Special consideration is the process an Australian university uses to adjust an assessment when something outside your control stopped you doing your best work. You were sick on exam day. A family member was hospitalised the week an assignment was due. A chronic condition flared. You apply, you attach evidence, and the university decides whether to give you more time, a new sitting, a re-mark, or a withdrawal without academic penalty.

It is not a favour and it is not a grade appeal. It is an administrative decision made against a written policy, and the policy almost always turns on one thing: a registered health practitioner stating, in their own professional opinion, how much your capacity to study was reduced and over exactly which dates. Everything below is about getting that statement right and lodging it before the clock runs out. If you want your own university's rules, start at our university special consideration hub.

What special consideration covers

The same application usually opens the door to several different outcomes. Which one you get depends on the assessment, the timing and how severe the impact was.

• Deferred exam. You do not sit the scheduled exam and are given a later sitting. Murdoch, Flinders and the University of Canberra call this deferred assessment; UNE calls it a special examination.
• Assessment extension. Extra days on an assignment. Some universities, UNSW among them, handle short extensions separately from special consideration, and the evidence bar and deadline differ.
• Supplementary exam. An extra assessment offered after results, usually where you narrowly failed and had documented circumstances. UQ students search for this more than almost anything else.
• Withdrawal without academic penalty. The unit comes off your record, sometimes with a fee remission. Macquarie, QUT, Edith Cowan and Adelaide build their forms around this outcome specifically.
• Reduced study load or leave of absence. For longer conditions. Adelaide's form asks the practitioner whether the impact runs beyond 14 days and what the treatment plan is. International students on a student visa need this documented properly for ESOS compliance.

The name changes from campus to campus while the meaning stays the same. You will see special consideration at most universities, academic consideration at the University of Wollongong, exceptional variation of assessment at UWA, adverse circumstances at Newcastle, special circumstances at CQUniversity, special examination at UNE, special assessment consideration at ANU, and examination adjustments at Avondale. If a search for "special consideration" on your university site returns nothing useful, try those alternatives before assuming your university has no process.

The three kinds of evidence process

Across the 41 Australian universities we reviewed, the evidence requirement falls into one of three shapes. Knowing which one you are in tells you what to ask your doctor for.

1. The university has a form the doctor completes (19 universities). These go by names like professional authority form (UNSW, UTS, Macquarie), professional practitioner certificate (USyd), health professional report (UniMelb), impact assessment statement (RMIT) or health professional assessment form (QUT). The practitioner fills in a severity rating, the impact dates, their registration number and a stamp, then signs two pre-printed declarations: that they are not a family member or close associate, and that the university may contact them to verify the document. Bring the form to the consultation. A certificate on its own may not be enough.

2. The student completes a form and attaches a medical certificate (9 universities). Monash, Western Sydney, Newcastle, CQUniversity, UNE, Charles Darwin, Federation, Divinity and Avondale work this way. Here the certificate is the whole evidence package, so its wording carries all the weight. Monash asks that it state you were unable to sit or complete the work on the relevant date. UNE wants the consultation date, the extent of the condition, and a covered period that includes the exam date.

3. Everything happens in a portal (13 universities). Griffith, La Trobe, Flinders, ANU, UniSQ, Southern Cross and the University of Canberra take an upload with no downloadable form. Curtin, Charles Sturt, UTAS, Torrens, Notre Dame and Wollongong publish a form, but behind a student login. Charles Sturt's student medical certificate and Wollongong's medical impact statement are both practitioner-completed, so log in and download before you see a doctor.

What a medical certificate for university must state

A generic sick note written for an employer often fails at university, and for a predictable reason. Universities are not asking whether you could work. They are asking a practitioner to rate how far your study capacity was reduced, and over which days.

Get these into the document:

• Dates, twice over. The consultation date, and separately the period you were affected. Eighteen of the 19 practitioner forms ask for both. They are different fields for a reason: the day you were seen is not necessarily the first day you were unwell.
• An impact rating in the practitioner's opinion. Seventeen of the 19 forms carry a severity scale. The wording varies but the scales collapse onto one ladder: none, minor, moderate, severe, total, plus an "unable to assess" option when the practitioner cannot form a view. UNSW rates no, minor or major impact and asks twice, once for take-home work and once for in-class assessment. UTS and ACU run a six-point scale from slightly affected to totally unable. Deakin asks moderate or severe, and whether you can or cannot complete the assessment.
• Whose opinion it is. This is the single most common reason a certificate is rejected. QUT asks the practitioner to mark whether the statement rests on their own opinion and records or purely on what the patient said. The University of the Sunshine Coast says a certificate that merely repeats the student's account is not sufficient. Federation University spells it out: it wants a specific statement in the health professional's opinion, not the student's, that the student was severely, moderately or minor impacted over a specific timeframe.
• Registration and a stamp. Eighteen of the 19 practitioner forms ask for a stamp, and Murdoch will not accept a form without one. An AHPRA number is the norm. UTS wants the AHPRA number and a Medicare provider number. UniMelb and UWA also accept AASW, PACFA and ACA registrations for psychologists, social workers and counsellors.
• Study, not work. "Unfit for work" is refused outright by the University of the Sunshine Coast, and it reads oddly everywhere else. Ask for wording about study, attendance and assessment.

On diagnosis, less is often more. UniMelb, UWA and QUT explicitly do not want the condition named. USyd, RMIT, UniSC, Bond, Swinburne and ACU will take it only with your consent, and all of them offer a "confidential nature" option instead. UQ is the outlier: its medical and disability information form is built for adjustments and asks for the diagnosis. You are not obliged to disclose a diagnosis to your faculty to be believed. You are obliged to give them a dated, signed opinion. See our guide to the medical certificate for university for the wording that travels well.

