Reasonable Adjustments Policy

1. ‘Reasonable adjustment’ is any action that helps to reduce the effect of a disability or difficulty that places a candidate at a substantial disadvantage in an examination situation.

2. The College will make reasonable adjustments for candidates with a disability who undertake College and Faculty examinations, where any provision, criterion, or practice and/or physical feature of the exam environment puts candidates at a disadvantage compared with those who are not disabled. The College will provide or allow the use of auxiliary aids, where without one a disabled candidate will be put at a substantial disadvantage. See section 8.

3. The College will consider temporary (such as a broken arm, back pain), on-going or fluctuating medical conditions for the purpose of examination adjustment, where the condition affects a candidate’s ability to take a planned sitting of an examination. Competence standards will not be adjusted. See sections 12 and 13 regarding special arrangements for short-term related conditions or pregnancy.

4. Reasonable adjustments to examination arrangements are provided to candidates with a disability to reduce the potential disadvantage they face compared to a non-disabled candidate. It is not designed to give any type of advantage to candidates in the receiving of additional examination accommodations.

Reasonable adjustments must not affect the competence standard.

The College recognises that it is not possible or appropriate to attempt to define a pre-determined set of reasonable adjustments and therefore any decisions will need to be made on a case-by-case basis. 

5. It is the candidate’s responsibility to provide the necessary information to the College so that an accurate assessment of the requirements can be made. The request for the reasonable adjustment(s) must include:

1. detail of the diagnosis.
2. an explanation of how this diagnosis would potentially impact on performance in the relevant component of the exam.
3. outline the adjustment(s) that are being requested that may overcome that disadvantage.
4. the intended exam sitting.