You may have recently received a letter or email notifying you of an ‘academic exclusion’. The contents of this document may appear overwhelming, detailing that you cannot progress in the rest of your studies. While exclusion from studies may seem like the end of your progress to your chosen career, there are pathways that you can take within the university to fairly plead your case, to try to get you back on track to finish your degree.
What is academic exclusion?
Academic exclusion is when a student has been excluded from their course and/or university usually due to things such as unsatisfactory academic progress or a penalty applied because of academic misconduct.
What does it mean to be excluded?
Generally, an academic exclusion will result in permanent exclusion from the course or university. The student would no longer be enrolled as a student of the university. However, the effect of an academic exclusion can vary between universities, with some universities allowing students to apply for admission into the course or another course or study program after a stated timeframe has passed (the exclusion period). Having been excluded will likely remain on the student’s academic transcript and could very well be a barrier to successfully applying for re-admission to the university, or admission to another university.
For international students, being excluded can also mean that their visa status is negatively affected. If in this situation, international students should seek urgent legal advice from a migration lawyer.
What to do after an academic exclusion notice is received
For students that have been informed of an upcoming decision that may result in being excluded from their course, they are usually provided with an opportunity to show why they should not be excluded before a decision is made (sometimes referred to as a show cause process).
This will take the form of a written submission (and sometimes an in-person meeting) and must be lodged before a specified date and state reasons for the unsatisfactory performance or academic misconduct and why they should not be excluded from the course. A show cause response may sway a decision maker not to apply an academic exclusion and therefore needs to be written as persuasively as possible.
How to appeal academic exclusions
If an academic exclusion decision is made, there may be avenues to have this decision reviewed and/or appealed within the university. Generally, strict timeframes apply to making an application for an academic exclusion decision to be reviewed or appealed, sometimes as little as a few days, so it is important to know the deadline for applying and ensure that this deadline is met, otherwise you will likely be prevented from having the academic exclusion reviewed or appealed at the university level.
The university’s policies and procedures will set out the steps that need to be taken to apply for a review or appeal of the academic exclusion decision, including any academic exclusion appeal letter templates or forms that need to be used and where to lodge the review or appeal application. They will also set out the grounds upon which you can apply for a review or appeal. If you fail to meet these grounds it is likely that your review or appeal application will not progress to a decision maker for consideration. It is therefore important that the review or appeal application and submissions are properly drafted and the relevant issues are identified and addressed in the submissions.
What happens if the review or appeal fails?
If the review or appeal fails and the academic exclusion decision remains, depending on the circumstances there may be external avenues that can be taken. Blossom Lawyers can help with providing advice on whether there are any external avenues available to challenge the academic exclusion decision.
Conclusion
There are various strategies that you can employ to improve your chances of convincing the university that academic exclusion should not be applied, or of successfully reviewing or appealing an academic exclusion decision that has already been made. As with all matters, chances of success depend on the circumstances of each matter.
How can Blossom Lawyers assist with your academic exclusion matter?
Blossom Lawyers is experienced in helping domestic and international students to draft responses to show cause notices or other notices informing of a possible impending decision of academic exclusion, as well as drafting review and appeal letters, applications or submissions for students to lodge with their university.
Students are often in a state of panic when receiving a notice of academic exclusion and find it helpful having Blossom Lawyers take some of the stress away by supporting them through the process and drafting documents for them that focus on the relevant issues to try to persuade the decision maker against applying an academic exclusion.
If you are a student and you have received a notice of possible academic exclusion, or an academic exclusion decision has already been made, contact Blossom Lawyers on 07 5636 5598 or via email at admin@blossomlawyers.com.au to see how we can help.
