Can Exclusion from University be Reviewed in Court?

Australia's #1 for Law
Join 150,000 Australians every month. Ask a question, respond to a question and better understand the law today!
FREE - Join Now

Hamed Khatiz

Member
14 April 2015
2
0
1
I am studying and due to the bad results of seasons gone by, I was told at the beginning of the Autumn season, that if I fail again, I will be suspended from my University for twelve months. Luckily for me, I passed everything. Or so I thought:

-50. (Pass).
-56. (Pass).
-55. (Absent Fail)

Within minutes of the decision, I emailed my Unit Coordinator and asked for a review. I raised three points.

1) The requirements for attendance sounded more like recommendations when read in the learning guide. It said: Attendance may be taken into account if your performance needs to be scrutinised. Students attending less than 10 tutorials may find themselves at risk of not passing this unit. Previous experience indicates that students who performed very well in this unit had a strong understanding of concepts. Lectures and tutorials provide a foundation for understanding concepts.

My understanding from reading that is, if someone is on the borderline of passing and failing and the Committee must consider their grade, then they will take it into consideration. However, at 55, I am convincingly over the line, and considering I had achieved marks throughout the season consistently in the Credit-Distinction range, I have demonstrated a strong understanding of the concepts regardless of whether or not my attendance was where it needed to be. Therefore, my marks need not be scrutinised.

2) Most importantly, I have the grievance that the attendances have not been given to me, formally. I checked the My Grades report and there is no sign, in the My Grades report, of any marks by way of attendance. I had no way of gaining information as to what my attendance record was. That way, I did not have any understanding as to what my attendance was like and whether or not I needed to improve my attendance: whether or not I was at risk of failing. I did not receive any warnings about my attendance, nor did I receive any mid-season reports indicated my progress in the Unit and whether or not my numbers need to improve. Now the two latter documents may be considered a "bonus", but I would like to think that a detailed statement of which tutorials have been missed and which tutorials have been marked stands as a right of information; it's an assessment document! This means I have no way of knowing whether the information provided is the right information, and I can't appeal for the improvement of numbers that I do not have. This attendance information has been provided by the only other School of Business governed Unit I do, Business Academic Skills.

3) My marks were measured through computerisation, and in particular, barcode scanning. Earlier in the season, I lost my student card, it was stolen on a bus, when I left it on a bus. I let my Business Academic Skills teacher know about the incident, and the attendances were thus rectified. Why can't they be rectified by the my tutor, when he has been told that I don't have my Student Card with me? I find it unfair that someone can be in class, take in the information, but because they haven't got a barcode with them, they are irrelevant. I cannot be sure that the attendance numbers are the right numbers, because they haven't taken into consideration, the four sessions for which I had no card.

I have written to my tutor, and raised these points, however I doubt my ability to reason with the Unit Coordinator. The next step is the Dean of School and I want to put in that more formal review of grade as well, should the talks with the U.C fail. However, are there are court actions that can be taken in reference to this, in reference to the non-disclosure and also the unfair method of measurement? What do you think about my arguments, do you think I have a chance. The stakes are so high, and the fact that I have passed the Unit but I still need the hassle of this appeal is enraging to say the least.
 

hlly

Well-Known Member
12 August 2014
57
5
224
Speak to a lawyer. Hopefully your SRC has free legal services for students. There are also other free legal services available to international students.

The first step is to use the extensive internal appeals processes that universities generally have.