Reports

Joint Report of the Council and the General Board on a revised approach to examination allowances

The Council and the General Board beg leave to report to the University as follows:

1. The Council and the General Board, on the recommendation of the Board’s Education Committee, propose changes to examination allowances system and the remedies offered to students hindered by illness or other grave cause while undertaking examinations.

2. The proposals respond to:

(a)concerns raised in June 2023 by the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA) that for students whose examination performance is affected by mitigating circumstances, the University should ‘consider offering re-sits as one of the first options available to it, not one of the last’;

(b)recommendations raised in October 2023 following an external review commissioned by the Board’s Education Committee on the University’s approach to examination and assessment adjustments, allowances and mitigation, which suggested that ‘the University considers introducing resits as a standard option where a student is unable to sit the initial exam’;

(c)the responses to a collegiate University-wide consultation on re-sit examinations conducted in Easter Term 2024, which showed little appetite for a re-sit examination as a standard option in response to illness or grave cause in examinations.

3. Further consultation took place with internal and external stakeholders in Michaelmas Term 2024 and there was a call for feedback from across the collegiate University in Lent Term 2025, which included responses from those managing every Tripos. The Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA) was also consulted in Michaelmas Term 2024 to ensure that the proposals would, if approved, be compliant with the OIA’s Good Practice Framework and in line with the recommendations it has made in response to student complaints. The output of the consultations has informed the proposals now submitted for approval.

4. The proposed changes to the examination allowances system provide simplified options for first- and second‑year students taking Tripos examinations, to create capacity to provide more resource-intensive but meaningful allowances for final-year Tripos students. The allowance options for final-year students include disregarding examination components worth up to and including 25% of the Tripos Part or, where more than 25% of components are affected, permitting re-assessment. Where re‑assessment is not possible, and provided academic criteria for the relevant award have been met, there will be options to declare the student to have attained the honours standard1 or to offer the Ordinary B.A. Degree. For postgraduate taught students, where approved by the Degree Committee, disregarding examination components worth up to and including 25% shall be permitted, or alternatively, an opportunity for re-assessment will be provided.

5. The remedies outlined above will only be available to students hindered in examinations by illness or grave cause who meet the relevant criteria, and where the student has submitted the relevant part of the application and evidence to the College within 7 days of the examination (or their final examination within the same examination period) taking place.

6. The amendments proposed are to provisions in Ordinance, which give the General Board authority to provide a remedy for students hindered by illness or other grave cause. The amendments will enable the General Board to provide remedies that maintain academic standards and provide students with a fair opportunity to demonstrate their level of achievement in relation to the academic standards required for their course.

7. If this Report’s recommendation is approved, the General Board has agreed to amend the General Regulations for Certain Postgraduate Degrees and Other Qualifications and its Notice on Leave for Allowances to Candidates for Examinations with effect from 1 October 2025, as set out in Annex A (see p. 561). It will also update related guidance.

8. The changes in Annex A include an amendment to paragraph (iii) of the Notice to clarify the maximum period of registration that is permissible beyond the expected end date for the course. Students hindered by illness or other grave cause during their studies will need a period of intermission before they can return to – and meaningfully engage with – their studies. Such students will not meet the criteria to be granted an allowance. The proposed maximum period of registration will give students clarity on whether a period of intermission or long coursework extension would be permitted, providing the student’s circumstances meet the relevant criteria. The three-year period proposed does not affect students who, as a reasonable adjustment, are planning to complete one year’s full-time study over two years. The three-year period has been proposed, in preference to a period of two years with an exceptional third year, so that all students are treated equally, and those less able to advocate for themselves as falling within the exceptions are not disadvantaged. This maximum period of registration relates to students on the following courses:

•Foundation year (Certificate of Higher Education in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences)

•Undergraduate (Tripos) courses (including those on integrated Master’s courses); and

•The following postgraduate courses:

◦Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) and Executive M.B.A.

