Repeat year refused

sal-ad_daze

Forgive me if this is in the wrong place but I didn't know where to put it (or who else to ask!).

My son has missed the best part of this year (his 1st) due to illness, he's had a really horrific year that resulted in stress and anxiety related depression, we sent medical notes in and he finally turned the corner around Easter. He had a long talk with his doctor who agreed that he was ready to return to Uni in September to repeat the year. We contacted the Uni and had to go to a meeting, there were four people around the table, one was his personal tutor, one was the head of student finance and I'm not entirely sure who the others were. His tutor said she didn't think he was ready to come back but he explained why he felt he was ready to return. I also supported him, saying that I wouldn't be there with him if I didn't feel he was ready. We had to get a signature from the Head of Faculty if he was to start again and were told that this would be unusual, we went to see him and he agreed to sign. They then asked for 'proof' and said that they would need a letter from the doctor - by the next day as the closing date for registration was only 3 days away. The doctor played a blinder and we got the letter stating that he was supporting the return to Uni, we sent a copy of his student finance payment schedule and a mini bank statement (didn't have time to get a full one), all scanned and emailed the following day. I was under the impression that this evidence, along with the Head of Faculties signature meant that he would be ok to start, even the Head of finance encouraged him to fill in his student loan form for next year.
We got a letter today saying that his request to repeat had been refused due to lack of evidence and that he was still on role for 09/10 and all assignments had to be handed in! Well that's going to be impossible because he wasn't there!
I don't understand what they mean by lack of evidence, I don't see how much more we could have supplied within 48 hours?
I'm sorry this is such a long post but I wonder if we have a right to appeal this and if so who do we contact?
My poor son is devestated and thinks this is the end of his Uni career and to be honest I can't see where he goes from here.
Any advice welcome.

Oldernotwiser

So, are they saying that he cannot return next year? This would be really strange even if he needed to repeat for no reason whatsoever.

[Deleted User]

I'm afraid I don't have any direct experience of this - but it sounds like soomething a friend went through.

And, as she did, I would have thought that you could appeal against this decision. Get your son to speak with someone at the Students Union of his University and they should be able to advise and hopefully support him in doing this.

Get your son to make an appointment with the SU and when he goes to meet them have a draft of his appeal letter detailing all your dealings with his faculty/department. Also ensure that he has ALL the relevant evidence that he needs - and take it from there.

I suspect that if the appeal is sucessful he will not be able to restart for another year - but at least this year will be recorded as incomplete due to ill health rather than failed (which will result if he remains registered on the course and he's not done/doing the exams and coursework)

Sorry I haven't got more advice, but good luck with it

sal-ad_daze

They say;
"I write to inform you that your request to repeat the year has been rejected. The Panel felt that you had not provided sufficient evidence or information regarding your circumstances.
This means you will remain registered for the 2009/10 academic year and you are required to complete all outstanding assessments."

We really couldn't have told them anything else, we told them really personal stuff and disclosed medical stuff they actually didn't need to know.
We sent all the paperwork they asked for within 24 hours which in itself was a major feat I just don't know what we missed out that they wanted.
He won't be able to do the assessments because he wasn't there so he will fail the year. I'm assuming that means he will have to leave as he cant carry on to year 2 and they've refused to let him repeat year 1. He's devastated.

sal-ad_daze

Domino9 wrote: »

I'm afraid I don't have any direct experience of this - but it sounds like soomething a friend went through.

And, as she did, I would have thought that you could appeal against this decision. Get your son to speak with someone at the Students Union of his University and they should be able to advise and hopefully support him in doing this.

Get your son to make an appointment with the SU and when he goes to meet them have a draft of his appeal letter detailing all your dealings with his faculty/department. Also ensure that he has ALL the relevant evidence that he needs - and take it from there.

I suspect that if the appeal is sucessful he will not be able to restart for another year - but at least this year will be recorded as incomplete due to ill health rather than failed (which will result if he remains registered on the course and he's not done/doing the exams and coursework)

Sorry I haven't got more advice, but good luck with it

Thanks for this, will the student union office still be open now the Uni's have finished the year?

