Cambridge makes student wait nine months

Cambridge University took more than nine months to confirm to a self-funded American postgraduate student that it has no procedures for hearing her academic appeal.

The university confirmed that it had no facility for handling complaints from successful MPhil students who are denied leave to continue to a PhD. "A decision not to allow a successful candidate for the MPhil degree to proceed to a further degree is not a decision in connection with the MPhil examinations within the meaning and spirit of" the regulations, Cambridge said.

The student, who has been living in the UK while waiting for the outcome of her representations, said the decision-makers were not made aware of problems she had experienced with supervision, including a personality clash with her supervisor, a number of cancelled supervisions and a period of sickness she suffered. She also claims that colleagues who received similar results were allowed to continue.

Cambridge's review committee told her this month that her representations are dismissed because "they do not fall within regulations".