◦Master of Law (LL.M.)

◦Master of Accounting (M.Acc.)

◦Master of Advanced Study (M.A.St.);

◦Master of Corporate Law (M.C.L.)

◦Master of Finance (M.Fin.)

◦Master of Music (M.Mus.)

9. The Council and the General Board recommend that, with effect from 1 October 2025, in the Ordinance for Allowances to Candidates for Examinations (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 254), Regulation 6 be deleted, Regulations 3(d) and 8 be amended and Regulation 3(e) be added to read as follows, and cross‑references and numbering updated:

[3.](d)to require the Chair of Examiners, or a deputy appointed by the Chair from among the Examiners, to disregard examination components worth up to and including 25% of the Tripos Part or of the course (where that course is examined as a single entity), and calculate the candidate’s results on the basis of the remaining components;

(e)to require the Chair of Examiners or a deputy appointed by the Chair from among the Examiners, after consulting at least two other Examiners, to determine the candidate’s overall degree classification on the basis of

(i)   examination for Tripos Parts unhindered by illness or grave cause; and/or

(ii)  examination permitted to be examined under other than the ordinary conditions.

8. In the case of a candidate who has been granted an allowance a statement shall be appended to any certificate issued by the Registrary relating to that examination confirming that the candidate has been granted an allowance in accordance with the University’s regulations, that the authorities concerned are of the opinion that the candidate was hindered by illness or grave cause and the marks recorded do not adequately represent the candidate’s attainment.

19 May 2025

19 May 2025

Annex A

The General Board has agreed to revise the following General Board Regulations and General Board Notice as set out below with effect from 1 October 2025, if this Report’s recommendation is approved.

(a) By amending Regulation 18 of the General Regulations for Certain Postgraduate Degrees and Other Qualifications (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 436) to read as follows:

18. If the Tutor of a candidate for the M.Phil. Degree by advanced study, M.Res., M.Ed., M.St., C.P.G.S., Advanced Diploma in Economics or Hebrew Studies, or Postgraduate Diploma in Legal Studies or International Law supplies the General Board with satisfactory evidence that the candidate has been hindered by illness or other grave cause in preparing for or taking the examination or any part of the examination for the degree, and that evidence is received by the deadline set out in guidance issued by the General Board for this purpose,^[1] the General Board shall have the power either

(a)to disregard examination components worth up to and including 25% of the course and calculate the candidate’s results on the basis of the remaining components, provided that no candidate shall be so approved unless the Degree Committee or representative of the Degree Committee concerned judges that candidate to have performed with credit in a substantial part of the examination; or

(b)to allow the candidate to be examined or re-examined under such conditions and at such time as may be determined by the General Board after consultation with the Degree Committee concerned.

Decisions of the General Board will be subject to review under the Procedure for the Review of Decisions of University Bodies.

^[1] The General Board has delegated the approval of guidance for this purpose to the Examination Access and Mitigation Committee. See: https://www.cambridgestudents.cam.ac.uk/exams/about-eamc/guidance-notes-and-application-forms.

(b) In the General Board’s Notice on Leave for Allowances to Candidates for Examinations (reproduced in Statutes and Ordinances, p. 256), by amending existing paragraphs (iii), (v) and (vii) and inserting new paragraph (xi) to read as follows:

(iii)An allowance made under Regulation 1(b) is normally granted in respect of up to three terms of an academic year. It may be granted in respect of the terms of up to three academic years.

(v)All applications must be supported by independent, contemporaneous evidence; an application made on medical grounds must be supported by medical evidence. The Committee may determine which type of evidence it requires in relation to applications under particular regulations. Evidence must be received by the deadline set out in guidance issued by the Committee for this purpose.

(vii)First- and second-year students taking Tripos examinations shall be limited to allowances listed under Regulations 3(a) and 3(e)(i).

(xi)Decisions of the Committee will be subject to review under the Procedure for the Review of Decisions of University Bodies.