[Deleted User]

"The Panel felt that you had not provided sufficient evidence or information regarding your circumstances."

Also, find out what they consider to be "sufficient evidence" - policy may differ between Universities and Departments

- the SU should still have staff working over the summer

sal-ad_daze

Domino9 wrote: »

"The Panel felt that you had not provided sufficient evidence or information regarding your circumstances."

Also, find out what they consider to be "sufficient evidence" - policy may differ between Universities and Departments

- the SU should still have staff working over the summer

We asked them what they wanted! The only thing we didn't supply was a credit card statement and that was because we couldn't get one within 2 days! I really don't know what else we could have supplied on paper, verbally he told them absolutely everything, even stuff that was intensely personal he left absolutely nothing out and I backed up everything. You wouldn't believe how hard it was for him to say some of the things he told them, he's a very private individual. As I said, I was sure that all we had to do was get the paperwork agreed in to them on time and this seemed to be backed up the the finance lady. We're just so confused

[Deleted User]

"We asked them what they wanted!"

If their response letter provided no further explanation that what you've posted above, then the only way to find out is to ask again. You'll most likely need to explain all of this in the formal appeal letter - if they can't tell you what you need then you're not really in a position to provide it.

Also get your son to explain this to the person he manages to speak with at the SU.

sal-ad_daze

No, domino9, that's all the letter said and that's why I'm so confused it just seems that they've done a complete about turn.
We told them absolutely everything, we sent all the documentation they asked for and to be honest we didn't have time to send them anything else even if we could have thought of any more.
Isn't it always the way that these things arrive at the weekend when there's absolutely nothing you can do for 2 days - thank God it's not a bank holiday weekend!

MrsManda

I'm sorry your son has had such a rough time. Looking at your posts I was wondering whether your son and the university are talking at cross purposes?

When did he request withdrawal from the 09/10? Has he sat any of his exams?
Withdrawal from exams allows the student to sit the exams at another point without their results being capped but usually this is only granted providing its been approved prior to the exam period and certainly before the candidate enters the exam room.

Repeating the year is different to withdrawing from the current year and as the letter states 'this means you will remain registered for the 2009/10 academic year' I was wondering if what they've refused is your son's withdrawal from this year rather than repeating this year as if he'd failed.

As ONW said, it's very rare for someone to be refused a repeat if they've failed the year for any reason so thats why I wonder whether they've refused a withdrawal and repeat, rather than just a repeat.

sal-ad_daze

MrsManda wrote: »

I'm sorry your son has had such a rough time. Looking at your posts I was wondering whether your son and the university are talking at cross purposes?

When did he request withdrawal from the 09/10? Has he sat any of his exams?
Withdrawal from exams allows the student to sit the exams at another point without their results being capped but usually this is only granted providing its been approved prior to the exam period and certainly before the candidate enters the exam room.

Repeating the year is different to withdrawing from the current year and as the letter states 'this means you will remain registered for the 2009/10 academic year' I was wondering if what they've refused is your son's withdrawal from this year rather than repeating this year as if he'd failed.

As ONW said, it's very rare for someone to be refused a repeat if they've failed the year for any reason so thats why I wonder whether they've refused a withdrawal and repeat, rather than just a repeat.

I have no idea!
We were just so concerned with ds that I just spoke to his tutor and tried to explain that he just wasn't fit enough to be in Uni (I was close to breaking down myself during the call I was so anxious), we had no correspondence at all until we got the letter saying that he needed to get in touch if he wanted to continue (or words to that effect) this is what he did and they arranged the meeting that we had about 10 days ago.
He hasn't submitted any work or assessments or taken any exams.

We're not a family that has had dealings with Universities so don't understand all this terminoligy, I'm hoping a phone call on Monday will clarify things it's just getting this letter this morning and not able to talk to anyone just leaves me (and ds) worried, upset and confused.