Examination appeal

How to File Exam Appeals on Engineering Programmes

To file an exam appeals on engineering programmes, send an email to the Secretariat of the Academic Study Board of the Faculty of Engineering at studienaevn@tek.sdu.dk. Use your SDU-mail address and include the following in the subject line: appeal, course code and course title.

While there are no other form requirements, but it is recommende to provide reasons for your appeal and refer to the learning goals set in the course description. This helps ensure that those processing your appeal have a solid basis for their decision. 

Please note that exam appeals cannot be filed anonymously. The persons handling your appeal, including the examiner/s and the external censor/s, will be aware of your identity. However, all parties involved will treat your case with confidentiality.

The processing time for an exam appeal is typically 2-3 months, excluding July. If you pass the reexam while your appeal on the ordinary exam is still being processed, the appeal is repealed.

You must submit your appeal no later than 14 days after the official date of publication of your assessment. The official date for publication of the assessments for written exams is four weeks after the exam has taken place, and for oral exams, the date of publication is the date of the exam itself. 

Appeals received too late will generally not be processed. 

If the deadline for filing appeals has been met, the faculty will process the case and present the appeal to the assessors or other relevant parties.

They usually have two weeks to give a statement on the appeal.

If you have filed an appeal regarding the assessment and the assessor’s statement gives you a satisfactory explanation, you can withdraw the appeal.

If you wish to maintain your appeal, the faculty will make a decision, which will be one of the following options:  

1. Offer of new assessment (only for written exams).
2. Offer of a new exam. 
3. A combination of 1 and 2 if the exam includes a written assignment with oral defence. 
4. Your appeal is not accomodated.  

A new assessment and a new exam may result in a lower assessment than the one you originally received. It will be the new assessment that applies. 

Read about the entire process from submitting your appeal until you receive the decision.   

The faculty considers the appeal 

Once the faculty has received your appeal, they will check whether the deadline for appeals has been met. If this is not the case, the faculty may refuse to process your appeal. 

If the deadline for the appeal has been met, within a few days you will receive a confirmation of receipt of your appeal and information about the further processing of the case. 

The faculty processes the appeal 

If the appeal concerns the basis for the examination (examination questions, assignments, their relation to the syllabus, etc.), the assessment or the course of the examination, the appeal is forwarded to the original assessors or other relevant parties. The assessors usually have 14 days from their receipt of the appeal to submit a statement on the appeal to the faculty. 

After this, you will have the opportunity to comment on the assessors’ statement. If the faculty deems that your comments, if any, contain new information, a new round of hearing may in some cases be necessary. Your comments will then be forwarded to the assessors for a supplementary statement, and you will subsequently have the opportunity to comment again. This may result in additional case processing time. 

Depending on the content of your appeal, it may also be necessary to obtain statements from other employees at SDU, such as the Technical Services (for instance as exam invigilators), IT Services or study administration staff. These statements are included in the case in the same way as statements from assessors, and you will also have the opportunity to comment on them.  

When the faculty considers your case to be fully informed, the statements and comments received will be assessed and a decision will be made.  

The faculty determines the case 

At the end of the processing of your exam appeal, the faculty will make a decision, which will be one of the following: 

1. Offer of new assessment (only for written exams).
2. Offer of a new exam.
3. A combination of 1 and 2 if the exam includes a written assignment with oral defence. 
4. Your case is not accomodated.  

Your case is accomodated and you are offered a new assessment or a new exam

If the decision is an offer of a new assessment or a new exam, you must accept the offer within 14 days.  

If you accept the offer, new assessors will be appointed for the new assessment or for the new exam. 

A new assessment and a new exam may result in a lower assessment than the one you originally received. It will be the new assessment that applies. 

If you accept an offer of a new assessment or a new exam, you can NOT file an appeal about the new assessment. However, you can file an appeal about legal issues relating to the new assessment. 

Not accomodated

If your appeal is not accomodated, you can appeal the decision on academic issues, including assessments, to a board of appeal at the University. 

If you wish to file an appeal about legal issues, including the process or case processing, you can bring it before the Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science. 

Your appeal against the decision must be submitted within 14 days of the receipt.

The decision you receive will include guidelines on how to appeal the decision.