Appeal letter agains School decision

Hi there, i need someone to correct my letter of appeal against the School of Medicine's decision. They have denied my appeal to repeat my second year. Now i have to appeal to the university board to fight against the Medical school decision. I think my letter need to be arranged in more focused way ( other than the grammar mistakes). But i dont know how should i arrange the content. thankzzzzzz.

Dear Dr Bridge,

I received the School of Medicine’s response on 12 December 2007. The response stated the Progress Committee did not consider the financial problems that I faced were significant enough to cause me to fail the exams. But in my situation, this is one of the problems that affected my performance greatly.

Due to miscommunication with my sponsor, I have to pay an overdue accommodation bill with my own money amounted to £3636.00. For the local students the amount £3636.00 may not be a large amount, but for an international student like me, coming from a developing country and a poor family, it is a very great amount to pay.

Because of the debts, I was very stress thinking how to settle it quickly as it is not common in my country. I was scared that I will get into trouble with the authority if I cannot pay the bill on time. When I asked for advice from the Accommodation Office and the Account and Admission Office they told me I have to pay it before the new academic year or I will be penalized. This made me more anxious about the overdue bill because I only have a few months left to pool more money and pay the bill.

I was confused what I should do to settle the debt. I was also engulfed with worries about the implications to the continuation of my studies at that time. The suitable plan that I can think of was to work to gain more money quickly in order to prevent the problem from getting worse and to ensure I can put my focus back on my study. I sacrificed my time and energy to find a suitable job that did not clash with my classes and my religion. I managed to get paid by helping the Indonesians do their chores, but these jobs had used up my study time. So after I have finished with my work, I still have to stay up late at night to do my revision and finish my assignments. I franticly juggled my life between study and works to ensure that I can get at least a pass in my second year assessments while solving the financial problems. This has created a chaotic and stressful situation which caused me unable to concentrate on my studies.

At last, I managed to pay the overdue bill with help from some Indonesian students who lent their money to me. But they constantly demanded me to pay back their money as soon as possible. I was intimidated and restless with their demands, which force me to continue working despite of realizing that my performance is poor in the second year exams. I had to continue working to settle this debts with them as soon as possible so I can focus more on my revision for the exams. I was also worried they will report to the authority because they could not get their money back.

Furthermore, finding jobs and working for the Indonesians have left me less time to do academic work and caused me more tired when I try to catch up with my studies. I could not concentrate on my works which caused my poor performance because my mind was occupied with all the worries and problems I had to solve. This is the first time in my life to be battered with such intense manifold of problems and I felt totally worn out.

Since March 2007 I have to endure all the nonstop difficulties and the peak of all these problems is when I was preparing for the Resit Integrated Summative Examination. My worries about my family, my financial problem and the resit examination had built up a tremendous weight in my mind. I felt very stressful and confused what else should I do to settle this. All of this has taken away my concentration and my focus on my studies which caused me to fail the exam.

On 11 September 2007, on my own initiative I asked for a meeting with Dr Holland at about 3.00 p.m. after I get my Integrated Summative Examination Resit result. Before I met him I did not know about the Progress Committee meeting will be held on the next day, 12 September 2007.

When I met Dr Holland, he told me that the meeting will be held tomorrow and he said I can send a letter explaining about my circumstances to the committee. In that chaotic situation, I was tense and nervous thinking what will happen to me if I cannot continue in Medicine. I was in stress thinking about my financial problems and confuse how to tell my parents and sponsor body about my situation now. At the same time, I was worried thinking about mother’s health and how she will cope with my problems and my failure. My ability to talk to Dr Holland in English has been greatly affected by the intense situation when I explained about my situation and worries, which he noted in his report. At that moment I was confused what I should tell him first. After the meeting, at about 4.00p.m., I had to hasten to write the letter explaining the reason that affected my performance to the Progress Committee Meeting. It is hard to explain the full impact of my financial problems because I only have less than a day to prepare the letter just before the Learning and Teaching Office closed on that day.

Dr Holland told me to send the letter to the Learning and Teaching Office so that they can put the letter in my file for the committee’s use in the Progress Committee Meeting. I have less than 3 hours to explain everything which is not enough. In Dr Connell report on 14 September 2007 also supported that I have limited time to explain everything during that time. I can only give the letter and the overdue bill to support my reason within that short time because the School of Medicine did not told me about the meeting earlier.

