CIP FAQs

You should submit a CIP for any extenuating circumstance that will or has significantly impacted on your academic performance.  If you have any questions then please discuss your individual case with your Academic Tutor, Student Support Coordinator through the ‘Ask a Question’ feature in RISIS, or your HBS School Office or ISLI Helpdesk, and they will provide further advice. However, please consider whether the marks ‘safety net’ arrangement is likely to resolve your concerns. 

 

As part of its package of measures to support students through the Covid-19 pandemic, the University has introduced the Circumstances Impact Process (CIP).  This has replaced the normal Extenuating Circumstances Process, on a temporary basis and only in respect of assessments undertaken in 2019/20, with effect from 23 March.

Given the unprecedented disruption the current pandemic has caused to all aspects of life, unlike the normal Extenuating Circumstances process there is not usually a requirement to provide evidence if your request relates to the period after 1 February 2020. 

If your circumstances are relating to issues that impacted your performance prior to 1 February 2020 then you may be asked for evidence. In these instances your Student Support Coordinator, HBS School Office, or ISLI Helpdesk will contact you for further guidance.

You have the right to appeal against a School-level or University Standing Committee on Special Cases decision in respect of an Extenuating Circumstances/Circumstances Impact Process request.

Carefully review the eligible grounds for appeal detailed in the Extenuating circumstances outcome appeal form. You are strongly encouraged to seek advice from the RUSU Advisers in your Students’ Union. They are professional staff with knowledge and experience of the University’s procedures who can offer confidential, independent advice and support you throughout the process. You can find out how to contact a RUSU Adviser at www.rusu.co.uk/advice. 

If you wish to pursue this option, please:

• Submit any appeal before the deadline for appeal. The deadline to appeal is within five working days from the date that the outcome of your extenuating circumstances or circumstances impact request is made available to you. 
• Download and complete the Extenuating circumstances outcome appeal form (word) or if you prefer, here is an appeal form (pdf) you can print off to complete by hand and return. 
• Get any official documents or paperwork that you need to support your appeal 
• Send the form and the documents to the Student Appeals and Academic Misconduct Officer ecfappeals@reading.ac.uk before the deadline for appeal.

If you have further queries, you can contact the following for advice and help:
Your Student Support Coordinator, ISLI Helpdesk or HBS School Office
Your Academic Tutor, your School Director of Academic Tutoring, or your School Director of Teaching & Learning 
The Advice Service at RUSU (advice@rusu.co.uk) or 0118 378 4100

You can also email take-home-exam@reading.ac.uk

Greenlands-based students should contact the Greenlands Examinations and Assessment Manager (trudy.shore@henley.ac.uk) or 01491 418728

No, you will not be able to do this. By requesting a retake, you are agreeing to your original mark for the assessment being annulled (i.e. in effect deleted from the record) and replaced with whatever mark you achieve in the retake. You do NOT get the better of the two marks and your retake mark will count even if you fail. It is important to note that once a retake has been requested and granted, you cannot then choose not to do the retake. A mark of zero will be given for assessments not submitted.

You should only choose to retake your summer exams in September once you have received advice about whether this is the best course of action. You will need to think carefully about whether you are likely to improve your marks in the retake exams.

Due to the current circumstances, there will be no charge for any re-sits taking place within the main summer exam period or August/September 2020 resit periods. The same applies to students who defer their exams to September 2020. 

Therefore, if you defer/re-sit and are able to progress or complete your studies at the end of the summer there are no financial implications.

If you are unable to sit your examinations until summer 2021, you will not be a student during 2020/21 while you are waiting for assessment in summer 2021, but neither will you have to pay tuition fees. Please contact our Student Financial Support team for more information relating to your specific circumstances.

If you think you may not be able to submit assessed work by the relevant deadline you should speak to your Student Support Coordinator, HBS School Office or ISLI Helpdesk as soon as possible. Please note that any delays in submitting your work may mean that it cannot be marked in time for you to progress to the next stage of your programme. 

The later penalty will apply, as normal. Further information about the late penalty process is provided in your Programme Handbook.

If you are not able to meet this deadline, you must submit your request as soon as possible, explaining the reason for the delay and giving evidence for this if required. Justifiable reasons include where a student has been hospitalised, bereaved, incarcerated or suffered an equivalent physical or mental incapacity. We will do our best to accommodate justifiable late applications, but it may not always be possible for us to do so. Late CIPs with no justification will be rejected.

Where we are not able to accommodate a justifiable late application, we will contact you to discuss options with you. The next opportunity for you to retake the assessment will be the summer term 2021 examination period. Please refer to Section 28 of the Assessment Handbook for more information. 

Please refer to the CIP policy information on Essentials for further guidance.

The University’s long-standing standard practice is that a student’s medical or personal circumstances shall not constitute grounds for exonerating a student from an offence of academic misconduct, other than in the exceptional case where a student’s capacity for rational judgement has been severely impaired.
 
To clarify, this means in all cases academic misconduct procedures take precedence over the CIP. A student against whom an allegation of misconduct has been made has the opportunity to raise any extenuating circumstances in the course of the academic misconduct procedures. A student should not submit a CIP in respect of an assessment in which they have been found to have committed academic misconduct; any such CIP will be rejected. 
 
Where, under the academic misconduct procedures, a student is found not to have committed academic misconduct, any CIP submitted by the student will be considered following the completion of the academic misconduct procedure.
 
For the full policy on academic misconduct, including a table of the possible penalties, please refer to Section 9 of the Assessment Handbook.

Once you have sought advice from your School/Department, you will be able to submit a CIP request through RISIS. Please take the following steps:

• log in to the RISIS Portal;
• open the ‘Actions’ tab, then select ‘Circumstances Impact Process Form' from the list;
• read the guidance and complete the online form, following the instructions provided;
• after submitting, check RISIS for the updated status and eventual outcome of your request. 

The CIP request must be submitted within five working days of the publication of your results. 

Please read the CIP form carefully and complete all sections. We will not be able to approve incomplete forms. 

To allow us to process your request effectively and in a timely manner you should submit one CIP form covering all exams/assessments that you wish to retake. 

• For reasonable requests relating to assessments during the period impacted by COVID-19, from 23 March to 28 September, evidence will not be required in most cases. If evidence is needed for your specific request we will let you know. 
• If you have any queries or need help with the form, please contact your Student Support Coordinator using the Ask a Question in RISIS, HBS School Office, or ISLI Helpdesk. If you are a postgraduate research, University of Reading Malaysia, Study Abroad, NUIST or Greenlands student please contact your support staff or School for information on how to submit a CIP request.
  
   

The five working days will expire at 11.59 pm (BST) on the fifth working day after results publication. To clarify, the five working days start after the release of the results (i.e. the date of the email sent to the student from Exams) and it is your responsibility to work out when your five working days end.

We will aim to give you an initial response within five working days, but this may take longer at times when volumes of requests and enquiries are high. Please contact your Support Centre if you have any queries. 

You can check the status of your CIP form on the RISIS portal. Processing CIP requests will be one of our main activities this summer so please rest assured that we will be working through them as quickly as we can.

If you are still experiencing significant disruption as a result of COVID-19, you can defer your September 2020 exams. If you do so, you can continue your programme as planned in 2020/21 and the next opportunity to take your deferred examinations would be in summer 2021.

Before making the decision to do this, you must speak to your Academic Tutor to discuss your individual circumstances. If your situation means that you are unlikely to be able to fully engage with your course during the 2020/21 academic year, it would be advisable to suspend your studies this year and (as long as you pass your deferred exams in summer 2021) continue your course in 2021/22.