Students > Student administration > Forms, letters & documents > Special consideration > Reasons and documentation

Reasons and documentation

Reasons

Special consideration is one of many support services available at La Trobe University. It is specifically intended to support students who experience serious short-term, adverse and unforeseen circumstances that substantially affects their ability to complete an assessment task to the best of their potential.

Documentation

Supporting documentation must be provided and must be official and verifiable
The documents must address the ways the circumstances have affected students, including the timing of the circumstances
Applications can be submitted without documentation to ensure that the application is submitted within the allowable timeframe (three working days of assessment). However, it will not be assessed until the supporting documentation is received (must be within five working days of submitting the application)
Supporting documentation must be in English. Translated documentation must be translated into English by either NAATI or a La Trobe University staff member

Examples of acceptable grounds for special consideration and documentation:

Category	Circumstance	Required supporting documentation
Serious illness or injury	emergency surgery conditions requiring hospital treatment broken limb impacting on the ability to undertake assessment task exacerbation of a psychological condition	La Trobe Medical Impact Statement. A medical certificate will not suffice and your application will be delayed if additional documentation needs to be provided. carer’s certificate hospital admission/discharge summary
Emotional disturbance	death of a close family member family or relationship breakdown personal or family hardship as a result of a natural disaster sudden loss of income or employment abuse (e.g. incident of domestic violence, flight from an abusive situation) emergency travel as a result of major political upheaval in your home country traumatic experience (e.g. witnessing or being involved in a serious accident, witnessing or being a victim of a serious crime	obituary, funeral notice (documentation such as birth or marriage certificate or a statutory declaration to confirm family relationship) letter from psychologist or counsellor letter from employer or notice of unexpected cessation of employment police or incident report
Misadventure	transport breakdown causing the student to miss or to be significantly late for an examination or other assessment task	police or incident report insurance incident claim

Foreseeable circumstances are not handled via special consideration:

Known medical circumstances such as pregnancy (unless there are complications), elective surgery, long-term medical conditions
Armed services duty.
Jury duty / court appearance.
Emergency services employee or volunteer duty.
Religious or cultural obligations.
Artistic commitments.
Exam clash with an exam at another institution.
Disability or ongoing medical conditions. If you are registered with Equity and Diversity for support due to an ongoing condition we recommended contacting your disability advisor before submitting a Special Consideration application

Read about alternative arrangements for the above circumstances.

Privacy statement

La Trobe University respects the privacy of your personal information. We collect personal information in order to assess your eligibility for special consideration. Documentation that you provide as part of a special consideration application is strictly confidential and is subject to the protections of relevant privacy laws. Your confidential information is only made available to authorised staff as part of the special consideration process. You may have the right to access the personal information that we hold about you subject to any exemptions in relevant laws, by contacting us at special-consideration@latrobe.edu.au.