Do you know your dates?

Hopefully over the course of your postgraduate research here at Birmingham everything goes to plan, and your thesis is submitted by the required date.
But if everything doesn’t go to plan and something happens you might need a leave of absence or an extension.

Put simply, when it comes to submitting your thesis – do you know your dates?

This film is brought to you by the University Graduate School.
Supporting postgraduate researchers at the University of Birmingham.
This is you. Well, um actually I’m not very good at drawing people… Hang on…

That’s better! This is you. Well done on getting that first degree, by the way. 

Oh. Hello! 

OK, so we both know that it’s a big complicated world out there and if something happens that means you need to take a break from your studies…

Well, it might be that you need a leave of absence.

So, a leave of absence is a break taken during your postgraduate research, for between 2 and 12 months.

It is defined by the University as: “During their period of registration, students may experience a range of significant challenges that may compromise their ability to continue to fully engage with their programme of study and to maximise their academic potential. In certain situations the most viable course of action may be to take an authorised break from study, known as Leave of Absence.”

Hmm… Maybe it’s easier to talk about the sort of significant challenges that might mean you need a leave of absence.

You might have medical reasons, which will require a medical note.

Maternity leave, or the newly introduced allowances for paternity, count as a leave of absence too. 

There are a range of other reasons that count too, such as participating in sporting fixtures of international importance.

Being on a leave of absence means you aren’t a normally registered student anymore, so as well as affecting your fees, funding and access to University facilities. It may also affect your right to remain in the UK. If you need a visa to study in the UK, then you will be expected to leave. 

In exceptional circumstances an extension may be granted to your thesis submission date. Unlike a leave of absence, an extension happens at the end of your period of study and is defined as: “An extension of time beyond the maximum period of study or to the deadline for submitting a revised or corrected thesis.”

The circumstances for an extension may be similar to leaves of absence, although there are other situations in which they might apply. For example, failure of the University IT systems, unavailability of your supervisor, or prolonged jury duty.

Each application for a leave of absence or an extension is considered on its own merits, but there are some things that definitely don’t count – like just missing your deadline, losing your work, and printing issues…

And don’t forget that a leave of absence can only be applied for retrospectively in very exceptional circumstances.

So, do you know your dates? You can check online through the my bham portal, and also find full details on leaves of absence and extensions in the links below this video, or if you have any questions, you can submit an online query.

Thanks for watching!

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