Special Consideration

You can apply for Special Consideration when circumstances beyond your control impact adversely on your performance. These circumstances may include things such as severe and/or grave illness, misadventure or accident. You may seek Special Consideration for an assessment task or tasks, or for your attendance or overall performance in a unit or units or in a final exam or final deferred exam.

For an overview of Special Consideration, watch this short video: What is Special Consideration (opens in a new window).
You may also be interested in an Introduction to Special Consideration at Western Sydney University (opens in a new window).

You will need to notify the University of your illness, misadventure or extenuating circumstances, as well as provide supporting documentation which demonstrates the severity and/or gravity and timing of the circumstance which has affected your academic performance.

There is a separate process for requesting an extension for an assignment or assessment task. You will need to complete and submit the Request for Extension form no later than 5.00pm two working days after the due date of the assessment task. Make sure you read the important information at the top of the form before you submit it.

You can get a copy of the Request for Extension form on the Student forms page. Please also read the Guidelines for Students – Assessment Extension (opens in a new window), which is part of the Assessment policy.

You may seek Special Consideration for an assessment task or tasks, or for your attendance or overall performance in a unit or units or in a final exam or final deferred exam.

• Special Consideration (during the teaching session)
• Special Consideration (during the formal exam period)
• Deferred exam applications
• Unable to attend deferred exam

If you have an AIP, you may apply for Special Consideration in circumstances where the symptoms of your disability or medical condition significantly increase to the extent that you are unfit to attend class, complete assessment tasks or undertake an exam. The existence of a chronic condition does not provide a basis to apply for Special Consideration.

An AIP can adjust for the effects of your disability or health condition while you are able to manage your symptoms. Special Consideration is for circumstances under which you become unfit for study.

• you may apply for Special Consideration if the issue is not related to your medical condition or disability (e.g. a death in the family/motor vehicle accident)
• you can apply for Special Consideration if the symptoms of your disability/medical condition become worse than can be reasonably accommodated by the adjustments in your AIP
• any application for Special Consideration will require supporting documentation additional to your AIP. It is not sufficient for you to provide a copy of your AIP as evidence for a Special Consideration application
• the supporting documentation must clearly indicate the severity and/or gravity of the circumstances, the extent of the impact and the relevant dates. To understand more about supporting documentation and what you may need, check out the Do I need supporting documentation? (opens in a new window) and Which documents are acceptable? (opens in a new window) videos
• applications must be submitted no later than 5.00pm of the second working day after the due date of the assessment task or exam

If you are late submitting your Special Consideration application, you must include a written confirmation from the Unit Coordinator indicating that they will accept the late submission. If you can provide evidence to support extenuating circumstances affecting your ability to submit the application on time, you may be granted permission to submit a late application.

1. Special Consideration forms can now be completed online via the eForm Portal.(opens in a new window)
2. Click the 'Find Forms' button, then select 'Special Consideration/Deferred Exam' from the list of online forms available
3. The form will then open. Complete the form, including attaching supporting documents. You must have a 'soft copy' of your supporting documents (i.e. scanned copy) so you can upload them with your application
4. Submit the form online. You will receive an email (to your student email account) acknowledging that your application has been successfully submitted
5. You will also receive an email notification advising you of the outcome of your request

Note for Mac users
You will need the following programs to access eForms:

• OS X v 10.4 x (PowerPC) or later
• Flash Player 9 or later
• Firefox 2.0.0.1 (or later) or Safari 3.0.0 (or later)

You may apply for Special Consideration During Teaching Session if you have suffered severe and/or grave illness, misadventure, accident, or have extenuating circumstances beyond your control. For a step-by-step guide to applying, watch the How to complete an in-teaching session Special Consideration Application (opens in a new window) video.

These circumstances must have:

• prevented you from meeting an assessment deadline or
• caused you to perform below your usual standard during an assessment or
• prevented your from attending a compulsory component of your course

You may be considered for Special Consideration for:

• an assessment task in one unit of study or
• part or the whole of a teaching session for one unit of study or
• for part or the whole of a teaching session for more than one unit of study

Applications must be lodged online via eForms no later than 5.00pm of the second working day after the due date of the assessment (working days are defined as Monday to Friday, not including public holidays).

For applications in one or more units in a teaching session the Special Consideration form must be lodged as soon as you are aware that you may have extenuating circumstances that could affect your studies.

You may apply for Special Consideration if you have been seriously ill or have other extenuating circumstances beyond your control at the time you sat a final (end of session) exam or final deferred exam.

Normally requests will relate to situations where you:

• believe your studies and academic work have been adversely affected such that you will be unable to perform in the examination at your usual standard or
• you are unable to complete the final exam or final deferred exam due to ill health or another cause

• How to complete a Special Consideration Application for a final exam (opens in a new window)
• How to complete a Special Consideration Application for a deferred final exam (opens in a new window)

Application deadlines
Applications must be lodged online via eForms no later than 5.00pm of the second working day after the date of the examination (working days are defined as Monday to Friday, not including public holidays).

Late applications may be granted if evidence is provided to support extenuating circumstances affecting the submission of your application. If this happens, you should contact Student Central.

If there are exceptional circumstances where the severity/gravity of the events prevent you from attending your exam, you may apply to sit a deferred exam.

If you have approval to sit a deferred exam but are unable to attend on the day due to illness or misadventure, you may apply for Special Consideration.

You must lodge the eForm along with supporting documentation, no later than 5.00pm on the second working day after your scheduled deferred exam.

All Special Consideration applications must include supporting documents (refer to supporting document reference list) as evidence to support the claim. It must clearly indicate the severity and/or gravity of the circumstances, the extent of the impact and the relevant dates. To understand more about supporting documentation and what you may need, check out the Do I need supporting documentation? (opens in a new window) and Which documents are acceptable? (opens in a new window) videos.

• Supporting document reference list
• Section 5 - Medical Certificate [PDF, 61.02 KB] (opens in a new window)

Applications without supporting documentation will not be considered.

You must provide an electronic copy of all your supporting documents. Hard copy documents will not be accepted. If your supporting documents are hard copies, you will need to scan them and attach them as electronic copies.

You can submit your supporting documents as part of the online application process. Otherwise, all supporting documentation must be submitted no later than two working days after you submit your application.

Submitting documentation separately to your application
All supporting documentation that is not included with your application must be emailed to your Unit Coordinator.

For auditing purposes you must keep either the original or certified copy of all supporting documentation you attach for at least one year. The University conducts audits to validate the information students provide in their applications. You may be contacted any time within one year of submitting your application and required to produce either the original or a certified copy of all supporting documentation. Documentation that has been fraudulently altered or manipulated may constitute non-academic misconduct.