Questions on Assessment Adjustments

You can ask for an adjustment if you’ve experienced exceptional circumstances - this means something unexpected and beyond your control that has affected your ability to complete assessments.

When making a request, you’ll need to explain how your circumstances have impacted your academic work.

You can find more details and examples of exceptional circumstances in the Assessment Adjustments Policy.

For UK-based undergraduate and postgraduate taught students, you will need to do the following:

• Login to RISIS

• Open the ‘Actions’ tab, select ‘Assessment Adjustments' from the list

• Please read the guidance and complete the online form, following the instructions provided

• The status/outcome of your request will be displayed on RISIS

The request form in RISIS is your opportunity to describe the exceptional circumstance, and its impact on you, and to provide any necessary evidence you have for your request. Please note, if you do not provide enough explanation of the circumstance, why an adjustment is needed, or relevant evidence (if applicable), your request may be rejected. If you are required to provide evidence, then it must cover the timeframe of that circumstance and the assessment submission deadline.

While you are waiting for the outcome you should submit as much as you can before the normal deadline, through Ask a Question. Do not use the submission points in Blackboard. If you have not received an outcome by the date of your proposed extended deadline, please submit your work to Ask a Question by this deadline to prevent any late penalties. It is better to submit work in an unfinished state, rather than fail to submit any work so that you are not penalised for late submission.

If your Assessment Adjustment request is granted, after you have submitted your work, you will have the opportunity to submit the assessment to the new deadline if this should be different to the one you have requested. Contact your Support Centre or equivalent to arrange for any work that you have already submitted to be removed.

If you have any queries, please contact your Student Support Coordinator or dedicated support in the Henley Business School Office or International Study and Language Institute (ISLI).

Yes, once the outcome for your request has been decided, you will receive an email to your student email account informing you that the outcome of your Assessment Adjustment request is available to view on RISIS

If you have a long-term condition, you might be considered disabled under the Equality Act — and that means you could be entitled to reasonable adjustments to help you study and succeed.

A long-term condition is defined as:

• You have had symptoms for more than 12 months

• Your condition comes and goes or fluctuates over time

• A medical professional has diagnosed you with something that is likely to last over a year

Many students do not realise that their condition might qualify. For example, mental health conditions like chronic anxiety or panic disorder are covered — but short-term stress usually is not.  

So what is the difference?

• Reasonable Adjustments: These are changes made to support you across your studies — not just in assessments. They are based on your long-term condition and can include things like extra time, assistive tech, or changes to how teaching is delivered.

• Assessment Adjustments: These are for short-term, unexpected issues (like illness or personal emergencies) that affect your ability to complete an assessment. They are not meant for ongoing conditions.

If you feel you would benefit from reasonable adjustments then please register with our Disability and Advisory Service (DAS) who will be able to look at your circumstances, and consider if you would benefit from having an Individual Learning Plan in place, so that you have adjustments across all of your modules (including assessments). DAS will also be able to provide advice on further support available to you.  Find out more on reasonable support adjustments.

You will find the outcomes available on the Assessment Adjustments Policy together with the process to be followed and the decision route.

The information which you provide in your Assessment Adjustments request will only be shared with those who need to see it. If you are uncomfortable with disclosing information about your circumstances, please discuss the matter with a member of staff (ideally your Academic Tutor or Student Support Coordinator) or a Reading Students' Union adviser. 

You should generally submit an Assessment Adjustments (AA) request before the deadline for submission of coursework.

For an ‘event’ assessment (e.g. in-class test, presentation, assessed practical etc.) you should submit an Assessment Adjustments request before the date of the 'event’ and within five working days afterwards. If you expect to be absent from an 'event’ assessment you must inform the relevant lecturer and Support Centre (or Henley Helpdesk or ISLI Admin Office) in advance of the test.

Further Information

Deadlines for submitting self-certificated short extensions

Deadlines for repeat year requests

Late submission of online exam requests

Assessment Adjustment requests submitted after the relevant deadline will not be considered. If, however, you were not able to submit the request due to significant circumstances (e.g. hospitalisation, incarceration or major physical or mental incapacity) then submit your request in the normal way as soon as you are able to. In any late standard requests, you must provide ALL the following:

• The relevant supporting evidence for those circumstances detailed in the late Assessment Adjustments request -  if you are requesting a non-standard adjustment

• A statement which details the reason for the lateness of the Assessment Adjustments request

• Additional evidence that supports the reason for lateness if requesting a non-standard adjustment

This is a non-standard adjustment, and you will need to provide supporting evidence with your request.

