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I think the element of 'choice' that determines whether or not a circumstance is mitigating may, in the context of financial pressures, come down to the choice to be a student in those circumstances. If a person chooses to start, or continue, as a student and work a significant number of hours a week they are 'choosing' to not commit fully to their academic work and therefore, by implication, choosing to accept a possibly lower outcome, achievable within the limitations of work. The alternatives that may gain them a higher degree may not be attractive but they are there: to intermit and earn money, to postpone higher education, to find a different way of getting their degree etc. When the student has chosen, in this narrow sense, to be a student in those circumstances, they should not be considered mitigating. Externally caused, and unpredictable, financial problems e.g. sudden withdrawal of parental support, collapse of home country economy, are, quite obviously not the students' choice and could be considered mitigating whilst a solution was being sought. If the long term solution the student chooses is to continue the degree whilst starting to work long paid hours then, again, the circumstances might not be considered mitigating. Susan Rhodes Academic Section University of Essex %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%