Plus, the School of Medicine sent a letter informing me about my failure in the resit examination and my case will be discussed in the Progress Committee meeting to my house address in Indonesia. The letter dated 6 September 2007 and arrived at my house on 15 September 2007. I was at Liverpool and did not know about the letter until my parents called me on 15 September 2007. I have informed verbally to Kathy , the Examinations Co-ordinator on 28^th June 2007 that I will not go back to Indonesia because I have to prepare for my resit examinations. I confirmed with her that any letters should be sent to my room address in Liverpool. She did not send the letter informing that I failed the Integrated Summative Exam and have to resit the exam on 15 August 2007 to my house address in Indonesia. I was surprised when I realized that the letter from School of Medicine was sent to Indonesia despite of my notification that I will stay in Liverpool during the summer holidays.

On top of my financial problems I have had other problems. Throughout the second year I had been worrying about my mum’s health because her health is gradually deteriorate. Plus, I have not gone home for almost a year and I really concern about my mother’s health which drive me to have the urge to see her, especially during the resit exams. I did not mention this in my letter for the Progress Committee as I had no evidence to back it up. The lack of evidence was because I found out about the meeting so late on 11 September 2007 and did not have time to gather evidence.

Now I knew that I should have told Dr Connell on 28^th June 2007, after failing Integrated Summative Examination and Biomedical Science, about my financial and family problems. But during that time the situation did not permit me to disclose everything to her. When I went to met her on 28^th June 2007, one of my friends was also waiting to meet her because he failed the exams. We both were called into Dr Connell’s office. I could not talk about my problems in front of him because with all the stress I have to endure I will shed my tears when I started talking about it. I feel humiliated if he sees me sobbing in front of Dr Connell. This will further crumbled my confidence and self – esteem which has already been affected by the continuous problems. Therefore, I just use the same reason he told Dr Connell that being active in society has affected the performance in exams.

I have tried to meet Dr Connell again for a personal consultation to tell about my real problems but she was not in her office. I do not have much time during the day to meet her again because I have to work to pay back the debts. My time during the day has already occupied with the jobs to gain more money. When I reached my room I was very exhausted and need to revise and catching up with my studies. I also had several sleepless nights due to the work to settle my financial problems.

As a result, I decided to cancel my initiative to meet with Dr Connell because I was occupied with my work and my problems. Besides, I realized my financial problems will get worse if I do not focus to settle it as soon as possible. I was not informed that I have to told her about any reason of my failure because it can help the committee to discuss about my case. So at last, I felt that my idea to meet with her will never change my situation and I should focus on my financial problems before my resit examination. If I am aware of the mitigating circumstances I will by hook or by crook persisted with the meeting with Dr Connell. Plus, if I had a personal consultation with Dr Connell, I am sure the committee will have everything they need even before the resit examination.

Many School of Medicine’s staff, only after I was recommended to leave the Medicine course, told me that I should tell them earlier about my problem. They point out that the clause is written in the MB ChB Study Guide handbook. I have read through the handbook before but when I am facing with the problems, I was indulged with the problems and I did not have time to look thoroughly in the handbook, so I missed the point about the mitigating circumstances. In addition, the problems kept on building up in my life causing me to feel distress while struggling to solve the problems quickly before it get worse. My direct solution was to seek help from people who can give financial aid for me to pay the bill. Unfortunately, I am not aware that my tutor, Dr Cooper, should be informed with my problems.


When I am writing the letter to the Progress Committee, I am not sure what kind of evidence that the Progress Committee needed when I submit the letter to the Progress Committee. I have the evidence to support my reason but the evidence could not be obtained in a very short time because I need to collect them from my sponsor and my parents. I knew about the Progress Meeting a day before it was held. I was not informed earlier about the meeting and was not called to support my reason of failure. After I failed the Integrated Summative Exam, I did not have the chance for a personal consultation to state my reason of my failure. During the consultation also I was not informed that if I have any reason for failing the exams I should give the reasons and provide relevant documents as evidence to be use in the meeting.

I did not expect that the Progress Committee will sympathize to any problems that student face and my problems can help the committee to consider giving me a chance to repeat second year. From my understanding the committee will look only at the academic results to decide. I am not familiar with the system which is different from my country. I also did not believe that the information I gave is not sufficient for the committee’s consideration to let me repeat the second year.

Now all the problems have been solved and I am fully prepared to continue my study in Medicine course. I do not have to worry very much about my mother because she has joined a support group at the hospital. I have discussed with my parents and I promised to tell them about any problem that I face because I do not want this situation to happen again in my life. I have felt the effect of not telling the right people and I will take that as a big lesson for my future. I have consulted with my sponsor about my scholarship and they agreed to continue my scholarship when I repeat my second year. They also have guaranteed there will be no more problems with my fees’ payment in the future and they feel upset with what had happen to me. I have a meeting with the Government of Indonesia’s representatives to discuss about this situation. They also will give full moral support to me to continue my studies in Medicine at University of Liverpool. It will not be a waste if I were given an opportunity to repeat my second year and with the support from School of Medicine I will achieve better performance to make them proud of my success.