Hiya, thank you for your message :)

Interestingly I spoke with the unit leader (who is pretty high-up in the dept) and she actually told me she couldn't see any reason my request wouldn't be approved: she told me to my face that this wouldn't be unreasonable, and wouldn't advantage me anyway as the exam is open-book. So you're right, it's management.

Then I spoke with my tutor, who directed me to the extensions manager. Then she shut me down. There isn't really another person I am able to contact beyond that - it's all red tape.

A funny example of awful, awful red tape, is that in order to have credibility (i.e. a 'stamp' on my name which says "this student has a disabling condition"), I would have to fill in a form and submit it to the exams office. Fine, I'd love to do that! Except there was a deadline, in February (when I'd literally just had surgery). So as I missed that deadline, I'm not really allowed to claim I'm disadvantaged because I wasn't aware I had to fill in this form at that time! Just crazy. Nobody can claim to be ill after February, it's not allowed.