Exclusion or Suspension Appeals
What does this mean?
Exclusion or suspension letters are sent by your Institute when you have had a second unsatisfactory semester in a row. This usually means that either:
- you have failed 50% or more of your subjects in two consecutive semesters; or
- you have failed the same subject twice.
Students can also be excluded for General Misconduct or for repeated/high level Academic Misconduct. Please visit the Appeals to Appeals Committee page if your exclusion is due to misconduct - do not follow the advice below as this is for exclusion/suspension based on academic progress only.
If you have received an exclusion or suspension letter you have 20 working days* to appeal (sometimes students may receive a letter about a restricted program - the same applies). If you do not respond to the first letter from the Institute, you will be excluded/suspended, so it's important to start work on an appeal straightaway. Our Student Advocates have a lot of experience supporting students to appeal exclusions and suspensions, and many of the students we support have successful appeals
Am I being targeted?
These letters are sent out automatically if one or both of the criteria above are met - this is why they usually appear at the same time as you receive your grades. We can assure you that this is not personal, and we can help you to understand why you may have received the letter if you're unsure.
Is there any point in appealing or is that it?
Receiving a letter saying you've been excluded can be scary. However, it doesn't always mean that's the final decision, and you can appeal the decision. You should appeal if you think you can put a plan in place to improve your results in the future. This letter is not a final decision, and we have seen many successful appeals over the years.
What do I need to do?
Please click on each of the headings below to expand the section. Prefer all the steps on 1 pdf? Click here.
We can support you throughout this process in a number of ways, including:
- Helping you understand why you have received the letter
- Discussing what has impacted your studies, and making suggestions and relevant referrals to support your future success
- Helping you to draft your appeal letter and understand what kinds of evidence you should include
Please make an appointment to discuss this with us as soon as possible.
You can appeal a notice of exclusion or suspension by writing a letter explaining why you should not be excluded or suspended from your program.
In the letter you need to outline what has impacted on your current studies, and what you intend to do to make sure that you don't find yourself in this situation again. Essentially, the Institute need to be confident that you understand what has gone wrong in the past, and be satisfied that it will not happen again. This could either be that the personal circumstances that impacted you no longer apply, or that you have taken action to minimise their impact in future. Some examples of the kinds of actions you could take include:
- Reducing the number of hours you are working
- Attending PASS sessions to support your studies
- Registering with the Disability and Learning Access unit to negotiate reasonable study adjustments
To assist you in preparing an exclusion or suspension appeal letter please read the (Students) Regulation and use our letter template to help you structure your appeal
You will need to include with your submission copies of any documents that you think are relevant to your case. If you do not submit any evidence, your appeal is unlikely to succeed. Examples include statutory declarations, letters of support from a medical professional, academic transcripts, special consideration forms, study plans.
We can help you to draft and proofread letters before you submit them.
Your appeal can be written on a separate Word document, but it must be accompanied by this Appeal Submission form.
Your form, letter and supporting documentation should be sent to the Executive Dean of your Institute using the relevant address in the table below.
If you are not sure which Institute you study with, this will be listed at the bottom of the letter you received.
| Institute | Email address |
|---|---|
| Institute of Health and Wellbeing | health.appeals@federation.edu.au |
| Institute of Education, Arts and Community | educationarts.appeals@federation.edu.au |
| Institute of Innovation, Science and Sustainability | iiss.appeals@federation.edu.au |
If you need any help or more information, please contact us.
*Working day - means an ordinary business day of the University (excluding weekends, public holidays or days on which the University is officially closed, eg. Christmas close-down)
I have had the final outcome from the Institute - how do I appeal this?
You can appeal to the Student Appeals Committee within 30 days of receiving the outcome - we can help you with this and we strongly recommend that you make an appointment. Strict grounds of appeal apply, and we can help you to understand them and identify which may be relevant. Please also see our Appeals to Appeals Committee webpage.