Appeals against decisions to terminate registration and not to upgrade to PhD

2

A student may appeal against a department's decision not to allow re-registration or a final decision not to upgrade to PhD status, within four weeks of the date of the notification. The student must give the grounds for appealing, which may only be:

2.1

that there were procedural irregularities in the conduct of the upgrading or review which might cause reasonable doubt as to whether the result would have been the same had they not occurred;

and/or

2.2

that there was prejudice, bias or inadequate assessment on the part of one or more of the members of the upgrading or review panel such that the result should not be allowed to stand;

and/or

2.3

that there is new information about exceptional circumstances affecting performance in examinations connected to progress and/or upgrade decisions that members of the review or upgrade panel were not aware of when they took their decision, and that this produced an unfair result.

3

The student must make a submission under this procedure in writing with supporting evidence, including medical certification where necessary, to the Research Degrees Manager.

4

The appropriate Pro-Director may dismiss an appeal on the basis of the student's submission alone, without a hearing being held and without seeking further information, if the application does not, in his or her opinion, fall within the remit of this procedure or does not put forward appropriate grounds. The Pro-Director will take such a decision within four weeks of an appeal being submitted. The Research Degrees Manager will notify the student in writing if this regulation is invoked and the reasons for it.

5

Unless regulation 4 is applied, the Research Degrees Manager will ask the Head of the Department concerned whether the department's decision should be adjusted in the light of the evidence provided by the student. The Head of Department will inform the Research Degrees Manager within two weeks of receipt of the request whether the decision has been revised. The Research Degrees Manager will inform the student in writing.

6

If the Head of Department decides that the decision against which the student has appealed should stand, the student may, within ten working days of the date of the letter sent under regulation 5, ask the Research Degrees Manager to proceed with the appeal.

7

The Research Degrees Manager will then convene an Appeal Panel comprising:

Chair or Deputy Chair of the Research Degrees Subcommittee
Two further members who will be members of that Subcommittee or members of the Teaching, Learning and Assessment Committee
Sabbatical officer of the Students' Union

No one who belongs to the same department as the student may serve on the Panel. No member of the School's staff who has been involved in taking either a de-registration or upgrade decision concerning the student may serve on the Panel.

8

The student has the right to appear before the Appeal Panel and may be accompanied at the hearing or represented by a person of his or her choice. A student who will be accompanied or represented must submit to the Panel Secretary at least five working days before the date of the hearing the name, address and a description of the person and must state whether that person is a member of the School. Where the student indicates that he/she is to be represented, the Research Degrees Subcommittee Chair may recruit a representative to assist the School at the hearing.

9

The Panel Secretary will set a date for the hearing and will inform the student in writing of the date on which the hearing is to take place at least ten working days beforehand.  The hearing should take place within four weeks of a Panel being convened.

10

The Panel will be provided with all documentation either the student or the Department has submitted under regulations 2 and 5. The Panel may request additional documentation that relate to the grounds claimed under regulation 2 from either the student and/or the Department. The student and/or the Department may provide additional documentation that relate to the grounds claimed under regulation 2 but may do so no later than 10 days before the hearing.

11

The Panel will normally conduct its proceedings in the presence of all parties until it retires to consider its findings. The student will address the Panel first. The Department will be invited to make any observations. Any questions by the student or the Head of Department will be put through the Chair. The student may make concluding remarks. The members of the Panel may put questions to any of those present at any time during the proceedings. The Chair has the discretion to vary the procedure in any case where he or she considers it just to do so.

12

The decision of the Panel will be final. The Research Degrees Manager will inform the student and the department of it in writing within ten working days of the hearing.

13

If an appeal against a decision not to re-register is unsuccessful, the student will not be allowed to re-register at any time for the same or a closely-related MPhil/PhD project. Registration for a new topic will be subject to the normal admissions procedures. If an appeal against a decision not to upgrade is unsuccessful the student may submit his or her thesis only for the MPhil degree.

14

When a student has exhausted the means of appeal allowed by these regulations, the Academic Registrar will issue a completion of procedures letter which will enable him/her to appeal to the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education, Third Floor, Kings Reach, 38 - 50 Kings Road, Reading, RG1 3AA, www.oiahe.org.uk

Appeals against the result of an MPhil or PhD examination

15

A candidate may appeal against a decision of the examiners within four weeks of notification of the result. A student's decision to submit a thesis for examination is entirely his or her own (see Regulation for Research Degrees, paragraph 38) and this procedure, therefore, applies only to the conduct of the examination itself.

16

The procedure applies to students for the degrees of MPhil and PhD for whom the final result of the examination process was that the degree for which they were being examined was not awarded.

