A QWERTY keyboard? Christ - who uses those?

Good morn all

Got 65% in my dissertation.... Am I happy or not

take the matter with the student union, the academic rep etc. If you make enough noise they will reconsider

On my results letter it says to contact the Senior Assistant Secretary within 10 days. I'm writing the letter now...

Dear Sir/Madam

I wish to appeal against the decision of the Board of Examiners to reject my personal mitigating circumstances claim regarding the Software Engineering project and the report and case study analysis for the e-Commerce modules from the first semester of the IT BSc course, (4th year) which I am currently studying.

I am appealing on the grounds that the Board of Examiners/Postgraduate Research Awards Board has acted in a way which is manifestly unreasonable;

As I explained in my original appeal letter, a copy of which I am enclosing, my father was diagnosed with terminal cancer in September 2009 and as I lived a long way away from him spent a long time travelling between my home, (in Manchester) to the hospital where he was staying, (in Lincoln) in order to spend as much time with him as possible.

He passed away in October 2010, after which I had to spend a considerable amount of time arranging the funeral, which as I explained was complicated by the fact that I was operating from Manchester, he had lived in Lincoln, but wanted to be buried in Milton Keynes, and I had to liaise with all of the relevant parties, i.e. Funeral directors, florists, etc, and this all took time.

I also had to deal with another matter which I also explained in my letter, which was the complaint that I had made to the Lincolnshire police force, regarding the conduct of one of their PCSO’s, who had started an inappropriate relationship with my dad.

Without wishing to repeat ad-verbatim the original PMC letter, her conduct led to an argument with my father which happened the day before he died, and not having had the opportunity to make my peace with him affected, (and continues to affect) me quite badly.

As if that were not enough, I also had to deal with a very uncertain time at work, as the I.T. department were outsourced during this period and I was, (and still am) uncertain whether I will have a job for much longer, due to ongoing cost cutting procedures.

All of this happening at once has had a big impact on all parts of my life, and also that of my family, and I am very disappointed that my appeal was rejected as, with the greatest of respect, leaving everything else aside, surely the death of a parent is a bad enough experience without having to deal with the other dramas.

I would request that my appeal be reviewed and hope that this wrong can be righted.

Yours faithfully



John Vella

Just a small point, JV - when did your Dad pass away?

possibly your letter is too detailed. I would send a clear short letter stating your appeal, then put the details in a private mail to the person concerned after your tutor gets back to you.

I'd want details included so when the letter gets passed on to the relevant appeal board everything is included. I presume private e-mails wouldn't be passed about the place (or at least I'd hope they wouldn't be).

Well spotted!

I'd want details included so when the letter gets passed on to the relevant appeal board everything is included. I presume private e-mails wouldn't be passed about the place (or at least I'd hope they wouldn't be).

I tried to include all of the details for exactly that reason. If I email someone I can't be sure that the information will be passed on, and it's too important to leave to chance.