For UG Finalists: Please be aware that if your new extension deadline goes beyond the end of the semester 2 assessment period this may mean that your overall results cannot be considered at the Programme Examiners meetings in June. This may mean that you will be unable to graduate in July and you will be invited to the graduation ceremonies in the following December.

For PGT Finalists and UG finalist Resitters: Please be aware that if your new extension deadline goes past the 15th September this may mean that your overall results cannot be considered at the Programme Examiners meetings in October. This may mean that you will be unable to graduate in December and you will be invited to the graduation ceremonies in the following July.

For UG Non-Finalists: Please be aware that if your new deadline goes beyond the end of the semester 2 assessment period this may mean that your results cannot be considered at the Programme Examiners meetings in June. This may mean that your progression outcome cannot be confirmed in time for reassessment during the August examination period. In this circumstance, if your progression outcome is failed or not qualified at first attempt, your student status will be ‘suspended exam only’ during the following academic year; and reassessment will take place during the Summer Exam period in that following year.

For UG Non-Finalist Resitters: Please be aware that if your new deadline goes past the August/September resit period this may mean that your results cannot be considered at the Programme Examiners meetings in September. This may mean that your progression outcome cannot be confirmed in time for the start of the Academic Year. In this circumstance:

• If your progression outcome is ‘passed’ your student status will be ‘suspended exam only’ during the following academic year and you can restart your studies a whole Academic Year later.

• If your progression outcome is failed or not qualified at first/second attempt, your student status will be ‘suspended exam only’ during the following academic year; and your reassessment(s) will take place during the Summer Exam period in that following year.

If you have circumstances that have negatively impacted your study for the whole academic year, we advise you to apply for a Repeat Year, with relevant evidence to support your request, as soon as your results are published in July.  Repeat Year guidance to follow.

Things you need to know:

- In most circumstances where a Repeat of part 2, 3, 4 or a postgraduate Year is request is granted, University regulations require that, before a student can re-enter, they must be medically/psychologically fit to do so. This is known as ‘fitness to return conditions’ (FtR).

- If your Repeat Year request is granted, these FtR conditions will be noted in your Assessment Adjustments outcome and MUST be met BEFORE you can restart the year.

- The Repeat Year return to study process which includes any FtR conditions can take many weeks to process, therefore if you wish to restart your studies in the consecutive academic year, your Repeat Year request must be submitted no later than the deadline of the Summer PREC window, which is 4 working days after results publication, and conditions of return must be met no later than 3 weeks before the start of the semester. Any submissions received after the Summer PREC deadline date will still be considered but your restart date may be delayed until the following academic year (i.e. you will automatically be suspended for an academic year).

- FtR does not apply for repeating parts 0 or part 1.  Deadline for submission to be confirmed.

- Seek advice and guidance from Reading Students' Union when submitting a Repeat Year request.

- Do not enter into any financial commitments (e.g. accommodation) until you have a final decision regarding your Repeat Year request and your return to study date has been confirmed. 

If you are faced with situations or difficulties that are outside your control and which negatively affect your academic performance during an Exam period, read the Post Results Exceptional Circumstances guidance. If your semester 1 exams are impacted you will not be able to submit a PREC request immediately as you will need to wait for your full profile of marks at the end of the year to understand whether you need to retake any examinations. Different degree programmes have different rules regarding how many and which modules must be passed in order to progress with your studies. It is however very important that you gather any evidence of your exceptional circumstances at the time and keep it safe so you can submit it at the end of the year should you need to do so. Please see Post Results Exceptional Circumstance guidance.

Assessment Adjustments outcomes are only awarded for individual students.  Therefore, group requests cannot be considered/processed. EACH group member should submit their own Assessment Adjustment request for group work.

For example: One group member may have had an illness which prevented them from taking part in the group work in the normal way and/or submitting by the submission deadline. They will submit their Assessment Adjustment request citing their specific reasons, and their circumstance/evidence will be considered in the normal way. If approved, depending on the cause/length of that illness, they will be granted a relevant adjustment accordingly as outlined in the Assessment Adjustment policy. This may subsequently impact the other group members being able to complete or submit their work and those members will ALSO need to individually submit their own Assessment Adjustment request as the circumstances will have impacted them differently and they may need different adjustments as a result. 

• IT problems can only be a reason for an Assessment Adjustment request when you cannot reasonably access campus, or when you are affected by a University IT failure.

• IT problems are not accepted as evidence for those who are registered on campus and can use IT facilities during the semester.

