Students can write at an examination centre located in the University’s Athabasca, Edmonton, or Calgary, Alberta, offices. In addition, a Canada-wide Examination Invigilation Network has been established and is comprised of many post-secondary institutions that are AU approved invigilation sites. An invigilator is a person who supervises students while they are writing an exam.
Students who do not have access to an examination centre, may propose an invigilator. Athabasca University students living outside Canada write their examinations at an approved post-secondary institution or Canadian Embassy.
Students writing an online exam may also be able to write through ProctorU which enables students to write an online exam in locations other that those stated above.
All invigilators must be approved by Athabasca University in order to supervise an AU exam.
Students are expected to write their exam within their course contract period. Exam requests that are received within our published exam request deadlines, with a write date that is within a student's contract period, will not be assessed any additional fees.
AU has implemented process to accommodate late exam requests. A late exam request is an exam which is requested outside of the published deadlines.
Students cannot write their exam prior to the course contract start date.
All examination requests, with the exception of supplemental examinations, must be received by AU on or before the course contract end date.
After you submit your Examination Request Form, AU aims to have your exam arrive at the examination centre or your invigilator, approximately one week before your requested write date. AU cannot guarantee that your examination will arrive before your requested write date. Timelines are dependent on your geographic location.
Examination Request Form
If you are a student with a disability or you are registered for services through Accessibility Services, and you require accommodations for your examinations, please use the Accessibility Services Examination Request Form.
Accessibility Services Examination Request Form
If you are a student with a disability who requires exceptional examination accommodations, you must request your examination at least 30 days before your write date to allow additional time for AU staff to prepare the examination. In rare circumstances these time limits may be extended for specific examinations.
Accessibility Services website
If you are registered in a course that has an oral exam, be advised that the exam may be conducted by phone, video conferencing, email, or other methods, and should be arranged between you and your tutor. The evaluation section of the course syllabus will indicate whether the course has an oral quiz or examination, or not.
For exam security reasons, AU reserves the right to delay the shipment of examinations that have a write date scheduled well into the future. Whenever possible, examinations are shipped to an approved invigilator or an approved invigilation centre so that the exams arrive approximately one week before the requested write date.
Athabasca University reserves the right to require that a student re-write an exam. This does not limit the University's right to proceed with charges of Student Academic Misconduct or Non-Academic Misconduct.
All examination appeals must be made using the Office of the Registrar Online Appeals Form. The appeals officer designated by the Registrar has the final authority on all appeals. All decisions on appeals will be communicated in writing to the Appellant.
If the appeals officer has received an appeal in error, it will be redirected accordingly.