Student’s anger over treatment from university
A CARDIFF student claims his application form for extenuating circumstances after the death of his parents was lost by Cardiff University.
George Appleby, 22, was left devastated when the university “lost” his extenuating circumstances form.
George was in his second semester at the university when he received awful news.
“It was March 2017,” said George, who is from Galligan, Cumbria.
“I was in the middle of my second semester and everything was going OK. I got a call to say my dad had died. Following this, I went home for a week. The university told me to fill in an extenuating circumstances form. It was agreed I was going to defer my May exams until August when other people take their resits.”
George went home to support his mother, grieve for his dad and to prepare for his August exams.
At the end of June, his mother died following a seizure. On top of the heartbreak of losing both his parents in the space of three months, there were financial issues for George.
He said: “I had lost my home. My parents died without a will so I couldn’t deal with everything for about nine months. I also lost my gran and grandad. My family went from eight people to just three - I just had my sister and gran left.”
At almost the exact time as his mother had died, he received a letter from the university telling him he was not allowed to return as he hadn’t completed his exams.
He said: “I got a letter saying I was required to withdraw.
“They said there was no record of the extenuating circumstances form. They had lost it.
“They also said they had only given me an extension on one unit which doesn’t make sense.
“The first person I spoke to at the university basically said I ‘was required to withdraw and thanks for studying here.’ The second guy said they would sort it out. At that time I was living in Cardiff and didn’t know if I was going to be accepted for the next year.”
This left George not knowing if he was going to be able to go back to study - and without a student loan.
After an appeals process, George was eventually allowed to return to continue studying engineering.
However, he says that he received no updates and no apology.
“I don’t think anybody in the university knows the procedures,” he said. “I was so angry, my emotions were all over the place.”
Despite being accepted back to the university, George has transferred to the University of South Wales (USW) because of how he feels he was treated by Cardiff University.
In response to this, a Cardiff University spokesman said they had revised their extenuating circumstance policy.
He said: “Whilst we’re unable to comment on individual or anonymous cases we recognise that some students do experience difficult personal circumstances during their studies.
“That’s why we have an extenuating circumstances policy in place. Each case is considered on an individual basis and in line with our policy. Any student who is not satisfied with the outcome has a right of appeal. If they are still not satisfied, they can refer the matter to the OIA, an independent body.
“We have recently revised our extenuating circumstances policy, in consultation with our students, to coincide with the start of the new academic year to ensure it’s more streamlined and responsive to the needs of our students.”