• You are expected to store files securely on OneDrive and this is provided to you as part of your University IT package.

• If you have an IT issue, you are expected to take prompt action to remedy it, for example: email the IT Service Desk; take your technology for repair; contact your School if you need support with the school-provided/recommended software.

• If your own device is faulty, you can use the central PC labs or borrow a laptop from the library on short-term loan. 

• Failures of the central IT system and the Halls system are logged by DTS so can be used as evidence.

Examples of evidence to support an Adjustment request relating to IT issues include:

• Contact with IT Help – evidenced in the request of the DTS ticket acknowledgment email.
• Confirmation from IT Help that the problem is real and that they have investigated it.
• Evidence of reasonable and timely action taken by you to overcome the problem.
• Evidence of failure by the University to provide services it has committed to provide (e.g. an email telling you the internet was down in your hall at the specific date and time of an assessment).
• Evidence from a Blackboard log that there was an assignment submission difficulty (this needs to be obtained from the Support Centre as it is not accessible to students).
• Evidence of a timely email to the relevant module convenor (only in cases where specialist software/storage or other local solutions are being used).

Examples of evidence that is not acceptable to support your request:

• A stand-alone screen shot with no date or time; a screenshot could be used in dialogue with DTS to diagnose a problem.
• Save date and time of file.

You can submit an assessment Adjustment request if... 

• Reasonable adjustments have already been put in place regarding your assessment, but you are then faced with additional circumstances beyond your control.

• Your studies have been impacted by the new circumstances.

• If reasonable adjustments have been put in place for this assessment and you then require additional time due to an exceptional circumstance, you should:

• First use your DAS-agreed 7+/14 calendar days reasonable adjustment, as per your Individual Learning Plan;

• Then submit an Assessment Adjustments request for additional time in the normal way. 

Yes, you need to submit your work by the new deadline stated in your Assessment Adjustments request outcome. 

Your work will be subject to a late penalty. In this case the penalty will be a mark of zero.

If there is a good reason why you missed the revised deadline you may make a case for the removal of the late penalty.

You have the right to appeal against a School-level or University Standing Committee on Special Cases (USCSC) decision in respect of an Assessment Adjustments request.

Please carefully review the grounds for appeal detailed in the Assessment Adjustments outcome appeal form. You are strongly encouraged to seek advice from the Reading Students' Union Advisers in your Students’ Union. They are professional Reading Students' Union staff with knowledge and experience of the University’s procedures who can offer confidential, independent advice and support you throughout the process.

If you have new evidence which you were not able to submit by the original deadline, you may submit this to the Support Centre, Henley School Office or ISLI (as appropriate). This should normally be within 14 calendar days from the date that the outcome of your assessment adjustments request is made available to you, together with an explanation as to why the evidence could not be submitted by the original deadline. Please note that the deadline for evidence for a PREC (Post Results EC) request is 8 working days from results publication.

1. Submit any appeal before the deadline for appeal. The deadline to appeal is within five working days from the date you were sent the notification outcome of your Assessment Adjustments request. The only exception to this deadline is if you are notified of your outcome during an examination period. In this circumstance, the deadline for you to appeal is whichever is later:

• One week (7 days) from the date the outcome of your Assessment Adjustments request is made available to you.

• the next working day following the final day of the relevant exam period. The dates for exam periods are published online.

2. To make an appeal: download and complete the Assessment Adjustments appeal form (Coming soon)

3. Get any official documents or paperwork that you need to support your appeal.

4. Email the request and the documents to Student Appeals and Academic Misconduct before the deadline for appeal.

Please be aware that an appeal of your Assessment Adjustment outcome will take time to process. Therefore, if your appeal is upheld this will likely create a delay in implementing the new agreed outcome and the associated work that you need to complete/submit. This may then impact you being able to progress through your studies/graduate at the normal time. Please seek advice from your School about the implications of your appeal request. If your appeal is requesting a particular deadline/extension to be considered, you must be working towards submitting your work to that requested deadline/extension and not wait for the appeal outcome. This will prevent you incurring any additional late penalties should your appeal be upheld.

If you have other questions not covered in this page about making a request, you can contact the following people for advice:

• Your Student Support Coordinator or relevant support staff in ISLI/HBS

• Your Academic Tutor or the School Director Academic Tutoring

• The Advice Service at Reading Students' Union: email advice@readingsu.co.uk or call 0118 378 4100

• For students on Henley Greenlands-based programmes contact your Programme Administrator