We are committed to ensuring all students have fair and equal opportunity to achieve when undertaking assessments or exams on accredited courses.
The purpose of this policy is to provide staff and students with information about City Lit’s approach to making reasonable adjustments and applying for special considerations for exams or assessments on accredited courses.
Please read the attached policy before contacting the relevant department to discuss your needs.
Requesting assessment/exam arrangements
Students must speak to their tutor or get in touch with the AISS team at the start of the course to make sure that appropriate adjustments are arranged in time for the assessment/exam.
Due to deadlines set by awarding bodies for submitting requests for assessment/exam arrangements/adjustments, it is not possible to put in place assessment/exam arrangements/adjustments at short notice.
Special considerations
Special consideration can be applied after an assessment if there was a reason the student may have been disadvantaged during the assessment.
For example, special consideration could apply to a student who has temporarily experienced:
- an illness or injury
- some other event outside of their control,
- and which has had, or is likely to have had, a material effect on that student’s ability to take an assessment or demonstrate his or her level of attainment in an assessment.
Special consideration should not give the student an unfair advantage, nor should its use cause the user of the certificate to be misled regarding a student’s achievements. The student’s result must reflect his / her achievement in the assessment and not necessarily his / her potential ability.
Special consideration, if successful, may result in a small post-assessment adjustment to the mark of the student. The size of the adjustment will depend on the circumstances and reflect the difficulty faced by the student and will be applied by the awarding body based on their criteria.
Submitting applications for special consideration
Where a candidate or group of candidates is/are eligible for special consideration, applications will be submitted by the City Lit’s Exam Office to the relevant awarding body following the published processes in JCQ special considerations guidance or according to the relevant awarding body’s procedures. Evidence to support applications will be kept on file until after the publication of results.
Staff and students should note that
- where an assessment requires the student to demonstrate practical competence or where criteria have to be met fully, or in the case of qualifications that confer a License to Practice, it may not be possible to apply special consideration.
- in some circumstances, for example for on-demand assessments, it may be more appropriate to offer the student an opportunity to take the assessment at a later date.
Contacts
Regarding questions about special considerations, please contact the Exams Office by emailing exams@citylit.ac.uk.
Regarding questions about reasonable adjustments, please contact the Access, Inclusion and Study Support team by emailing support@citylit.ac.uk.