A death during the examination period can leave a student trying to manage grief, family responsibilities and assessments at the same time. You may have missed an examination, attended while distressed or struggled to complete revision. The university needs an understandable account of the timing and impact, together with a request that fits its academic procedures.
For students and parents in England and Wales, gathering that account should not become an unnecessary exercise in recounting painful details. Focus on the relationship, the relevant dates and the assessments affected. The aim is to explain what happened sufficiently for a fair decision, while checking deadlines and the evidence your university actually needs.
Identify the relevant procedure promptly
Look for the university’s mitigating circumstances, extenuating circumstances or additional consideration procedure, a core Education Law process. Check whether you are requesting arrangements before an assessment, reporting circumstances shortly afterwards or appealing a decision already made. Different routes and deadlines may apply at those stages, even where the underlying bereavement is the same.
If a parent or friend makes initial contact, ask what consent is needed for the university to communicate with them. The student should remain involved to the extent they can manage. A brief notification can identify the bereavement and affected assessments while asking how evidence may follow; it should not assume that notification alone completes the formal process.
Build a sensitive, specific chronology
Record when the death occurred, when you learned of it and any immediate travel, funeral or family responsibilities. The date of the death and the date you received the news may differ. Include the examination timetable and relevant preparation period, the evidence-led approach of Dispute Resolution, so the university can see the connection without having to reconstruct it.
Avoid including a detailed account of the death unless it is necessary to explain your circumstances. If the bereavement involved a traumatic event, describe the relevant effect in your own words and identify available support. You can explain serious disruption without providing graphic information or exposing unrelated private matters concerning family members.
Explain the relationship without relying only on labels
A formal relationship category may not capture the importance of the person who died. A friend, partner or extended family member may have been central to your daily life. Explain the actual relationship briefly, particularly if the university’s form uses categories that do not describe it well.
Do not exaggerate closeness to fit a box. If you had caring responsibilities or were responsible for practical arrangements, describe those responsibilities and their timing. Where the university seeks more information, ask which issue remains unclear so the response can be focused and proportionate rather than repeating the whole personal account.
Identify each affected assessment
List the examination or submission, its date and the effect on your preparation, attendance or performance. Different assessments may have been affected in different ways. An examination taken immediately after receiving the news may require a different explanation from coursework completed weeks later during continued family responsibilities.
Use concrete descriptions where possible: disrupted sleep, inability to concentrate on revision, travel that prevented attendance or responsibility for funeral arrangements. Do not make clinical claims unless appropriately supported. The student’s own account is important, and it should distinguish what they experienced from any medical diagnosis or professional opinion obtained subsequently.
Provide suitable evidence of the bereavement
Check the university’s published evidence requirements and identify what you can reasonably obtain. The OIA’s guidance encourages consideration of alternatives to a death certificate, including a funeral order of service, an obituary or supporting statements. It also recognises that the timing and nature of the bereavement affect what further evidence of impact may reasonably be needed.
Provide a short explanation of each document and its relevance. If a certificate is unavailable or would be difficult to request, say so and offer an alternative. Ask whether a translation is necessary and what form is acceptable before incurring avoidable expense. Keep originals safe and submit readable copies through the designated route.
Address an older bereavement accurately
Grief does not follow an examination timetable. If the death occurred months earlier but circumstances affected the current assessment period, explain what changed or continued: an anniversary, unresolved arrangements, new responsibilities or continuing difficulties. Evidence should connect the present impact with the period for which consideration is requested.
A document proving the date of death may not, by itself, explain why a later examination was affected. Relevant support records or a factual account from someone who observed the difficulty may help. Avoid implying that the age of the bereavement either makes it irrelevant or automatically establishes an entitlement to a particular remedy.
Explain attending an examination
Students sometimes sit an examination because they feel pressure to continue, hope they can cope or do not understand the available options. If that happened, explain your decision and what you experienced. Check any rules addressing fitness to sit and how the university considers circumstances disclosed after an assessment.
Do not claim that attending proves there was no impact, or that the impact necessarily makes the result invalid. Identify what the procedure requires and respond to it. If you contacted an invigilator or tutor, preserve that record. If you did not tell anyone at the time, explain that honestly instead of trying to manufacture corroboration.
If the request is late
Address lateness separately from the effect on examinations, a fair-process point rooted in Public Law. Explain why you did not complete the process by the deadline, when you became able to act and what you did next. Practical family responsibilities, distress and difficulty engaging with correspondence may be relevant, but the university needs the actual chronology rather than a general statement that you were grieving.
If someone gave you incorrect procedural information, include the communication and explain your reliance on it. If no evidence was available, distinguish inability to obtain evidence from inability to submit the initial request. Ask how the university’s rules treat that distinction and whether the matter now belongs in an academic appeal.
Choose an academic remedy carefully
Consider what would give you an appropriate opportunity to demonstrate your learning. Depending on the rules and circumstances, the request might concern a deferred assessment, a further attempt or reconsideration of a late penalty. The OIA’s outcomes guidance lists several possible arrangements while leaving the provider to assess the appropriate response in the individual case.
Ask about attempt status, mark caps, replacement of existing marks and the timing of the next opportunity. If you passed while affected, do not assume either that nothing can be done or that another attempt will improve the result. You need to understand the consequences before choosing between available options.
An illustrative request
Imagine a fictional student who learned of a close relative’s death two days before two examinations. The student attended the first, travelled for family arrangements and missed the second. Their request identifies both assessments, explains the different impact and includes a tutor email sent during that week and available funeral information.
The student asks for the first result to be considered under the relevant rules and for the missed assessment to be addressed through the appropriate procedure. They do not ask the university simply to add marks to both results. The example illustrates a focused request; it does not predict how a real institution would decide it.
Check what an accepted request actually does
An email accepting the circumstances may leave the academic arrangement to an examination board. Ask when that decision will be made and how it will be communicated. Check the resulting transcript or timetable to ensure the approved arrangement has been implemented as described.
If the request is rejected, identify whether the reason concerns evidence, timing, impact or the remedy sought. A review should address that reason and the permitted review grounds. Parents can assist with organising documents and dates, with consent, while preserving the student’s own account and choices about sensitive information.
How Aldwych Legal can assist
Adam Hussain’s education experience includes university appeals and disputes involving personal circumstances and disability. As Aldwych Legal’s Founder and Managing Director and principal lawyer, he can help organise a sensitive chronology, review the evidence requested and frame an academic remedy that corresponds to the relevant regulations.
Students and parents across England and Wales can contact info@aldwychlegal.com or call or WhatsApp 020 4584 2472. Provide the assessment dates, applicable procedure, any decision and the next deadline. Share only the personal records needed for the enquiry, using an agreed secure route for sensitive supporting material.
About Adam Hussain
Adam Hussain is Aldwych Legal’s Founder & Managing Director and head lawyer. His education work includes academic appeals involving personal circumstances. He can help present a sensitive, assessment-specific chronology, address reporting delay and identify the academic arrangement sought under the relevant rules. He holds an LL.M. in International Business Law from King’s College London, has completed Bar training and Practical Legal Training, and is a PhD doctoral researcher in Legal Science at Royal Holloway, University of London.
