Appeals

One of the most important roles that the Students’ Association plays is acting as an advocate for students when they need to appeal a decision made by the university. Unfortunately, appeals processes vary widely among faculties and even where there is university-wide policy, the way in which it is applied can vary dramatically. This means that whenever students try to take on the university they become entangled in red tape.

We would like to see a universal policy on appeals applied by all faculties in the same way. There should be a single point of contact for each faculty and that should be the faculty Dean.

The University has also recently changed its Academic Progress Rules. If you fail more than half your subjects in two semesters, the university will ask you to leave. Currently, you can only appeal this decision by “showing cause” as to why you failed and prove to the university that you should be allowed to continue. The problem with this policy is that “showing cause” is not defined by the university in a clear and unambiguous way. It is difficult to provide sufficient evidence, especially where problems are on-going or have had an accumulative effect. Furthermore, once you have been dismissed from university, you cannot appeal the decision. These rules have a particularly bad effect on International Students because once they have been dismissed from university and are no longer students, their visas are revoked and they must leave the country within a month.

We would like to see the university clarify these rules so that students aren’t dismissed in an arbitrary manner or without recourse to a transparent appeals process.