Deadlines, backdating and duration limits

Deadlines are short and they are counted from the assessment, not from the day you recovered. Across the sector they cluster between two and five days.

• Monash: 2 working days after the due date or exam.
• UNSW: 3 working days.
• Federation, Swinburne, Charles Darwin and UniSC: 3 working days.
• UWA: 3 calendar days, which over a long weekend is a materially tighter window than three working days.
• UNE: 5 working days after the final exam.
• Newcastle: 11 pm on the due date for a Form A extension.
• CQUniversity: up to 14 months after census for special circumstances, because that process is about withdrawal and fee remission rather than an assessment.

Lodge first, evidence second where the portal allows it. A late application with perfect evidence is worth less than an on-time one you complete the next day.

Duration limits are a separate trap. UniMelb's health professional report covers a maximum of six weeks, so a longer condition needs a different pathway. UWA's exceptional variation of assessment is designed for impacts of seven days or more. Adelaide asks the practitioner whether the impact exceeds 14 days. Deakin splits temporary, under three months, from long term and ongoing.

On backdating, the rule is narrow but workable. A doctor cannot put yesterday's date on today's certificate. A doctor can, after assessing you, certify an earlier period of incapacity if the history and current findings support it. UNSW and Bond both warn that backdated documents may be refused, USyd wants the clinical justification stated, and UniSC asks that the certificate be dated before or on the exam day. So see someone early. The same illness documented on day one is straightforward and on day nine is an argument. We cover this in detail in backdated medical certificates for university.

Do universities accept online or telehealth medical certificates?

Yes, with a condition that is now being written into policy: a doctor has to have actually assessed you in real time.

The Medical Board of Australia is explicit that issuing a certificate is healthcare, and that doing it off a form is not acceptable practice:

"Providing healthcare, including issuing certificates and referring, via questionnaire-based asynchronous web-based tools in the absence of a real-time patient-doctor consultation is not good practice."¹

AHPRA draws the line in the same place and says plainly that an online chat is not a real-time consultation.² Its October 2025 update goes further, warning that technology which simulates patient conversations in place of a practitioner should be considered carefully.³ The RACGP defines synchronous as a connection where information moves both ways at the same time, and Medicare only recognises video or telephone for billing.^{4 5}

Universities have begun to mirror that language. UNSW is the strictest in the sector. Since its February 2026 update, an online medical certificate must follow a real-time phone or video telehealth consultation whenever the impact period is longer than three days, the extension sought is longer than three days, or the application relates to a final exam or timed assessment. Its guidance states that certificates issued without evidence that a real-time consultation occurred are not accepted, and that telehealth will not be accepted where the evidence indicates only an online questionnaire or form was completed.^{6 7}

USyd prefers in person and accepts telehealth when that is not possible, but rules out certificates issued without a consultation:

"Online medical certificates, without a consultation with a doctor, will not be considered."⁸

JCU accepts telehealth but only where it was real time, and explicitly rejects questionnaire-only certificates. ECU is the strictest the other way and asks for in-person assessment. Griffith requires that you speak directly with a doctor. Monash, Deakin, UTS, ANU and UniMelb accept telehealth without distinguishing the modality.

So the practical question is not "is this online" but "can I show a doctor assessed me". Before you pay for any online certificate, check that:

1. A registered doctor, not an algorithm, makes the final decision, and their AHPRA number appears on the certificate.
2. There is a real interaction on the record, a call or a video consultation, rather than a form you filled in and a PDF that arrived.
3. The certificate is verifiable, with a code or a page the university can check, because every practitioner form reserves the right to contact the issuer.
4. The wording matches your university's form, in particular the impact dates and a severity statement in the doctor's own opinion.

For context on how one model works: a Doccy consultation starts with a voice pre-screening call, an AHPRA-registered doctor then reviews the case and makes the clinical decision, and each certificate carries a verification code and a page the university can check against the consultation record.

How to apply for special consideration, step by step

1. Find your university's process and its name. Search your student site for special consideration, and if that fails, for academic consideration, adverse circumstances, deferred assessment or exceptional variation of assessment. Our university special consideration hub lists the process for each institution.
2. Download the form before your appointment. If your university has a practitioner section, the doctor needs the actual document. Log in first if it sits behind a student login, as it does at Curtin, Charles Sturt, Wollongong, UTAS, Torrens and Notre Dame.
3. See a doctor as early as you can. Same day beats next week. Bring the form, the assessment dates and the unit codes. Say clearly which assessments were affected and how, so the practitioner can rate the impact rather than guess at it.
4. Check the document before you leave. Consultation date present, impact period present and covering the assessment, severity marked, registration number and stamp on it, signed and dated today.
5. Lodge inside the deadline. Two to five days is the norm. Submit the application even if one piece of evidence is still coming.
6. Track the outcome. Decisions arrive by student email or in the portal. If a deferred exam is granted, finding the new sitting date is your responsibility. If the application is declined for insufficient evidence, most universities allow a better document or an appeal within a short window.

University quick reference

Each university below links to its own page with the exact form, the fields your doctor fills in, and the current deadline.

Key takeaways

• Special consideration is one process with many names and several possible outcomes, from a deferred exam to withdrawal without penalty.
• Nineteen of the 41 Australian universities give your doctor a form to complete. Download it before the appointment.
• The certificate needs the consultation date, the impact period, a severity rating in the practitioner's own opinion, and a stamp with a registration number.
• Deadlines run from two to five days after the assessment, counted from the assessment, not from your recovery.
• Telehealth is accepted broadly, but a real consultation with a registered doctor is now the line regulators and universities both draw.

This page is general information, not medical or academic advice, and policies change. Check your university's current guidance. If you need a certificate today, a Doccy consultation is reviewed by an AHPRA-registered doctor and the certificate carries a verification code.