Extenuating circumstances

We advise that you complete the extenuating circumstances form as soon as possible after you have submitted your UCAS application.

If you have applied to study at Exeter in a previous UCAS cycle, you will need to submit a new form.

The form must be submitted prior to the release of your results and no later than the 31st of July. We may not be able to consider information submitted after exam results are published. It is therefore very important that you share any details with us as they arise and do not wait to see if they have impacted your results.

If you have applied and received an offer

If you experience issues after you have applied and received an offer, please still complete the form so this can be taken into consideration during confirmation when you receive your results.

If you have applied and not received an offer

If you submit an extenuating circumstances form after an unsuccessful decision has been made, we will consider it but we cannot guarantee that we will be able to amend our original decision at that stage.

Applicants for BMBS Medicine

Applicants for the BMBS Medicine programme need to submit the extenuating circumstances form no later than the 29th of October in order for this to be taken into consideration prior to interview selection decisions being made.

The extenuating circumstances form can be submitted by the applicant or by a third party such as a parent or teacher on behalf of the applicant. However, we would ask that if you are completing this form on behalf of the applicant you obtain the applicant’s permission to do so.

You need to provide the following information within the form:

• Applicant details (you will need to include your UCAS ID number)
• Details of who is completing the form on your behalf (if applicable)
• Qualifications/Exams affected
• Whether exam boards have been notified of the circumstances
• Details of the extenuating circumstances and dates or period(s) affected

Please be specific and provide as much detail as possible, for instance:

• If you have experienced a bereavement in your family, please confirm the person’s relationship to you.
• If you have experienced unexpected illness, did you miss large periods of school/college and for how long? Were you admitted to hospital?

We will contact you if we need you to provide any further evidence.

We understand that different circumstances impact applicants in different ways, however, in order to ensure that we operate a fair and consistent process, we do have a general framework of circumstances we will consider.

Some extenuating circumstances that will be considered are listed here; however this list is not exhaustive:

• Serious acute or chronic illness impacting recent or current academic performance
• Serious acute or chronic illness of a close family member or partner
• Death of a parent, sibling or primary carer
• Previously undiagnosed disability (only where reasonable adjustments have not been made to assessments)
• Young carers
• Bullying of applicant
• Physical or sexual assault of applicant
• Domestic violence

Extenuating circumstances that will not normally be taken into consideration include:

• Issues with quality of teaching/delivery
• Family breakdown i.e. parents’ divorce, unless there are additional factors which make the circumstances more complex
• Death or illness of grandparents (unless primary carer)
• Death or illness of a classmate

Once an extenuating circumstance form has been submitted, we will consider this additional context when assessing your UCAS application.

If you have applied and received an offer

Where extenuating circumstances have been provided after an offer has been made, we will consider these in the event that you do not achieve the grades required to meet the conditions of your offer.

Whilst we guarantee to consider such information, we are not always in a position to make concessions, however we will endeavour to be as compassionate as possible.

We are unlikely to be able to be as flexible with extenuating circumstances shared with us after results have been published. It is therefore very important that you share any details with us as they arise and do not wait to see if they have impacted your results.

Interviews

We do not consider extenuating circumstances in relation to interview performance and you will be considered alongside all other applicants based on your performance at interview only.

If you have not been able to attend an interview due to extenuating circumstances, we will do what we can to arrange an alternative date, however, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to offer you another interview date.