According to the Clause 10.10 of the MER Consortium Agreement appeals by a student against decisions of a Board of Examiners will be considered according to the Partner University’s procedures applying where the decision, which is being appealed against, was taken originally.

Procedure

Students can claim to the lecturer involved in the teaching of a module. If necessary, the students will send a signed letter by email with all relevant information to the University Academic Board (UAB). The UAB, in an extraordinary meeting, will resolve the complaint of the student in each Partner University according to the regulations of each Partner University (see below). The final decision of the UAB will be communicated to the Joint Programme Board (JPB) for dissemination to the Partners Universities.

  • UPV/EHU: The claim will be processed by the UAB and notified to the student no later than one month after the day following the submission of the claim. In a following step the student will send the appeal to the Rector of the University of the Basque Country within one month. In order to resolve the appeal, the Rector will request a report from the UPV/EHU Postgraduate Board.

With internal appeals, students can argue their case and present their side of the issue regarding suspected breaches of procedure. Internal appeals are always taken into consideration, and they can provide simple solutions to disputes that sometimes arise from a misunderstanding or a material error. Internal appeals deal with potential breaches of procedure, of which some examples are as follows: violation of faculty or deliberation rules; changes from the exam arrangements as written in the teaching commitments, without prior notification to students. Material errors can also be subject to an internal appeal. For instance, involuntary errors may occur when calculating or transcribing exam marks, or during data encoding, despite the precautions taken. Students generally notice such errors when they go review their exam papers and these material errors are rectified as soon as the professor becomes aware of them. If this happens after the deliberation has taken place, the exam board holds a new deliberation. The internal appeal procedure deals with whether the rules for exams and deliberations have been followed properly. Marks given by teachers for an exam, dissertation or assignment, as well as exam board decisions, cannot be appealed against. Students who believe their exams did not comply with the applicable legal and regulatory provisions have the right to an internal appeal following the relevant procedure, say:

    • Student’s first contact is evidently the teacher, whom s/he may ask about the issue in person or by e-mail.
    • If s/he believes this did not solve the issue, s/he may contact secondly the person in charge of the training unit and thirdly the local coordinator of the programme MER (UBx UAB Chair).
    • As a last resort s/he may contact the Head of the department “Earth and Environmental Sciences”, and secondly the Dean of the Faculty of Science & Technology.
    • If, following the Dean’s reply the student believes that her/his issue has not been addressed, s/he may finally lodge and internal appeal to the Rector of the University of Bordeaux. For this purpose, the student must send the request by mail with acknowledgement of receipt. S/he will receive a reasoned reply within the next 2 months following the request by mail with acknowledgement of receipt.

External appeal to the administrative court of Bordeaux: if the Rector’s decision does not satisfy the student’s request, s/he may appeal to the administrative court of Bordeaux. The method of appealing and the time limit within which to appeal will be specified in the Rector’s decision.