIV and multiple sclerosis, are treated … Read more
What a competence standard is A competence standard is a defined legal concept under the Equality Act 2010. Schedule 13, paragraph 4 defines it as “an academic, medical or other standard applied for the purpose of determining whether or not a person has a particular level of competence or ability.” In practical terms, it is … Read more
Short answer Yes, changing a deadline or altering the format of an assessment can be a reasonable adjustment, but not automatically and not without limits. Under the Equality Act 2010 an education provider (a school, college, university or awarding body) has a legal duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled students so they are not … Read more
Overview If a university loses your examination script or submitted coursework, this is treated as an administrative or procedural failing by the institution, not as your fault. The general principle applied across the higher education sector in England and Wales is that a student should not be disadvantaged because the provider has lost work that … Read more
Short answer You cannot simply demand that a university provide lecture recordings, captions or accessible materials as an absolute right in every case. However, if you are a disabled student within the meaning of the Equality Act 2010, the university has a legal duty to make reasonable adjustments so that you are not placed at … Read more
Short answer Yes. Document version history, earlier drafts, notes, research materials and file metadata are among the most persuasive evidence a student can produce to rebut an allegation that work was generated by artificial intelligence. They are not a guaranteed knockout, and their value depends on what they actually show, but authentic contemporaneous evidence of … Read more
The core distinction Collusion is best understood as a boundary problem rather than a single act. The key question is always: what was this particular piece of work required to be? Almost every assessment falls into one of two categories, and the same behaviour can be entirely legitimate in one and misconduct in the other. … Read more
What kind of correction this usually is Correcting a mark that has been entered wrongly on the university system is normally treated as an administrative or clerical matter rather than a dispute about the quality of the marking itself. The key distinction is between an error of fact or recording, which universities will correct, and … Read more
The short answer Yes, you can appeal, but whether the appeal has any prospect of success depends entirely on the reason you think the mark is unfair. There is a crucial distinction in this area. You cannot normally appeal simply because you disagree with the academic judgement of the markers, that is, their expert assessment … Read more
Short answer It depends on your university’s own regulations, but in most cases you can bring some form of support or representation to a misconduct hearing. What is far less certain is whether you can bring a solicitor to act as a full legal representative. Many universities allow you to be accompanied by a friend, … Read more
Short answer Not automatically, and not fairly, if you had nothing to do with the misconduct. Whether the whole group can be penalised depends heavily on the wording of your university’s academic misconduct regulations and on the evidence about who was actually responsible. In principle a university can hold group members jointly accountable for a … Read more
Short answer Yes, you can be penalised for reusing parts of your own earlier work, even though it is your own writing. In academic settings this is usually called self-plagiarism, duplicate submission, or re-use of work, and most universities and colleges in England and Wales treat it as a form of academic misconduct. Whether you … Read more
Short answer There is no single rule for England and Wales. Whether using AI for planning, coding or brainstorming counts as academic misconduct depends entirely on your institution’s regulations, the specific assessment brief, and above all whether the work you submit is genuinely your own and properly acknowledged. Using AI to spark ideas or plan … Read more
Short answer No. A high Turnitin similarity percentage does not, by itself, prove plagiarism. It is evidence that a proportion of the text in your work matches material held in Turnitin’s databases. Whether any of that matching amounts to plagiarism or another form of academic misconduct is a separate question that requires human academic judgement. … Read more
Short answer Yes, it is often possible to appeal even after the deadline has passed, but you will normally need to persuade the university to accept a late appeal by giving a good reason for the delay, ideally supported by evidence. Poor communication by the university can be a good reason, but a lot depends … Read more
The core distinction Plagiarism and poor referencing both involve failing to attribute sources correctly, but they are treated very differently because the key issue is usually the seriousness of the failure and, in many cases, whether there was an intention to deceive or gain an unfair advantage. Plagiarism means presenting someone else’s work, words or … Read more
Short answer Yes, in principle a university can accept mitigating circumstances (also called extenuating or exceptional circumstances) after the published deadline, but it is not automatic. Almost every institution builds a limited discretion into its policy to consider late claims where there is a good reason for the delay. Whether yours will be accepted depends … Read more
Short answer There is no single rule that says “the landlord always deals with pests.” Who is responsible for mice, rats, cockroaches or bedbugs in rented student housing depends on what caused the infestation, what your tenancy agreement says, and whether the property was fit to live in. In most student lettings the responsibility falls … Read more
