Decisions made under the Awards Rules
A number of decisions regarding your enrolment in your program are made under the relevant Awards Rules. These decisions can include:
- A decision not to admit you to a program (admission);
- A decision to allow you to enrol (or not enrol) in a course;
- A decision to award you a given amount of credit, or no credit at all; and
- Advice provided to you on how to meet the requirements of your degree.
There is provision for you to request these decisions be reviewed. The appeal process to appeal a decision not to admit you to a program is covered here, the rest are covered below.
Prior to your appeal
We encourage you to seek advice from an independent person knowledgeable about the process and aware of potential outcomes. The Dean of Students and the ANU Student Association (ANUSA) are available to provide you with advice.
You can approach more than one of these bodies if you are unsure of the advice you have received. Depending on your circumstances, Counselling or the Disability Services Unit may be able to provide you with some assistance as well.
Stage 1 - Formal Appeal
For a review of decisions regarding admission, please see here.
To request a review for another reason, you can lodge an appeal to be considered by the Associate Dean of the College where the decision was made. Your appeal should be a letter that contains the following information:
- What decision was made;
- Why this decision was not correct, with reference to the Awards Rules if appropriate; and
- Any evidence that you have.
If you submit an appeal that does not contain information relating to the three dot points above, this may significantly affect the chances of your appeal being successful.
Once you have written your appeal, you should submit it to the following email address for the College that manages the course.
| College | Contact |
| ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences - Coursework | assocdeanst.cass@anu.edu.au |
| ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences - PhD or MPhil | assocdeanrt.cass@anu.edu.au |
| ANU College of Asia and the Pacific | cap.student@anu.edu.au |
| ANU College of Business and Economics - Coursework | appeals.cbe@anu.edu.au |
| ANU College of Business and Economics - PhD or MPhil | hdrda.cbe@anu.edu.au |
| ANU College of Engineering, Computing & Cybernetics | ad.education.cecc@anu.edu.au |
ANU College of Health and Medicine ANU College of Science Coursework | science.cw.sa@anu.edu.au |
ANU College of Health and Medicine ANU College of Science HDR | science.hdr.sa@anu.edu.au |
| ANU College of Law | enquiries.law@anu.edu.au |
Your appeal MUST be submitted within 20 working days from when you were advised of the decision. Appeals received after this time will not be accepted.
Your appeal will then be considered by the Associate Dean, who may discuss it with parties relevant to the appeal. The Associate Dean will not discuss your appeal with any other individual, and your appeal will not affect any aspect of your future study at the ANU.
Within 20 working days of receiving your appeal, the Associate Dean will let you know the result of their consideration and whether your appeal was successful or unsuccessful.
For most students this is the conclusion of the available appeals process.
Stage 2 - Procedural Appeal
A procedural appeal is an appeal claiming that rules, policies or procedures have not been followed by the university, and this has unfairly disadvantaged you. In this case, it is where the Awards Rules were not appropriately followed by the University and correct process was not followed.
If you are unsure of what a procedural appeal is, we encourage you to discuss it with the Dean of Students prior to lodging a procedural appeal to ensure that you have a case.
If you believe that you do have grounds to lodge a procedural appeal, your appeal needs to be submitted to the Office of the Registrar (OTR) at appeals@anu.edu.au. You must lodge it within 20 working days from when you received the decision of the Associate Dean in Stage 1. OTR will then organise for your procedural appeal to be passed on to the relevant Deputy Vice-Chancellor for consideration.
The Deputy Vice-Chancellor will only consider whether correct University procedure was followed when reviewing a procedural appeal. As a result, your appeal at this level should not be the same as the appeal submitted to the Associate Dean in Stage 1. The Deputy Vice-Chancellor may discuss your appeal with relevant individuals to ensure they have all of the relevant information to make an accurate decision.
Once the decision has been made, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor will notify you of the outcome within seven days.
The decision of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor is final.