Appeal against grade

You appeal the exam result in Studentweb. Log in and select "Exam appeals" in the menu in the top right corner. Select the course. Click on the box "Appeal grade" to appeal. 

You can choose whether or not to give an explanation for your appeal. You can then describe why you think the exam result is incorrect. The justification will only be read and sent to the examiners if the grade decided by the appeal examiners deviates by two or more grades from the grade you appealed. 

The deadline for submitting an appeal against an exam result is three weeks after the result is available to you in Studentweb, or three weeks after you have received a justification. This also applies during Christmas, during the summer holidays and on other days off. After your appeal deadline has passed, you can no longer appeal the grade in Studentweb.

After you have appealed the exam result, you can choose to withdraw your appeal until a new grading decision is available to you in Studentweb. You withdraw your complaint in Studenweb, the same place where you complained. Select the exam in question and select "Withdraw appeal".

UiB aims to process appeals against exam results without undue delay as required by the Public Administration Act § 11 a.  

In most academic environments, it usually takes 3-8 weeks before you get an answer, while in others it can take up to 12 weeks. If it takes 12 weeks before you receive a response, we will contact you and state both the expected response date and the reason for the long processing time. 

At the Faculty of Law, the grade you are appealing against will be blocked in Studentweb no later than three working days after the appeal deadline and until a new exam result is available. You will not get the grade included in the transcript while it is blocked.

It is the student adviser who follows up appeals and their processing, while it is the Appeals Commission (new examiners) that makes decisions and decides on the appeal. The following points describe the general processing of grading appeals received:   

• The student adviser contacts new internal and external examiners (the Appeals Commision) who will reassess the exam answer and makes it available to them. In some academic environments, such as the Faculty of Law, the Appeals Committee begins its assessment only when all appeals have been received. 
• If the result of the appeal deviates by two grades or more from the original grade, a third evaluation of the answer must be made. This control grading is not blind and will take place before the appeal result is finally determined.
• When the Appeals Commision and, if applicable, the Control Commission have completed their assessment, the student adviser will transfer the new results and makes them available in Studentweb. You can now see the grading in Studentweb.  

In both small and large academic environments, you can have courses with few or many appeals. The volume of appeals, and the period during which examiners must assess answers, affect the processing time in particular. Below are the main reasons why it can take up to 12 weeks for a new result to be available.   

• Volume and quality assurance: The answer will be reassessed by examiners who have not contributed to ordinary grading. In courses with a large volume of grading appeals, this requires extra time and quality assurance. Often, the examiners want to be able to see answers against each other and at the same time know the scope of the work before they start. Here, the Appeals Commision does not begin grading until they have received all the complaints they are supposed to process 
• Extended appeal deadlines related to the processing of justifications for marks also contribute to a prolonged process in many cases. 
• Holidays: External examiners usually have a full-time job on the side, and in many cases the time for grading appeals falls during holidays. This contributes in particular to a longer processing time for appeals for the spring semester where the processing is delayed by the summer holidays.  

Efforts are continuously made to find measures that can reduce processing times while maintaining quality in the grading process. 

You will receive an email when your appeal has been processed, and a new result is available to you in Studentweb. 

You can request a justification for the appeal grade, but not in Studentweb. You can find contact information for your exam in the course page online or in MittUiB. Use this contact information if you want to request a justification for the appeal result.

If the grade deviates by two or more grades from the original grade (e.g. from C to E), a further assessment must be made before the final grade is determined (see the Universities and University Colleges Act § 11-11).  

A control commission is then established to carry out a quality control of the grading. The Control Commission usually consists of a representative from the ordinary Examiner Commission and the Appeals Commission in addition to the course coordinator or another professional who knows the subject well. The Control Commission has access to all information available, such as grades from the ordinary Appeals Commission and any explanations from the ordinary examiner and the student who has appealed. The Control Commission determines the final grade for the answer. This is not considered a third grade, but an additional quality review of the grade. In some cases, the processing of appeals in the event of changes to two or more grade levels will result in a delay in the grading.