Appeal an exclusion or suspension
If you've received an exclusion or suspension letter, you can appeal the decision.
Exclusion and suspension letters are automatically generated and are usually sent out just after your results. We know that receiving one can feel confronting, but it's not personal. The system is designed to flag students that meet the academic progress or misconduct criteria below, not to single anyone out. And remember – this isn't necessarily the final decision. There are two kinds of exclusion or suspension letters.
Academic progress
This usually means you've either failed 50% or more of your subjects in two consecutive semesters or failed the same subject twice. If this is the case, please follow the instructions below to submit an appeal.
General or academic misconduct
This means there's an issue with your behaviour or the integrity of your work. If this is the case, please follow the instructions on the Appeals to the Student Appeals Committee page to submit an appeal.
Eligibility and timing
If you think you can improve your academic performance (and have a plan to do so), you should appeal. You just need to be able to show that the circumstances that impacted your studies no longer apply. Many students have successfully appealed in the past.
You must appeal within 20 working days of receiving the letter. If you don't respond at all, you will be either suspended or excluded – so we advise you to start working on your submission immediately.
How to appeal an exclusion or suspension
Follow these steps or download a pdf version (201 KB).
If your exclusion or suspension is based on unsatisfactory academic progress, follow the steps below.
If it relates to academic or general misconduct, please follow the process for appealing to the Student Appeals Committee instead.
You don't have to go through the appeals process alone. Student Advocacy can:
- help you understand why you've received the letter
- discuss what has impacted your studies
- suggest relevant supports and referrals
- provide information and templates to help you write your own response
- explain what kinds of evidence are useful
- review a draft of your response and give you feedback.
Make an appointment to talk to us as soon as possible.
Your letter should outline the specific circumstances that negatively impacted your studies (e.g. personal, financial, health or mental health issues) and what you have already done, or plan to do, to improve your situation and prevent the same issues from happening again. For example, you might:
- reduce the number of hours you're working
- attend PASS sessions to support your studies
- register with Accessibility Services to negotiate reasonable study adjustments.
Not sure how to start? Use our letter template (PDF 150 KB).
You'll need to include copies of documents that will support your case, such as statutory declarations, medical letters, academic transcripts, special consideration forms and study plans. If you don't submit any supporting evidence, your appeal is unlikely to succeed.
Complete the Institute Appeal Submission Form (PDF 315 KB). (Use Acrobat to edit the file rather than your browser.)
Email the form, letter and any supporting evidence to your institute's appeals email address (see below). Your student number should appear on all documents. Address the email to the executive dean of your institute and use the subject line 'Exclusion appeal: CONFIDENTIAL'.
Institute of Health and Wellbeing: health.appeals@federation.edu.au
Institute of Education, Arts and Community: educationarts.appeals@federation.edu.au
Institute of Innovation, Science and Sustainability: iiss.appeals@federation.edu.au
Not sure which institute you belong to? Email studentadvocacy@federation.edu.au to check.