Late or Incorrect Submissions
What to do and what penalties might apply if you miss an assessment's deadline, or submit the wrong work.
If you realise you have submitted the wrong file or missed your deadline:
Submit the correct work immediately and get in touch with your School Admin Team as soon as you can to explain what happened. You may need to submit via email.
Your School will advise you on any further action you may need to take, and if any of the next steps described below apply to your circumstances.
What happens if I submit my work late?
It is very important to submit your work before the assessment deadline and check that you have submitted the correct file. Please note that any reference to 'assessment deadline' on this page includes any agreed extension you may have.
If, however, you have missed the assessment deadline, it is still important that you submit your work as soon as possible. If you have not yet submitted any files, then you can usually make a late submission for up to 4 hours beyond the deadline via the original submission point.
If the submission point is no longer available, or if you have already submitted a file (e.g. partial work), you should email your work to your School Admin Team as soon as possible. If you realise before the deadline that you need to change your submission you MUST change the file name to indicate its version (e.g. v1, v2 etc). Any new uploads will overwrite any previous files if they have the same file name, so adding a version number will ensure that you don't lose earlier submissions.
Will there be a penalty?
In accordance with Regulation VII, any assessed work which is submitted late will be subject to a penalty. Your work will be deemed late if it is submitted after the submission deadline. This applies even if it is late by just one second (so, for an 11am deadline, work submitted at one second past 11am would be considered late).
The penalty applied for late work depends upon the assessment category:
- Due Date Assessments have a set deadline by which your work must be submitted, like essays, reports and projects.
- Fixed-time Assessments have a fixed start- and end time. Presentations, lab tests and all types of exams are included in this category.
In the case of Due Date Assessments, the penalty also depends on how long after the deadline the work was submitted. A full list of assessment types and details of the late penalties that apply are given under the assessment category headings below.
Late Due Date Assessments
Due Date Assessments are those which have a set deadline (time and date) by which the work must be submitted. A full list of assessment types which are categorised as Due Date Assessments is given below:
|
|
|
|
For Due Date Assessments, the following penalties for late submission apply:
Up to four hours late
If you submit a Due Date Assessment no more than four hours after the deadline (plus any agreed extension), your work will be accepted for marking, but the raw mark will be reduced by 10% of the mark achieved. Your mark will be rounded to the nearest whole number (for example, a mark of 51% would become 46% and a mark of 66% would become 59%).
Your assessment marks shown on Learn (or released by Module Leaders through other means) will be the raw marks before the penalty has been applied. This is important to ensure that your marks accord with the feedback you receive on your work. Your official marks, which will have the penalty applied, will be published at a later point through the University’s MyResults system (see the link below).
The above policy came into effect from the beginning of the 2023/24 academic year. This policy does not apply to any work relating to 2022/23 or earlier where previous policy applied (in 2022/23, this was to award a mark of zero for all late submissions, regardless of the assessment type and the degree of lateness).
More than four hours late
If you submit a Due Date Assessment more than four hours after the deadline (plus any agreed extension), a mark of zero will be awarded for your work. This is the mark that you will see on Learn.
Late Fixed-time Assessments
Fixed-time Assessments are those which have a fixed start- and end-time, or the assessment takes place in a relatively short window (usually no more than 24 hours) which has a fixed start- and end-time. A full list of assessment types which are categorised as Fixed-time Assessments is given below:
|
|
|
If you submit a Fixed-time Assessment after the deadline (plus any agreed extension), a mark of zero will be awarded for your work. This is the mark that you will see on Learn (except for examinations where marks are only published at the end of each Semester through the University’s MyResults system).
What happens if I submit an incorrect file?
When uploading your work, it is your responsibility to ensure that you submit the correct file, so we strongly encourage you to check this at the point of submission. If, however, you do submit an incorrect file for an assessment, you should submit the correct file as soon as you realise.
Before the deadline (plus any agreed extension)
You should submit the correct file through the original submission method if it is still available, but if you experience any issues in doing this, you should email your work directly to your School Admin Team without delay. Schools will mark the latest version of work submitted before the deadline.
After the deadline (plus any agreed extension)
You should submit the correct file immediately by emailing your School Admin Team with a brief explanation about what went wrong. Coursework submitted before the submission deadline will take precedence over any work submitted late, even if you originally submitted an incorrect file.
However, your School can make exceptions and agree to accept the correct file. In these instances the work will be treated as late (just like any other late submissions) and will be subject to the penalties above. E.g. if the correct file is received by your School within 4 hours of the deadline they may accept it, but the mark will be subject to a 10% deduction).
What if I had a good reason for the mistake?
If you submitted your work late or submitted the wrong file(s) due to circumstances outside your control, you should submit a mitigating circumstances claim by the deadlines published in the Student Handbook.
I haven鈥檛 missed the deadline but think I will, what should I do?
Do not wait until after the deadline has passed.
If circumstances outside of your control are affecting your ability to submit coursework to a comparable quality within the original deadline, consider whether you should:
- Request a coursework extension, or
- Submit a mitigating circumstances claim.
Contact your School Admin Team as soon as possible if you are unsure which process is most suitable for your requirements.
Updated 20 October 2026
