Extensions and Special consideration

Students who experience unforeseen circumstances that affect their capacity to prepare for or submit an assessment item by the due date/time can apply for either an Extension (if available for the assessment) or Special consideration.

Both processes are designed to support students with outcomes that ensure individual academic results and progress are not unfairly impacted. Subject Coordinators can provide a range of outcomes that support students to progress through their studies without compromising academic integrity, including extensions, alternative assessment tasks, re-weighting of assessments, special exams, or late withdrawal from a subject.

Extensions

Please note that the extension requests processes provided on this page is currently only available to students enrolled in Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology subjects. Extension requests in subjects delivered by other faculties are managed in different ways. You can view each faculty’s process here.

Faculty of Engineering and IT (FEIT) students can apply for extensions of up to 10 working days.

Students can apply for extensions for the following forms of written assessment:

  • Essays
  • Research papers
  • Reports
  • Assignments

Extensions are not available for the following forms of assessment:

  • Oral presentations
  • Scheduled or supervised mid-semester tests/examinations
  • Take-home examinations
  • In-class assessments (ex. in-class quizzes or practical assessments)
  • End of semester supervised examinations

Extension and Special consideration application process for students with an Academic Adjustment Plan (AAP):

  • 1-3 working days: provide your AAP to your subject coordinators directly.
  • 4-10 working days: through the Special consideration portal with your AAP as evidence for the extension application before the deadline.
  • Longer than 10 working days: through the Special consideration portal with supporting documents. You cannot use an AAP as evidence to request an extension longer than 10 business days.

More information about the Extension and Special consideration process for AAP students can be found here.

Depending on the length of extension requested, students can apply in one of two ways:

Extensions between 1 to 3 working days:

When applying for a short extension of up to 3 working days, FEIT students will need to complete an online declaration form which captures the reason why an extension is needed but doesn’t require students to provide any additional documentation (like medical certificates or statutory declarations).

How to apply - short extension

You will need to first complete the declaration form below:

FEIT Extension Declaration Form

Once you have submitted this declaration form, a copy of this form will be automatically emailed to your selected Subject Coordinator as part of your extension request.

Please allow up to 1 hour for your online declaration form to be processed.

Students with an Academic Adjustment Plan (AAP) can provide their AAP to their subject coordinators directly and do not need to complete this declaration form.

Requests for short extensions must be submitted and received by your Subject Coordinator prior to the assessment deadline. If you miss this deadline, you can still apply for an extension, but you must follow the Special consideration process (see below).

Your Subject Coordinator will use the Declaration to determine whether an extension (or another outcome) is appropriate.

Extensions between 4 to 10 working days:

If students need to request an extension longer than 4 working days or submit the request after the assessment submission deadline, the application must have appropriate supporting documentation and be submitted via the Special consideration portal.

Eligibility to apply for an extension will be determined by the type of impact (ie. illness, injury, bereavement, serious emotional disturbance etc.) and the dates the student was affected as they relate to the assessment due date/exam date. It’s important to understand what documentation will be accepted as evidence that a student’s studies were impacted by circumstances outside of their control.

How to apply – extension of 4 to 10 working days

You can apply for an extension of between 4 to 10 working days, including on preparing your supporting documentation, at the Special consideration portal.

For an extension between 4-10 working days, you will need to choose the 'Assessment Type' as 'Other’, and will need to specify how many days you are requesting. More information can be found here.

Please be advised that if you have been granted a short-term extension (up to 3 working days) via the Short Extension Declaration Form, you are required to include a copy of the corresponding approval email when submitting your application for the same assessment.

For seeking an extension of 11 working days or more (up till the maximum allowable of 20 working days), please apply for Special consideration for your assessment.

Special consideration (including extensions more than 10 working days)

Applications for all other adjustment requests should be via the Special consideration portal.

Applications must be submitted within four working days of the assessment due date or exam date. Students can apply before their assessment due date if they know in advance that their assessment will be impacted.

The eligibility of your application will be determined by the Student and Scholarly Services (SASS) department, which is a central function outside of the Faculty of Engineering and IT. Once your application is deemed eligible (with all the appropriate documentation), it is sent to the Faculty to make a determination.

How to apply – special consideration

You can apply for Special consideration and learn about eligibility, documentation and outcome timelines on the Special consideration portal here.

If something prevents you from meeting the deadline, you can still apply but:

  • You will be prompted to provide a late reason and
  • Your documentation will need to include additional detail to explain what impacted your ability to apply on time.

Please note that any advice provided by a subject coordinator/lecturer about outcomes for extensions and Special consideration is not considered official, and you should wait to receive formal notification of your outcome via the application platform.

Special consideration outcomes

If your application for Special consideration is successful, you may be offered an assessment adjustment, such as:

  • A deferred assessment
  • An extended period for assessment
  • Special arrangements for assessment
  • Additional assessment
  • Resubmission of assessment
  • Adjusted relative weighting assigned to components of assessment where this does not affect learning outcomes or academic standards (applies to shorter assessments only, ie up to 25% weighting)
  • An authorised late withdrawal from the subject

The outcome provided will depend on a student’s application on a case-by-case basis.

Limits to FEIT Special Examinations

Please note that the following limits apply within FEIT for the granting of Special examinations as an outcome for special consideration applications:

For all Faculty of Engineering and IT owned subjects, students eligible for Special consideration will be granted a maximum of two attempts to complete the test/exam, unless there are significant exceptional circumstances. This is inclusive of the originally scheduled time as well as any special re-sits granted. A student will be considered to have attempted the assessment item if 1) their attendance is recorded in the examination room for in-person assessment, or 2) they open/access the assessment for online/digital assessment.

Data retention

Students should maintain a copy of their supporting documentation should they require it for any other purpose.