Cambridgeshire Skills is committed to providing a fair and transparent route for learners in achieving qualifications. This policy is intended to provide a formal means for appealing the outcome of an assessment result(s). An appeal is distinct from a complaint which seeks to raise concerns about the quality or delivery of a service received from Cambridgeshire Skills. Complaints are considered under a separate comments and complaints handling procedure.
The information set out below is designed to ensure that such requests are dealt with in a fair and consistent manner.
Cambridgeshire Skills aims to:
- Deal with any requests in a fair and timely manner and keep candidates appropriately informed of the progress of an investigation.
- Notify candidates of the outcome which has been reached and, where appropriate, what further action if any is to be taken.
- Monitor and track appeals to identify trends and patterns to be reported.
This appeals process is linked to assessments from the following awarding bodies:
- City and Guilds
- Gateway Qualifications
- BCS, The Charted Institute for IT
- AQA
- NCFE
Awarding bodies accept appeals in relation to two areas of their work. These are:
- Appeals against results and factors that could impact on assessment results
- Appeals against decisions made in respect of access arrangements and special consideration.
Acceptable Grounds for Appeal:
An appeal will be considered where at least one of the following grounds is alleged to apply:
- Irregular procedure or improper conduct of an assessment took place. This can include procedures for question setting, marking and results moderation of the examinations. Specific evidence must be provided to support this.
- Extenuating personal circumstances which affected your assessment performance and you could not reasonably disclose.
- Learner feels they have not been treated equally around their needs for access arrangements and special consideration.
It is important to note that appeals based on, or arising from, the following will be deemed invalid and not upheld:
- The candidate’s lack of knowledge or understanding of the assessment regulations and procedures.
- Challenging the academic judgement of the assessors because the candidate believes that they deserve a different outcome. Academic judgement is the decision made by examiners on the quality of the candidate’s answers or the criteria being applied to mark the scripts. It does not refer to the administrative marking process.
If you feel you have a case to appeal based on the information above, this is what you can do:
- Put your complaint in writing to your assessor/tutor within 5 working days of the assessment decision/outcome being made
- The assessor/tutor must reply to you acknowledging your complaint within 3 working days of receiving the written complaint
- If you and the assessor/tutor cannot agree, the appeal will be escalated to the Exams Head of Centre, who will discuss the assessment with both yourself and the assessor/tutor. This step will be completed within 5 working days of the matter being escalated.
- If you are still dissatisfied you can appeal in writing directly to the appropriate Awarding Body, no later than 20 working days of the assessment decision. (these details will be provided to you by the Exams Head of Centre)
The Awarding Body will investigate the matter and make a final decision.
