Be Summer HEROs (& Smash Your Hand-Ins & Resits)

This summer, you can be your own HERO!

Hand it in 

Whatever assessments you have – maybe summer semester, maybe resits, if you can hand them in, do hand them in. 

Why, you ask? Good question. If you’re afraid they might not pass, you might even be asking, “Why bother?”. 

Here’s why. 

• If you don’t hand and assessment in, it definitely won’t pass. That could delay your course progression or even see you taken off your course [1]  

• You’ll get feedback. This is there to help you learn. “No day in which you learn something is wholly wasted” 

• It’s assessment practice. That’s practice at a skill you’re here because you want to learn 

• It shows you’re engaging with assessments. That can be important if an Award Board is asking itself whether you can stay on the course [2] 

Top Tip: don’t hand in anything if you’re not sure you’ve referenced it correctly, and don’t be tempted to get AI to write it for you: you could end up in trouble under the University’s Academic Conduct Regulations.  

Exceptional Circumstances 

If you are experiencing health issues or life events impacting your assessments, that’s what the Exceptional Circumstances procedure is there to take into account. If you don’t apply through this procedure, the University won’t take what you’re going through into account. It won’t turn a fail into a pass, but upheld Exceptional Circumstances can: 

• act as a week’s extension; or 

• get you an uncapped resit (if the hand-in was uncapped); or 

• give an Award Board discretion to allow you a resit if you pass at a greatly reduced mark impacting your degree classification 

Top Tip: Exceptional Circumstances are there for the unexpected, not for stable ongoing conditions. If the issue you’re applying for is already on a Student Inclusion Plan (“SIP”) explain how it’s got worse than usual and provide evidence to prove that. 

Resources: 

• Guide to the process: Click Here!  

• Guide to providing evidence: Click Here!  

• Full rules: Click Here!  

Reach Out 

If you feel that you need support, ask for it! 

If you’re reluctant to bother people, we get it – that likely means you’re one sort of great and sensitive person – but please reach out anyway. University teams to support you are all part of what your tuition fees pay for. Students' Union services are there because we want to support you. There are hundreds of students we’re already helping; it’s not just you, and it’s normal to need help. 

There’s a variety of things you might want or need support with. Here are some frequently used samples, but if you’re not sure who to reach out to, ask us. 

• Struggling with the academic topic? Reach out to the module lecturer/s and/or your Academic Mentor. 

• Struggling with academic writing? Reach out to the Academic Skills team 

• Wellbeing issues? Reach out to the University’s Wellbeing team  

• Health issues? Reach out to your GP (obviously, in an emergency dial 999!) 

• Struggling to attend? Reach out to your Academic Mentor and to the University’s “Student Life (Advice)” team   

Succeed! 

If you follow these simple steps, you give yourself the best chance to succeed, to be the HERO of your own story. 

[1] The University has maximum period of registration rules: you can only spend longer on the course if a senior University Board gives exceptional permission to extend that period of registration. https://www.staffs.ac.uk/students/course-administration/academic-policies-and-regulations/university-courses  

[2] If you don’t pass enough credits in a year, an Award Board might have to decide whether to allow you to resit the following year or [eek!] withdraw you. See the “What if I can’t progress to the next stage of my Undergraduate course” section of https://www.staffs.ac.uk/students/course-administration/academic-policies-and-regulations/academic-regulations