17

Students may appeal on one or more of the following grounds:

17.1

That their performance at the oral examination was affected by circumstances such as illness of which the examiners were not aware when they took their decision, and that this produced an unfair result;

17.2

 That there was prejudice, bias or inadequate assessment on the part of one or more of the examiners such that the result of the examination should not be allowed to stand;

17.3

That there were procedural irregularities in the conduct of the examination which might cause reasonable doubt as to whether the result of the examination would have been the same if they had not occurred.

18

The student must make a submission under this procedure in writing with supporting evidence, including medical certificate where appropriate, to the Research Degrees Manager.

19

The appropriate Pro-Director may dismiss an appeal on the basis of the student's submission alone, without a hearing being held and without seeking further information, if the application does not, in his or her opinion, fall within the remit of this procedure or does not put forward appropriate grounds. The Pro-Director will take such a decision within four weeks of an appeal being submitted.

20

The Research Degrees Manager will notify the student in writing if regulation 19 is invoked and the reasons for it.

21

Unless regulation 19 is invoked, the Research Degrees Manager will ask the examiners concerned for a written response to the student's appeal submitted under these regulations. The examiners will provide this to the Research Degrees Manager within two weeks of the request. The Research Degrees Manager will send the examiners' response to the student. The student may, with ten working days of receiving the response, ask the Research Degrees Manager to proceed with the appeal.

22

The Research Degrees Manager will convene an Appeal Panel constituted as follows:

A current or former experienced Doctoral Programme Director of the LSE,

Two academic staff of the LSE with experience of PhD examining,

A member appointed from the senior academic staff of another college of the University of London or another university with experience of PhD examinations.

A member of the Academic Registrar's Division will act as Secretary to the Appeal Panel.

No member of staff from the same department as the student may serve on the Appeals Committee.

The Research Degrees Subcommittee Chair shall appoint a member of the Appeals Committee to act as Chair at the Appeal Hearing.

23

The student has the right to appear before the Appeal Panel and may be accompanied at the hearing by a friend or representative. A student who will be accompanied or represented must submit to the Research Degrees Manager at least five working days before the date of the hearing the name, address and a description of the person accompanying or representing him or her and must state whether that person is a member of the School. Where the student indicates that he/she is to be represented, the Research Degrees Subcommittee Chair may recruit a representative to assist the School at the hearing.

24

The Panel Secretary will invite the examiners to attend the hearing.

25

The Panel Secretary will set a date for the hearing and will inform the student in writing of the date on which the hearing is to take place at least ten working days beforehand. The hearing will usually take place within four weeks of a Panel being convened.

26

The Panel will be provided with all documentation submitted by the student and/or the examiners under regulations 18 and 21. The Panel may request additional documentation that relate to the grounds claimed under regulation 18. The student and/or the examiners may submit additional information that relate to the grounds claimed but may only do so up to ten working days before the hearing.

27

The Panel will normally conduct its proceedings in the presence of the student, their companion or representative, and the examiners until it retires to consider its findings.

28

The student will address the Panel first. The examiners will be invited to make any observations. Any questions by the student or the examiners will be put through the Chair. The student may make any concluding remarks. The members of the Panel may put questions to any of those present at any time during the proceedings. The Chair has the discretion to vary the procedure in any case where he or she considers it just to do so.

29

The Appeal Panel will take one of the following decisions:

29.1

To reject the appeal, in which case the result of the original examination will stand;

29.2

To ask the examiners to reconsider their decision. The examiners will normally be expected to hold another oral examination before reaching a decision as to whether the result should be changed;

29.3

To determine that the original examination be cancelled and a new examination held. The new examination will be conducted by examiners who did not take part in the original one and were not involved in the appeal. It will be conducted in accordance with these Regulations and the Guidelines for MPhil and PhD examinations in force at the time the student originally entered the examination. The examiners may make any of the decisions open to the original examiners. They will not be given any information about the previous examination or the appeal process.

30

The decision of the Appeal Panel will be final and will be given to the student in writing by the Panel Secretary within ten working days of the hearing with the reasons for it.

31

When a student has exhausted the means of appeal allowed by these regulations, the Academic Registrar will issue a completion of procedures letter which will enable the student to appeal to the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education, Third Floor, Kings Reach, 38 - 50 Kings Road, Reading, RG1 3AA, www.oiahe.org.uk

32

If the appeal is unsuccessful, the student will not be allowed to re-register at any time for the same or a closely related MPhil/PhD project. Registration for a new topic will be subject to the normal admissions procedures.