Late coursework & extension requests

Advice on what to do if you think you may miss a coursework deadline, and the School of Informatics policy on coursework deadlines, which applies across all taught courses.

Late submission of coursework

You should submit assessed coursework by the published deadline. In general, you are expected to plan your time well and include contingency time. For example, if you expect a piece of work to take two days, you should begin it more than two days before its deadline.

However, we recognise that there are sometimes good reasons to submit coursework late. Each piece of coursework has a late submission rule, which tells you whether you can submit it late or not, the penalty for submitting late, the maximum length of extension, and other important information. You should find which late submission rule applies to a piece of coursework on the Course Learn Ultra Page. Full details of all the rules used in Informatics are listed in the policy below.

If there are circumstances that affect your ability to complete your coursework on time, and where late submissions are allowed, you can apply for an extension to avoid incurring a late penalty. To request an extension for a piece of coursework, use the online Assessment Support Tool to make the request to the University Extensions and Special Circumstances Service (ESC) team. The ESC team will assess your request and let you know if your request has been accepted. It can take the ESC team several days to let you know their decision, so you should apply for an extension as soon as you think you may need one.

Apply for an extension

If you are registered with the Disability & Learning Support Service and have learning adjustments for extra time on coursework or assessments, you can request to apply an extra time adjustment to pieces of coursework that allow late submissions. If you have learning adjustments for extra time in exams, we will apply these to timed Class Tests without you having to ask.

Apply for an extra time adjustment

If there are circumstances preventing you from submitting your work within the permitted time, you will need to apply for Special Circumstances. Please contact your Student Adviser or the Student Support Team for more information.

 Contact the Student Support Team

School of Informatics Late Submission Rules and Penalties Policy

The following sets of late submission rules and penalties apply to courses and in some cases individual assessments covering Extensions, Extra Time Adjustments (ETA, a Learning Adjustment permitting an extension on request) and late penalties. They are aligned to the University Taught Assessment Regulations, Extensions and Special Circumstances Service (ESC) and Special Circumstances Policy.

Course Organisers choose which rule and corresponding late penalty to use for individual and group work assessments and must include this information on the Course Learn Ultra Page for student reference. Course Organisers must inform the ITO of course late submission rules and penalties in advance of the start of the course. This information is maintained in EUCLID APT (Assessment and Progression Tool) for use by the University’s Extensions and Special Circumstances (ESC) Service.

The raw marks for submission are found in the submission and marking system (e.g. Learn, Gradescope, Turnitin). Course organisers provide these raw marks without penalty to ITO for entry/upload into EUCLID APT. Late penalties are applied by ITO as part of mark processing according to each rule. The marks shown in EUCLID have the penalties applied; EUCLID is the official University channel for students to receive their marks.

Policy history

  • The June 2017 Teaching Committee was called specifically to discuss potential changes to the late coursework policy, including the adoption of late penalties on a daily basis - 5% per day as stated in the Taught Assessment Regulations to replace the preceding School policy of awarding zero for all late submissions without an approved extension or Extra Time Adjustment (ETA).

  • This policy was reviewed and updated by Teaching Executive in September 2021, to reflect changes in the University’s extensions and special circumstances policy.

  • This policy was last reviewed and updated by Teaching Executive in August 2022. Major changes include:

    • The application of rule 2 to is individual assessments worth ≤10% of the overall course mark or timed Class Tests is now mandatory rather than guidance. The use of rule 1 and rule 3 has been clarified.

    • Expected mark return dates have been added.

    • Rather than marking the first submission before the deadline, we mark the latest submission submitted, to be more compatible with submission systems now used.

  • This policy was last reviewed and updated by Teaching Executive in August 2023 in response to College of Science and Engineering Policy. Major changes include:

    • In Rule 1, the extension length is now 3 days.

    • In Rule 3, extensions and extra time for submission can now combine, reflecting changes in the ESC system

    • In Rule 3, the maximum extension and extra time for submission is 3 days, meaning that the very latest work can be submitted without penalty is 3 days with a 3 day extension and 4 days extra time for submission.