Case Summaries

The student was offered an opportunity to enrol onto a different BSc course. The student met with the head of the foundation course and explained that they had suffered a bereavement, and felt that their pastoral needs in the foundation year had not been met. The provider took the issues raised at this meeting forward under its academic appeals and its complaints processes.

The provider rejected the student’s complaint. It decided that all students had been told about a number of ways to access support, and that the student had not made use of the support available. The provider accepted the student’s academic appeal, on the basis that the student had been affected by difficult personal circumstances and there were good reasons for not raising this at an earlier time. The provider offered the student the opportunity to repeat the foundation year as if for the first time, so that they had another chance to meet the entry requirements for the MPharm course.

The student complained to us. They believed that they were very close to the grade boundary and should be allowed to enrol or, alternatively, they should be allowed to just resit some assessments in order to meet the entry requirements.

We did not uphold the student’s complaint (we decided the complaint was Not Justified). The student’s overall mark was not close enough to the grade boundary to be rounded up. Because the MPharm course was regulated by a professional body, the provider did not have any discretion to be flexible in the way the student hoped.