Faculty of Law

Current Students

Appeals Against Examinations and Interim Assessment

Overview

1. This policy covers situations both where students lodge applications for review of interim assessment marks and where applications are lodged for a re-mark of centrally conducted examinations.

2. For the purposes of this policy these circumstances will be referred to as “reviews” and “remarks” respectively, and collectively as “appeals”.

Guiding Principles

3. The Faculty of Law acknowledges and supports the right of all students to appeal against marks given for every phase of assessment in their subject. This includes tutorial marks, assignments, skills exercises and central examinations.

4. University regulations provide that students requesting a remark of examination papers, where examinations have been conducted centrally, are required to make formal application through the Student Administration Office. These regulations require that such applications must be lodged in hard copy or electronic format before 5.00 pm on Wednesday of Week 1 of the succeeding semester and require the payment of a fee. Late applications will not be accepted.

5. No applications for remarks or reviews of marks for central examinations will be considered by the Faculty of Law unless they comply with the current University regulations.

6. Appeals in the Faculty of Law are conducted in accordance with the guidelines set down for judicial appeals in the case of R v House. These guidelines require that an appellate authority does not conduct a hearing de novo, but asks the question "is the mark within the range of acceptable options appropriate for an assessment item of this quality?".

7. For these reasons, it is not inappropriate for the reviewer to refer to the decision, and reasoning, of the initial marker while considering a review. This is particularly true when the reviewer is not intimately engaged in the teaching of the particular subject and has no personal knowledge of the emphasis, syllabus and cases which have been drawn to the student’s attention.

8. All reviews and remarks should be conducted "blind" (ie without the reviewer knowing the identity of the student) and by that member of the available academic staff most qualified to objectively assess the quality of the work.


Policy

9. Applications for remarks shall, on receipt from Student Administration, be passed to the Academic Advisor who will pass them on to the relevant Subject co-ordinator.

10. Applications for reviews of interim assessment should normally be lodged with the Subject co-ordinator not later than 7 days after the relevant marks are released but students may elect to approach the Head - Academic Programs and Student Support direct if they believe there is reason to do so. Where students approach the Deputy Dean, he/she may determine to manage the review personally or refer the matter to the Subject co-ordinator.

11. Applications for reviews of interim assessment which are received out of time may be rejected by the Subject co-ordinator/Deputy Dean.

12. Reviews of tutorial marks, moots, dispute resolution exercises, interviewing exercises, etc will normally need to be carried out by the original marker because of the difficulty in recreating the circumstances in which the original assessment was carried out. In order to ensure that such reviews are carried out by reference to objective standards and contemporaneous records, all tutors should maintain records of marks awarded to students on a weekly basis. The practice of assigning a mark based upon a perception of a student's performance at the end of semester should be avoided. Similar contemporaneous notes should be made and kept by all assessors involved in marking moots, dispute resolution exercises, interviewing exercises etc. Such records should normally be retained by assessors until at least Week Two of the following semester. In conducting such reviews, markers should review their contemporaneous records and consider whether the original mark is a true reflection of the standard of the student’s performance both in absolute terms and relative to marks given to the other students in the subject.

13. Reviews of assignment marks shall be conducted in the same way as re-marks of examination papers.

14. When a re-mark of an examination or assignment is to be conducted, the re-mark will normally be carried out by a person other than the one who allotted the original mark. When individual questions on an examination paper were marked by different persons, in each case the review of the mark allocated will normally be carried out by a person other than the one who allotted the original mark. Where this does not seem feasible for any reason, the Subject co-ordinator shall advise the Deputy Dean who, in consultation with the Subject co-ordinator, will determine the course of action that shall be followed.

15. When the review is of a mark given by a non-coordinating tutor, the review will normally be carried out by the Subject co-ordinator.

16. Where two or more full time staff members are involved in a subject, as subject co-ordinator and tutor(s), the review will normally be carried out by the full time staff member(s), who was not the original marker.

17. Where there is only one full time staff member involved in a subject, reviews and re-marks will normally be carried out by another full time staff member selected by the Subject co-ordinator as being most familiar with the subject and particularly able to carry out the review within a reasonably short time.

18. The person marking the appeal will have regard to the marking guide used by the original marker (if available).

19. Where a reviewer determines that the mark originally allocated falls inside the range of acceptable options for a paper/answer of that quality, even though it might not be the mark which they would personally have given that paper/answer if they had been the original marker, they shall confirm the mark originally given.

20. Where a reviewer considers that the mark originally given falls outside the range of acceptable options for a paper/answer of that quality, they shall nominate a mark which they deem to be appropriate and advise the Subject co-ordinator of that fact. The Subject co-ordinator may either accept that mark (in which case it shall be recorded as the student’s mark for that paper/question, regardless of whether it is higher or lower than the original mark) or refer the matter to the Dean for a final decision.

21. Where "reviews" of interim assessment result in a change to a mark, the Subject co-ordinator will ensure that the results of those reviews are entered into the appropriate computer excel sheet recording the final interim assessment marks for that subject.

22. Where "re-marks" of exams are carried out, the results of those re-marks shall be entered in the appropriate area on the formal application form and passed to the IT & Administration Manager who will ensure that these results are passed on to Student Services. The results of "remarks" of central examinations shall also be passed to the Subject co-ordinator, who will ensure that they are entered into the computer excel sheet recording the final marks for the subject.

23. Where reviews and re-marks are conducted, the reviewer should normally notify the Head of Academic Programs and Student Support in writing so that this information may be recorded in the student’s personal file so that the Faculty has a record of all such appeals lodged by individual students and their results.

Policy Number: LAW003
Policy Name: Appeals against examinations & interim assesment
Contact Person: IT & Administration Manager
Date of Approval: 1998
Date Last Amended: 14 April 2007
Date of Next Review: Sept 2008