Special Consideration

Special Consideration is a process that affords equal opportunity to students who have experienced circumstances that adversely impact their ability to complete an assessment task. Students who are granted Special Consideration will nonetheless be required to demonstrate achievement of designated learning outcomes.

There is, however, a clear distinction between longstanding illness or difficulties which prevent students from attending classes or completing required work or which seriously interfere with their capacity to study for long periods, and short-term serious illness or misadventure that may prevent a well-prepared student from sitting for an examination or completing a particular assignment. In general, the provisions of Special Consideration are intended to apply to the latter situations.

Long term and serious issues: If you have a serious or long term illness or misadventure that affects your performance over an extended period, you must inform us as soon as possible, and not wait till after the exam, or very late in the semester.

It is academic dishonesty to obtain and submit a medical certificate and/or a special consideration form that misrepresents the nature or extent of any illness or misadventure.

Procedure

1. Complete the PDF Special Consideration Application Form.
2. For Engineering units of study, submit the application at the Undergraduate Office of the Faculty of Engineering. We recommend that you keep a copy of any application and attachments and ask for a receipt of submission.
3. For non-engineering units of study, you must apply at the relevant faculty office.
4. Students will be notified of the decision via email to their student email account usually within 14 days. Students should check their emails regularly as this notification will include details of any replacement assessment (if appropriate).

Forms of Special Consideration

In accordance with Clause 5.6 of the Examination and Assessment policy, three forms of special consideation are generally given:

• Replacement assessment applies to an examination-based assessment, typically a final examination or major mid-term. Where a successful claim for Special Consideration is made prior to, during or immediately after an assessment (typically an examination), any replacement assessment will be treated by the Faculty as a first attempt and the original attempt at the assessment will be deemed not to have occurred.
• Reweighting: For a repeating task, such as a weekly quiz, or regular tutorial submission, the marks from the other tasks may be reweighted to account for missing a small task. The non-completion of some minor component of assessment must not compromise the integrity of the assessment, and missing mutliple sessions (generally more than one third) generally requires the student to perform alternative assessment.
• Extension: For a non-exam task such as an assignment, the usual allowance is an extension of the deadline. The requirement to submit an assignment will not usually be waived, and students are usually expected to submit the assignment when the period of illness is over. eg for a 2 day illness just before an assignment is due, you should be assuming that you still have to submit the assignment 2 days after the original due date, and not wait before submitting an application and getting a response before considering submitting the assignment.