Academic alerts
Academic alerts
What are they?
An academic alert is a notice sent to you by email and copied to those who can provide support and guidance if you are at risk of encountering academic problems. Most academic alerts are issued because of absence from compulsory elements of your studies, or failure to submit coursework.
Each academic alert will state the cause of the alert and tell you what you need to do to address this concern. You must take the necessary action outlined in the email to resolve this alert. This may involve contacting your adviser of studies, the module coordinator, or another named member of University staff. The members of staff named in the alert email will be expecting to hear from you and they will be able to advise you on the steps to take to resolve the alert.
What happens now?
It is your responsibility to take the action required of you, which is detailed in the Alert, to avoid the specified consequences. You have 4 calendar days upon receiving an Alert to respond to it, so please ensure that you do so to assist in rectifying the issues associated with the alert being issued.
Academic alerts are monitored by Student Services, Registry Student Support for pastoral and academic purposes and Registry Compliance (for students studying on Student visas) to ensure compliance with UKVI requirements’ (see also: compliance).
Academic alerts do not appear on your transcript. They are intended to give you early notice of potential problems while you still have an opportunity to address them.
Academic alerts are module specific. The official rules are given in the policy on Academic Alerts.
These differ from the academic intervention process, which is intended to give you early warning of academic problems. The intervention process operates over all modules, and such warnings are sent after module results are published.
What is an Academic Alert: FINAL, and what to do next?
If you do not take the required action after you have received Academic Alerts, you may receive an Academic Alert FINAL without further warning, where you are told that you will receive a grade of 0X at the module board. You will never receive an Academic Alert FINAL before receiving an initial Academic Alert ENGAGEMENT or ASSESSMENT explaining what the problem is.
You can cease to attend that module entirely, accepting an OX outcome, but you are not forced to do so. If you do continue with the module (e.g., in the hope of a successful appeal outcome), you must continue to submit work by the published deadlines and attend class tests and examinations. Schools/Departments do not need to mark any work or examination papers submitted by a student after the issuing of an Academic Alert FINAL, but they should retain all such work on file in case of a subsequent successful appeal.
If you have any concerns about your academic alert or have good reasons for not taking the action required by your first academic alert, discuss these with the staff members detailed in the Academic Alert FINAL or, if not satisfied, with your Director of Teaching. If you remain unsatisfied, students have the right to request a formal review of an academic decision, as long as you have appropriate grounds for an appeal. Find out details of the appeals process by reading the Policy on Student Academic Appeals.
Please note, however, that if you do not do what the Academic Alert asks you to do, your grades might be affected, which might have consequences on your progression to subsequent years, (e.g. you might receive a grade of 0X on the module with no right to reassessment).