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School Student Progress Committee appeals

Find out how to appeal a decision made by School Student Progress Committees. 

Appealing a decision made by School Student Progress Committees (SSPC)

This type of appeal is for students who have been advised by the SSPC that they must either temporarily or permanently withdraw from their studies due to poor attendance and/or academic participation.

This is different from a decision by an Examination Board that you cannot progress or be awarded.

Before submitting an appeal 

See what you need to do before submitting your appeal. 

Important: You should also read appendix two in our academic appeals regulations, which provides further information about appeals against a decision of the SSPC.

Appeal process

See the different steps in the appeal process.

You can find out more about each step when appealing a decision made by the SSPC below.

Informal resolution

There are benefits to making an informal resolution request instead of a formal appeal.

These include:

  • giving you the opportunity to explain your circumstances to the School student progress committees and provide evidence if available
  • helping you to understand the reason for the committees decision – for example, withdrawal might be in your best academic interests, particularly if you have missed a lot of teaching and/or assessments.

You can make an informal resolution request by contacting your School.

Make sure that you:

  • make it clear that you are seeking informal resolution
  • carefully detail your query
  • attach any supporting evidence, if available.

Formal appeal 

You may decide to proceed straight to the formal appeal stage. This might be because you do not feel an informal resolution is appropriate for you, or if you do not feel that your concerns were resolved. 

See where to get advice when making a formal appeal.

How to submit an appeal

To submit an appeal, fill in the school student progress committee appeal form [DOC 28KB]. 

You should submit it to the Appeals Office by email at appeals@sussex.ac.uk.

You also need to attach any supporting evidence. You will receive an email acknowledgment of your submission. This acts as a receipt which you should keep. Your appeal will be investigated and the Appeals Office will notify you of the outcome of your Formal Appeal by email.

Appeal outcome review 

If you are not satisfied with the outcome of your formal appeal, you can, in certain circumstances submit a request to the Academic Appeals Panel to review your appeal outcome.

You will be sent a form to make this request in your formal appeal outcome email. You must send your completed form to: appeals@sussex.ac.uk attaching any supporting evidence. You will receive an email acknowledgment of your submission. This acts as a receipt which you should keep. 

Your review request will be assessed and you will be informed of the Academic Appeal Panel’s decision by email. If your request does not meet the technical conditions for a review, or if the panel determines that the rejection of your formal appeal was reasonable and correct, you will be issued with a Completion of Procedures letter. If you are offered an outcome but are not satisfied with the outcome, you can request a Completion of Procedures letter.

Completion of procedures

This is a letter or email that informs you that our internal appeal procedures have concluded.

If you are not satisfied with the final outcome, then you can ask for an independent review by the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education by raising a complaint with them.

You will be provided with information about how to do this in your Completion of Procedures letter.

See more from Academic appeals