Exam Deferrals

Deferral of Examinations/Assessments and Extenuating Circumstances

The Institute of Technology Carlow recognises that serious unforeseen life events may impact upon your academic work, and leave you unable to complete scheduled continuous assessment(s) or examination(s), including terminal examination(s), or adversely affect your performance in such assessments/examinations. Such events may include serious illness, bereavement, trauma, court attendance, etc.

The Institute’s Policy on Absence from Assessments/Deferrals covers such situations, and allows students to apply to the Examination Board for:

  • A deferral of some/all programme modules until the next available examination sitting.
  • Consideration of extenuating circumstances when considering final grades and GPA’s.

A full-time student who wishes to apply to

(a) have their examination result(s) in some or all module(s) deferred until they are given the opportunity to complete/retake the relevant re-assessment in that module(s)/stage and/or (b) have extenuating circumstances taken into consideration in coming to a decision on the learner’s overall result in a module(s), award classification and/or GPA.

should complete this form

Request for Deferral and/or Absence from Assessment Form for full-time students

All parts of the online application must be completed and submitted by full-time students by June 1st 2021 5pm at latest. This is a strict deadline and applications will not be accepted after this time. The form should be emailed to your Faculty Administrator.

Lifelong Learning students should apply using this link. Deadline to apply for Lifelong Learning students is May 24th 2021 5pm.

Outcomes

The Examination Boards meet in early June and will consider your application at that stage. The Examination Board may agree to

  • defer your missed assessment(s)/examination(s) to the next available examination sitting, and/or
  • take the documented reasons for absence/extenuating circumstances into consideration in coming to a decision on the learner’s overall result in a module(s), award classification and/or GPA

If you are granted a deferral, the Institute will automatically re-register you to take the deferred exam / assessment at the next available sitting (likely Autumn 2021). You must take the examination / assessment at the next available sitting and this will be treated as a first sitting by the Examination Board when deliberating upon and issuing results. 

If you are not in a position to take the module assessment at the next available sitting, you must re-apply for another deferral for that sitting by completing the form and sending it to your Faculty Administrator.

Please note: Re-assessment options vary from programme to programme and the nature and form of assessment detailed on the Approved Programme Schedule may limit the availability of re-assessment opportunities. Some modules may require the student to repeat and attend classes/labs/studio/placement hours etc., as applicable.