I object! Assessment Disputes and the Law (i.e.: University Policy)

There’s something really satisfying about watching Jim Carey over-enunciate and over-emote his lines in Liar Liar. Particularly “I object!”.

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There’s something really satisfying about watching Jim Carey over-enunciate and over-emote his lines in Liar Liar. Particularly “I object!”.

It’d be great to have that recording on your phone when you’re at Union House ordering two curries and rice and the ratio of juice/curry to rice is #sad or when the library only has 2 copies of the first book that appears in your week’s reading list in a class of 150 students.

The same impulse may emerge when you get your marks back from an assessment you submitted or an exam. If you do, there’s a couple of things to note. You can request feedback on how you sized up against the marking rubric or assessment criteria (usually found in your subject outline). Note that you’re entitled to seek feedback but you’re not entitled to get remarked just for any reason. You actually need to make a case for it.

So, here comes the technical boring bit that I need you to focus on for a wee bit. I promise to make it worth your while. Ok, so you can request a review of your mark on either academic judgement or procedural issues.

The first means that you’re getting the department’s academic opinion about your work and whether it was marked correctly in reference to said rubric/criteria.

The second relates to whether the department followed the University’s assessment policies. Be warned: if you are successful in getting the department to look at your work again, there are three possible outcomes. That you get a higher mark. That you get the same mark. That you get a lower mark. Yep, you read correctly. Just keep in mind that some disputes are worth pursuing and some become planet vampires that suck your energy with their own gravitational pull.

If you’d like to get some advice about it, contact the Advocacy Service. Ok, I said I would make it worth your while.

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