Supporting evidence requirements

Applications for Special Consideration require evidence to support your request. This evidence will help determine if your application is eligible, and the most appropriate outcome for your application.

Supporting evidence must:

  • identify the nature of the circumstances
  • include dates and/or the length of the circumstances
  • explain the severity and impact of the circumstances
  • clearly describe how the circumstances have adversely affected your capacity for effective study related to the assessment/exam
  • include the date(s) on which you were seen by the professional providing the evidence (if applicable)

Providing misleading or fraudulent information/documents is considered a breach of the MQ Student Code of Conduct. Breaches will be reported to the Complaints, Appeals and Misconduct Team and no Special Consideration will be granted.

Recommended supporting evidence

Various documentation types can be used as supporting evidence, however applications may not be approved if they are not supported by appropriate documentary evidence.

The below table outlines the recommended forms of evidence based on the event type. For a full list of acceptable evidence forms please see the Special Consideration Supporting Evidence Schedule.

Event typeRecommended evidence type

Short Term Illness

Hardship or Trauma

  • Statutory Declaration or Statement of Fact;
  • Medical Certificate or Professional Authority Form – stating how the student was affected;
  • Official letter from relevant source/authority

Death circumstances

  • Statutory Declaration or Statement of Fact – stating the relationship to the student;
  • Medical Certificate or Professional Authority Form – stating how the student was affected;
  • Other documents such as: Funeral Notice, Death Announcement, Obituary, Death Certificate

Unavoidable commitments

  • Official letter and/or documents from the relevant source/authority. For example:
    • Wedding invitations accompanied by Statutory Declaration or Statement of Fact;
    • Letter from religious leader/Elder;
    • Letter from employer – stating why the student cannot be released from the unexpected work commitments;
    • Letter from doctor/medical certificate;
    • Letter confirming student’s attendance to Jury Duty/court date

Exacerbation of ongoing illness

Elite athlete or performer commitments
  • Official letter from the Macquarie Elite Athlete Program or appropriate organisation (at state level or higher) supporting increased training commitments/competition
Army Reservists/SES commitments and Volunteer Firefighters
  • An official training notice from the organiser - Explaining why attendance is required

What is a Professional Authority Form (PAF)

If students have consulted with a health professional due to their circumstances, i.e. medical circumstances or hardship circumstances, they can consider using a Professional Authority Form (PAF) as supporting evidence once it has been completed by the relevant health professional.

Supporting evidence FAQs

A Statement of Fact can be used as supporting evidence:

  • for all event types other than Elite Athlete commitments,
  • if the event duration 5 days or less, and
  • if it is used only once per assessment task (it cannot be used for the same assessment task more than once).

If your Statement of Fact does not include sufficient detail, or does not allow for your circumstances to be confirmed as serious and unavoidable, it will not be accepted. Students are recommended to consider independently corroborated documentation forms which clearly demonstrate serious and unavoidable circumstances.

You do not have to include other evidence when applying, however you may be requested to provide additional supporting evidence when your application is reviewed. If you are able to obtain recommended supporting documentation forms it is suggested to use these documents rather than a Statement of Fact.

You should provide dated evidence of your positive test result, for example: a screenshot of your rapid antigen test (RAT) with file properties of the image, or a dated confirmation of your positive PCR result. Evidence which lacks date confirmation is not considered appropriate supporting documentation, i.e. a photo of a positive rapid antigen test by itself is not adequate documentation.

If your supporting evidence is not in English it cannot be properly assessed. This will impact whether your application is deemed to have acceptable or insufficient evidence.

The university reviews all supporting evidence provided in Special Consideration applications. Where misleading or fraudulent information/ documents are submitted, this will be reported to the Complaints, Appeals and Misconduct Unit. Any application with misleading or fraudulent information will be denied Special Consideration, and the likely outcome is 0% for the assessment task. No further consideration for that assessment task will be given should other evidence be provided.