FOI_26-177 Medical student requesting reasonable adjustments in exams

Date of response: 03 September 2026

We have now considered your request of 08 August 2026 for the following information:

I would be grateful if you could provide me with the following information pertaining to University of East Anglia Medical Students:

Question 1. The total number of students who have requested reasonable adjustments for examinations over the last 5 years broken down by:

 Year

 Year group

 Placement/education provider/Trust/LEP (or in the case of preclinical students ‘Medical school campus/preclinical')

 Adjustments requested

 Adjustments provided or declined

Question 2. The total number of students who were declined reasonable adjustments broken down by:

 Number with reason clearly provided

A clearly provided reason being defined as a concise, clear explanation, tailored to the individual request and clearly linking back to the requirements of the equality act.

For example: After careful consideration, we are unable to grant an exemption from the venepuncture station. This station is a core clinical skill essential to the safe practice of medicine. Allowing the student to skip it would fundamentally change the nature of the assessment and compromise the ability to demonstrate competence.

Alternative reasonable adjustments, such as additional support or supervision sessions.

Additionally, an adjustable chair and arm stabiliser may be provided to help the student complete the station safely

Question 3. Number of cases in which reasonable alternative adjustments were offered

Alternative reasonable adjustments are defined as a different method, arrangement, or support offered to a disabled student when their original adjustment request cannot reasonably be provided, with the purpose of removing or reducing the disadvantage caused by their disability.

The adjustment must be useful and effective for the student, it is not enough for it to exist on paper. The alternative must actually enable the student to

participate fully and fairly, achieving the same essential outcomes as the original request without compromising standards.

For example: Alternative reasonable adjustments, such as additional support or supervision sessions. Additionally, an adjustable chair and arm stabiliser may be provided to help the student complete the station safely

Question 4. Number of cases in which the student expressed that the alternative adjustment was or was not sufficient or suitable.

Question 5. The time taken to process reasonable adjustment requests provided as:

 The number of weeks students have been waiting since initial request provided as minimum, average and maximum waiting times

 The average time taken to process reasonable adjustment requests, provided as minimum, average and maximum waiting times

 The number of weeks students have been waiting since appeal or review request, provided as minimum, average and maximum waiting times

 The average time taken to process reasonable adjustment decision appeals or review requests, provided as minimum, average and maximum waiting time

Question 6. A list of reasonable adjustments that have been made in the last 5 years.

Our response:

We regret that on this occasion it is not possible to provide the requested information.

Under Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act, we can confirm that the University does hold the information requested, however on this occasion it is not possible for us to provide any of the information relating to the total number of students who have requested reasonable adjustments for examinations over the last 5 years broken down by placement/education provider/Trust/LEP (or in the case of preclinical students ‘Medical school campus/preclinical'), adjustments requested and adjustments provided or declined (Question 1). Nor is it possible to provide the time taken to process reasonable adjustments (number of weeks since initial weeks since initial request, average time taken to process requests, number of weeks student wait since appeal or review request or the average time taken to process decision appeals or review requests (Question 5) or the list of all reasonable adjustments made in the last five years (Question 6).

We have determined that the cost of finding and assembling the requested information will exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ as defined by section 12 of the Act and the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004/3244.

'The ‘appropriate limit’ of £450, which equates to 18 hours’ work, as defined by the Information Commissioner’s Office, can relate to one request in its entirety or to a series of linked requests. If the University cannot locate, retrieve and extract some or all of the requested information within the 18 hours we are not obliged to retrieve any of the requested information.

Information relating to Medical students requesting reasonable adjustments within exams/assessments is held within our Student and Academic Services department and our Faculty of Medicine and Health – Norwich Medical School. There is no central record of where this information is held.

We have identified a minimum of 283 Medical students on placement who applied for reasonable adjustments, which may fall into the scope of your request. The only way of identifying, extracting and recording the exact information you seek would be to interrogate each individual student record manually.

We have calculated it would take 15 minutes per records, or 70 hours, to locate and manually interrogate each individual student request for reasonable adjustments (question 1) provide a full list of all requests for reasonable adjustments made in the last five years (question 6), and a further 15 minutes, or 70 hours, to locate the dates of each initial request, the date we processed their requests, our decision, the type of adjustment requested, when the individual was seen or adjustment made, and any requests to appeal their request for question 5. The total time would be 140 hours, which exceeds the appropriate time-limit as outlined above.

Under section 16 of the Act, and to assist you in formulating a request to which we can respond, we can provide to you a partial response for question 1 consisting of readily available data for the number of requests for OSCE adjustments, the number of adjustments around neurodiversity and the number of pre-allocation adjustments broken down by year of study, as well as a list of examples of adjustments requested.

For question 5, we can provide a summary procedure of how promptly we expect to respond to a request for reasonable adjustments.

For question 6, we can provide to you a list of examples of adjustments requested.

For questions 2, 3 and 4 we would be able to respond in full.

Please note we have not considered whether any exemptions may apply to such a request.

We should also point out that any revised request you submit will be treated as a new FOI request, and the 20 working-day time-limit will begin again.

We are sorry we cannot provide the data you requested, but trust this response explains our position.