Students are using a raft of ‘trivial’ excuses including the death of a pet or a cut on the hand, to get their exam results ramped up, according to academics.

Universities have noted an increase in the number of students who present poor excuses to get special dispensation in exams.

One academic registrar told the Times Higher Education (THE) magazine that one student asked for special consideration because her cat had kittens and kept her up all night. "The number of students who have eight or nine dead grannies is amazing," the registrar added. Some students have attempted to use forged medical certificates to make a claim of mitigating circumstances.

Twenty five per cent of students at the University of Manchester School of Arts appealed against their exam results in 2006-2007 prompting a group of academics who are leading an internal report into the university to call for a “fundamental review” of how the institution deals with such claims.

Students are “given an expectation” that “every small setback” will be taken into account and their grades increased as a result, the Manchester University internal report says.

One senior source at a university in the Russell Group of research intensive universities told THE that "Anecdotally, everybody thinks there is more of this going on and the reasons students seek extenuating circumstances have become more trivial."

Trivial claims included "I hurt my hand and cannot write" or "I have to go to a wedding", he said.

A department of about 30 students at the university saw its claims rise from eight in 2005-06 to 18 in 2006-07, the source said. So far, 14 claims had been made in 2007-08, but this figure is expected to rise further. Another school at the same institution expects to get 80 claims from among its 300 students.

Huw Morris, chair of the Academic Registrars Council’s student complaint group was responding to a growth in the number of such cases, the group are drawing up a guide to dealing with extenuating circumstances to ensure fair treatment across universities.

At the moment students can take re-sits or have their marks upped if they register difficulties. But the University of Manchester report says students need to learn to deal with problems as a part of life rather than excuses for poor performance. “The university is not here to provide the solution,” the report says, and urges students to take “personal responsibility” for their results.

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