Students dissatisfied with assessment, the review procedure

Students have the right to view their examination answers or other work completed in written or otherwise recorded form. In addition, they have the right to know what grading criteria have been used and how they have been applied.

Teachers must provide information on the grading criteria no later than when announcing the results. This can be done as considered appropriate, such as by providing, for example, via email or Moodle, common grading criteria for examinations with a large number of participants or individual grading criteria for seminar work or essays. Most importantly, students must know how and when they can find out how the grading criteria were applied.

Students dissatisfied with the assessment of their studies or the decision on the recognition of studies or learning have the right to submit a request for administrative review, orally or in writing, to the teacher responsible for the assessment in the 14 days after receiving information on the assessment results and the application of grading criteria to their performance. A bachelor’s thesis is also a course of study, and the student dissatisfied with its assessment can submit a request for administrative review to the teacher in accordance with this instruction.

Teachers must provide a reasoned decision on a review request within a reasonable period of time. If a student notifies that they are dissatisfied with the response on their review request, the teacher must issue a decision in writing.

If an error has occurred in the assessment or the recording of assessment results, the teacher must accept the review request in this respect and rectify the error. This helps ensure the equal treatment of students.

The teacher cannot change or lower the requirements for a passing grade solely at a student’s request, or treat a student who has submitted a review request differently from others. If the teacher finds no grounds to rectify the grading, the student will be given a reasoned decision refusing their request.

A decision rejecting the student’s review request will be accompanied by information on the possibility of submitting a further request for administrative review to the University’s Academic Appeals Board, for example, as follows: “You can submit a request for administrative review of this decision, addressed to the University of Helsinki Academic Appeals Board, in the 14 days after receiving the teacher’s decision. You must deliver your request to the University Registry, either by emailing it to registry@helsinki.fi or sending it by post (postal address: Archives and Registry, PO Box 4, 00014 University of Helsinki). The request must indicate the decision whose review is requested, the type of review requested and the grounds for the request.”

Students may submit a further request for administrative review of a teacher’s decision on their original request to the University’s Academic Appeals Board in the 14 days after receiving the teacher’s decision. The date of receiving the decision is not included in the 14 days given to submit the request. Unless otherwise proven, the student is deemed to have received the decision on the seventh day after the letter was sent and the third day after the email containing the decision was sent, excluding the day of sending.

After receiving the student’s request for administrative review, a presenting official of the Academic Appeals Board requests a response from the teacher who completed the assessment to the claims made in the student’s request, and also asks for any additional information required to consider the student’s request. Typically, the Academic Appeals Board requires not only a statement from the teacher, but also the student’s relevant work, such as their examination answer or essay. Also required are the instructions given to the student regarding the relevant work, and the grading criteria applied.

When the Academic Appeals Board considers the student’s request and the material mentioned in the previous paragraph, it takes into account, for example, the provisions of the Universities Act, regulations issued by the University and the curriculum. However, students cannot submit a request for administrative review to the Academic Appeals Board concerning a curriculum approved by a faculty council. Faculty councils have the right to determine the learning outcomes for courses and decide on assessment methods. Likewise, students cannot lodge an appeal against a curriculum with a court of law.

The Academic Appeals Board may reject or approve a request for administrative review. If the Board rejects a request, the teacher’s assessment will remain valid. If the Board approves a request, it can return the matter to the teacher for the reassessment of the relevant studies.

The duties of the Academic Appeals Board are as follows:

• Handling requests for administrative review concerning the grading and recognition of studies, and the grading of licentiate and doctoral theses
• Monitoring faculty decisions on requests for administrative review concerning the forfeiture of the right to complete a degree in order to ensure the equal treatment of students
• Making proposals for the development of the protection of students’ rights
• Issuing statements on matters concerning the protection of students’ rights
• Considering other issues relevant to the protection of students’ rights that are not, under the Universities Act or the Regulations of the University of Helsinki, assigned to any other administrative body of the University

Any post addressed to the Academic Appeals Board is to be delivered to the University Registry:

• Postal address: Archives and Registry, PO Box 4, 00014 University of Helsinki
• Email: registry@helsinki.fi