The Grade Appeal Form should be used to initiate the formal grade appeal process. This form and all supporting documentation must be submitted to the Chair of the department in which the instructor was teaching (or to the Dean if the instructor was the department chair).
The purpose of the grade appeal procedure is to serve the needs of graduate and undergraduate students who believe that they were unjustly awarded a grade by a faculty member through prejudice or caprice. The basis for a grade appeal is the student's charge that the grade was awarded through prejudice or caprice. The burden of proof rests with the student.
Time Limit on Grade Appeals
Students must initiate the first review of the appeal within 45 days of the official end of the semester in which the grade was awarded. For grades awarded and appealed from fall and summer semesters, the entire appeal process must be completed before the official end of the next semester; the entire appeal process for grades awarded and appealed from the spring semester must be completed before the official end of the next fall semester.
The policy applies to the final grades for the award of academic credit and does not apply to graduate and undergraduate examinations that are administered as part of the degree progression and certification processes (such as comprehensive examinations and candidacy examinations at the graduate level).
The Grade Appeal Procedure begins with the course instructor and all efforts must be documented by the student. Complete information on all steps of the grade appeal process can be found in the University Catalog.
If a student has exhausted the avenues provided by the institution and the complaint has not been resolved internally, the student can submit a "Student Complaint Form" to SCHEV. Information on this process can be found at the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) website.