Attending an Academic Progress Committee (APC) Hearing

Definition

An Academic Progress Committee reviews the progress of students who have breached the academic progress rules of the faculty. This means students who have passed less than 50% of their enrolment, or failed a compulsory unit twice, or failed to meet a specific condition which had been previously placed on them by an APC. The APC meets to decide on behalf of the faculty whether a student may be permitted to continue in their course or in the faculty and if they are allowed to continue, under what conditions.

Reality Check

A letter asking you to appear before the APC does not mean you will be excluded – the APC needs more information on your circumstances than you provided in your letter before it can make a decision about how to proceed and it is giving you the opportunity to present your situation in more depth.
You may be able to continue, or you may be able to continue but be placed on a specific study condition.

Reflect

Reflect on what went wrong and on how best to prepare yourself for the Hearing.

Do you know why you failed?

• Letter writing guide

Some guides for reflection –

• What difficulties have you experienced this year both in terms of your studies and your personal life outside University?
• Is this the course you want to be doing? Are you happy at Monash?
• In terms of your studies, what are your particular difficulties? Eg. assignments, exams, language, presentations.
• What do you need to change to do things differently in the future?
• Who can help you?

Contact

Professional people who know of your situation and can provide supporting documentation - this may include the Counselling Service, but might also include external psychologists or psychiatrists, doctors or other health professionals, ministers of religion, social workers, employers, solicitors or Student Rights officers.

The Student Rights service can also be contacted if you want to be accompanied by them to the Hearing.

Student Rights at your campus:

• Berwick
• Caulfield
• Clayton
• Gippsland
• Peninsula
• Pharmacy

Explain

Think about how you will explain to the Committee that

• you understand why you performed poorly, and also
• you have developed appropriate strategies which you will put in place to ensure that your performance will be significantly better in the future.

What the committee want to know

• That you understand why you have failed – that you can explain clearly the circumstances that led to this situation
• That you have taken steps to plan for success in the future
• That you are sure you are in the right course and that you want to be at university
• That things will be different in the future

Prepare

• Prepare for the Hearing. Think about how you will explain to the Committee that you understand why your performance was not as good as you expected, and also what will be different in the future.
• Think about your presentation.
• Think about what information to take in with you (you may take in notes), what you want to say to the APC.

Some possible questions the Committee may ask

• Can you explain your performance?
• How many hours a week did you devote to your study?
• How many hours a week did you do paid work?
• Did you attend all lectures and tutorials?
• Did you hand in all assignments?
• What other activities are you involved in that take you away from your studies?
• What steps did you take to improve during the year?
• Did you speak to your course adviser/lecturer/tutor?
• If not, why not?
• What challenges did you face during the year?
• Did you seek counselling for your problems?
• If not, why not?
• Did you go to Language & Learnning for assistance?
• If not, why not?
• If you had problems, how did these interfere with your study?
• Are you part of a study group?
• Are you involved in extra-curricular university or other activities? (Successful students usually have a good balance of activities in their lives)

Be prepared for all possible outcomes.

• What will be your options if you are excluded? Eg. you may want to check out other courses, other universities or think about other strategies.
• International students – visa implications (even if accepted into another course your visa may still be cancelled at some future date).
• Plan the steps you will take in the future to ensure success.

• The Academic Progress Committee Procedure

Implications

• You may be allowed to continue in your course as before
• You may be placed on a Condition.
• You may be excluded from your course and/or the faculty.
• You may under particular circumstances appeal the decision of the APC.
  • Appeal Form (MS Word)
• International students – even if you are accepted into another course your visa may still be cancelled if you are excluded so you will still need to either withdraw or attend the APC committee Hearing.

Do you have to attend the APC Hearing?

If you have been invited to attend and you fail to attend a Hearing without advising the secretary you will be automatically excluded.

If you are not able to attend you must advise the secretary immediately and you may be able to arrange an alternative time.

You can advise the secretary that you do not want to attend, but this is not advisable as a hearing will be held in your absence. You will be able to better represent yourself in person.

If there is a reason that you absolutely cannot attend a Hearing in person, you need to advise the secretary to the Committee as soon as possible. Telephone link ups are available but should only be used if there is a personal or family emergency that prevents you from attending the Academic Progress Committee Hearing in-person.

Telephone Hearings are not recommended because it is harder to represent yourself in the best possible light and because you will not have access to the support services provided by the Counselling Service, Student Rights Officer, advocates and so on.

All APC Hearings are confidential

Can you be accompanied to the Hearing?

Students have the right to bring a support person to these hearings who may be –

• A Student Rights Officer
• A counsellor
• A member of staff or a student of the university
• A family member
• Any other person that is approved by the faculty – 2 days notice is required, or 5 days if you wish to be accompanied by someone with legal qualifications.

When are the Hearings held?

The Hearings are normally held in January.

You will be given at least 7 days notice to prepare for the Hearing.

Telephone link ups are available but should only be used if there is a personal or family emergency that prevents you from attending the Academic Progress Committee Hearing in-person.

Telephone Hearings are not recommended because it is harder to represent yourself in the best possible light and because you will not have access to the support services provided by the University Counselling Service, Student Rights Officer, advocates and so on.

You must notify your faculty if you are going to be away from your normal residential address during this period.

Further hearings will be held in February for students who took deferred/supp exams.

The APC Hearing process

On arrival at the location of the Hearing you will be asked to wait until the Committee is ready for you.

• You will be invited into the room. The committee will be sitting around a large conference table and you will be invited to sit at the table.
• The chair introduces him/herself and the other members of the committee.
• The chair ensures that you understand why you are there.
• The chair checks that you agree to the composition of the committee.
• The student representative is there to represent the student perspective and to ensure that the process is fair to the student.
• There may be a counselling representative who consults with the committee regarding non-academic issues facing students which may affect their academic performance.
• Members will then ask questions and try to determine what the obstacles to your success have been.
• After you have presented your case you will usually be asked to wait outside.
• When you are invited to return you will generally be told the outcome of the Hearing.

Composition of the Committee

• a chairperson who is an academic member of staff. The chair is the person who leads the process.
• 2 – 6 other faculty academics including an academic from your department
• 1 student representative nominated by the Student Union

in attendance, but non-voting:

• 1 or 2 faculty administration staff members one of whom acts as Secretary to the Committee and one who deals with administrative matters.
• sometimes a counsellor who acts as a consultant to the Committee
• sometimes a Monash International representative or special faculty representative

What the committee know about you

All members have the following -

• A copy of all the information you supplied to the secretary of the APC in response to the Notice of Referral letter
• A transcript showing your results obtained throughout your study at Monash.
• Details of any previous conditions placed on you by an APC.
• Other relevant information from your central file

You may request to see what information the committee will have, but must give your faculty 2 days’ notice if you wish to view this.

What do you have to tell the committee?

Generally, the more information you can provide the committee with the better are your chances of remaining in your course. However you are not obliged to reveal details of private information. If you have been seeing a professional for assistance with your issues, that person can write a letter on your behalf explaining that you experienced serious or traumatic problems without going into detail about what the problems are/were.

It is important to keep your letter concise and easy for the Committee to read.

Appealing the decision of the APC

You can appeal the decision for the following reasons:

• You have additional/new information/evidence which was not available at the time of the Hearing
• You believe that there was a procedural irregularity or that the outcome was unreasonable

You will need to be able to substantiate these claims with supporting documentation if you are to formally appeal against an APC decision.

• Notice of Appeal Against Exclusion – Form (pdf)