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EAB remit and procedures

The Examinations Appeals Board

1. The Examinations Appeals Board (the EAB) exists to ensure that in the very few cases where disputes cannot be resolved between centres or private candidates and the awarding bodies, there is a fully independent avenue of appeal to review the correct application of procedures governing the setting, marking and grading of qualifications. It helps to give confidence to candidates, parents, schools and colleges who make use of the examinations system that the grades awarded are fair and accurate.
2. The Board of the EAB consists of the Chairman and two Deputy Chairmen.
3. The EAB will hear appeals on GCSE, GCE and Advanced Extension Awards examinations.
4. Appeals to the EAB can be made by centres and private candidates. Normally applications will be considered only from those based in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The EAB may accept an appeal from elsewhere, at the discretion of the Chairman, where there are implications for the same qualification offered in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
5. The Board will hear an appeal only when the entire appeals process of the awarding body concerned has been completed. This normally involves an enquiry about results, a re-mark or re-moderation and a formal appeal hearing before the awarding body’s appeals panel.
6. The EAB will consider, in relation to the award of grades, whether the awarding body concerned has used procedures which are consistent with the regulatory authorities’ code of practice and whether it has applied them properly and fairly in arriving at judgements. The procedures open to investigation include the full range of processes involved in and leading to the award of grades: the setting of papers; marking and moderation; the grade award; enquiries about results and appeals, special consideration, access arrangements and administrative arrangements. The appeals process is not concerned with making judgements about candidates’ work in the examination since that is properly the responsibility of the senior examiner of the awarding body concerned.
7. The EAB is not authorised to re-mark candidates' work nor can it change grades issued by an awarding body. It has powers to direct an awarding body to reconsider a case and may offer recommendations. If the Board is dissatisfied with an awarding body's response to its direction for a reconsideration of a case, it will report the matter to the appropriate regulatory authorities, setting out the reasons for the referral. These authorities are the Office of the Qualifications and Examinations Regulator (Ofqual) in England, Yr Adran Plant, Addysg, Dysgu Gydol Oes a Sgiliau / the Department for Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills in Wales (DCELLS) and the Northern Ireland Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA).
8. The EAB is the final avenue of appeal for centres and private candidates and its decisions therefore are final.

Making an appeal

9. Appeals to the EAB must be made by examination centres, ie headteachers of schools and principals of colleges, and not by individual candidates except privately entered candidates who may apply directly to the Board. Centres considering an appeal may discuss the issues informally with the EAB’s Appeals Manager prior to making a formal application.
10. Formal application to appeal to the EAB must be made within three weeks of receipt of the draft report detailing the outcome of an appeal to an awarding body.
11. To make formal application to appeal the appellant should send a completed application form, specifying clearly the grounds for the appeal.
12. Within two weeks of receiving an application, the Chairman will decide whether it
          (i)     falls within the EAB's remit; and
          (ii)    warrants formal consideration by the Board
    and advise the applicant accordingly.
13. Provision will be made for handling appeals from centres in Wales through the medium of Welsh, where required, in accordance with the Welsh Language Act 1993.

Hearings

14. Where the Chairman is satisfied that the conditions described in paragraph 12 are met, a hearing will be arranged at the earliest possible date. Hearings will take place normally within two months of receipt of an application. They will be open to the public. The relevant regulatory authorities and government education departments will specifically be invited to send observers.
15. On acceptance of an application, the Board will request from both parties full documentation on action taken in the case and any further evidence. They will be given 10 days to furnish the necessary information and the Board will circulate the relevant documents at least seven days before the hearing. The EAB will not hear an appeal in the absence of personal representation of both parties to the appeal. It will require the names and status and/or interest of the representatives and witnesses, normally not more than three in all per party, who will attend the hearing. The Board will pay travelling and subsistence expenses at agreed rates for up to three appellant representatives/witnesses.
16. Each appeal will be heard by a panel of three, selected from the Board members and the pool of panellists. All panellists selected will be independent of the awarding body concerned and the appellant. The panel will be chaired by a Board member.
17. At a hearing consideration will be given to the previously circulated written evidence, including, where appropriate, that derived from candidates' scripts. The appellant (normally the headteacher or principal of the centre) and a representative of the awarding body concerned will be invited to present their cases. The panel will seek supplementary information or clarification as necessary from the appellant and awarding body and examine all evidence presented before drawing conclusions. The opportunity to question the representatives of the two sides is an inherent part of the EAB appeal hearing and it is for this reason that the EAB insists they be actually present at the hearing.

Outcomes of appeal hearings

18. Where an appeal is judged to be well founded and the panel is not confident that the candidates’ published results are appropriate, the EAB is empowered to direct the awarding body to reconsider the case. Otherwise, the panel will uphold the original decision of the awarding body. The EAB will be able to appoint a non-participating observer to monitor an awarding body’s reconsideration of a case. Where appropriate the EAB will be able to offer broader recommendations to awarding bodies or regulatory authorities.
19. The parties concerned will be notified of the outcome of a hearing within two working days of the event. The EAB will publish its conclusions and underlying reasoning within 15 working days of the hearing.
20. Copies of the decision letter will be sent to the appellant and to the relevant awarding body, regulatory authorities and government education departments.
21. Should the EAB require an awarding body to reconsider a case and to re-mark the scripts, it will send the parties to the appeal a copy of the procedures, agreed between the EAB and the Joint Council for Qualifications, for such re-marking. The outcome of any reconsideration of a case will be published within six weeks of the awarding body’s receipt of notification from the EAB and will be distributed in the same way as the decision letter.
22. The EAB will issue a press notice on each case when it is closed and publish a report annually.

April 2008