Enhancing your student experience is our ongoing priority and the best way we can do this is to listen to your voice and make changes important to you, with you.
In a first of its kind collaboration, we have been working closely with the University of Southampton Students’ Union (SUSU) to redevelop and refine the Special Considerations process, shaped by your feedback and experiences.
Special Considerations
We understand that things do not always go to plan. Special Considerations is your way of letting us know if you are unable to attend an exam, complete or meet an assessment deadline due to any illness or other exceptional circumstances outside of your control.
Rapid improvement event
We also understand the importance of ensuring this process is simple and accessible in order to help support anyone who needs to use it, so we invited 140 student representatives to give their thoughts on the current process to feed into a rapid improvement event.
The event, which took place in December last year, was a time dedicated to collaboration across the University and SUSU, to bring around prompt change. There were representatives from Student and Education Services and other professional services colleagues, as well as Associate Deans (Education), Senior Tutors, and the SUSU Vice-Presidents for Education and Democracy, and Welfare and Communities.
Your feedback drives change
Following student feedback at the event, we are making the following changes over the next academic year:
- Changes to guidelines and enhanced guidance.
- A new process to enable students to receive a quicker outcome after applying for Special Considerations.
- Modifications to ensure the procedures are just and fair, to serve our diverse student community equally.
Speaking about the event, Sarah Chapman, Head of Projects in Student Experience and Engagement, said:
“It was excellent to see such a diverse range of stakeholders from across our community, all working together to improve the experience of our students. I would particularly like to thank the SUSU Vice-Presidents who have been engaged throughout the project, and all the course representatives and Student Co-Design Panel volunteers who gave their time to provide feedback.
“We have set up working groups to make these improvements happen, and the work is currently well underway. Our aim is to improve the process behind the scenes and in turn – and most importantly – to make the process clearer for students to undertake.”
SUSU Vice-Presidents, Emily Bastable and Aycha Ates-Di Adamo, added:
“We are pleased to announce that the University of Southampton were receptive to this feedback from students and are committed to changing the Special Considerations process and guidelines over the next academic year.
“The new process aims to give students an outcome in a timelier manner, and the University are also able to encourage our students to communicate their circumstances to us, instead of making it more difficult.
“In addition to reducing these impediments to academic success, the modifications we have discussed guarantee that the procedures are just and fair for our diverse cohort of students.”