Authorised absence for Postgraduate Researchers

You must request authorised absence for every period of holiday you take. The standard University vacation periods do not apply to you; instead, you are permitted to take a maximum of eight weeks holiday per academic year. The academic year for PGRs starts on 1^st October and ends on 30^th September the following year).

The eight weeks is equivalent to 40 weekdays (8 weeks x 5 days). This is based on weekdays, not working days; it excludes weekends but includes any University closed days and bank holidays. If your registration is for less than an academic year – for example, if you started partway through an academic year – your holiday entitlement is calculated on a pro-rata basis.

Whilst you are a ‘normally registered’ student, as part of your research you may need to undertake fieldwork at a location away from the University. If you do choose to do this, you must submit an authorised absence request.

When you are writing up your thesis, and are in ‘thesis awaited’ status, you may choose to do some or all of your writing up in your home country. Again, if you do choose to do this, you must submit an authorised absence request.

As you will still be studying whilst completing fieldwork or writing up, the University may approve a period of absence longer than eight weeks. We must fulfil our obligations as a Student route sponsor and continue to monitor your academic engagement and progress whilst you are away.

We recommend you discuss your plans with your supervisor before applying for authorised absence.

Reporting absences to the Home Office

If you intend to return to the University and continue with your studies at the end of your absence, we will inform the Home Office that you have temporarily changed your study location. This will not affect your visa.

If you take an authorised absence for the purpose of writing up your thesis in your home country, you will be asked to confirm on the request form whether you plan to return to the University to complete your studies. If you tell us that you don’t plan to return, we will report to the Home Office that you have returned to your home country to complete your studies there.  We will withdraw immigration sponsorship, and you will not be allowed to return to the University on your current Student route visa.

If you have any questions about withdrawal of immigration sponsorship and what this means for you, we strongly advise that you contact the International Student Team (IST). 

Medical/bereavement

The University recognises that during your time with us, unforeseen circumstances may arise that require you to take time away from your studies.

If you need an absence longer than four weeks, it would be better for you to apply for a leave of absence instead. This is because on an authorised absence no extra time is added to your registration period to make up for the time you have missed, whereas it is on a leave of absence.

Conferences

You may wish to attend a conference, either as a delegate or to present your work. Authorised absence must be requested if you are leaving the University to do this.

Evidence requirements

If you request an authorised absence for medical reasons, due to family illness/bereavement, or to attend a conference, you must include evidence with your request. If the original document is not in English, you must get it translated into English by a certified translator; please provide both the original and the translated copy.

Documents provided as evidence should be official confirmation of the situation. For example, for a medical absence, a doctor’s note would be acceptable whereas a photograph of an injury or an x-ray image would not.

Evidence must be time-relevant and clearly demonstrate why you need to be absent during the dates requested. 

The authorised absence form is available online. Please see the step-by-step guide on how to submit a request.

Authorised signatory - this will be your supervisor.

Administrator – this will be the mailbox address for your School’s administrative team.

Please note that any requests ‘approved’ by a student will not be processed.

If you are using an @contacts email address in either the authorised signatory or administrator field, you may receive an error message stating that ‘the user does not exist or is not unique’. To bypass this error you can use an alternate @adf email address. Please see steps on how to retrieve this alternate email address . Please be aware that when this email address is entered into a form field it might look like it will revert back to an @contacts address, however, it will still work as an alternate mail address for a shared mailbox.

When you submit a request, the named authorised signatory will review your request and submit their decision.

If your request is rejected, your School will contact you to notify you of their decision.

If your request is approved, Registry will receive this for processing and email you to confirm whether the request has been approved or declined. Please be aware that this is a two-step approval process, and the University may be required to decline your request even if it was approved at School level.

If your authorised absence is approved you will be provided with an email for you to show to the Immigration Officer at the border, should they ask for proof that you are a student and have permission to travel outside the UK.

Please note that once an approved authorised absence request has been received by Registry the standard processing time is ten working days, however during peak times this may extend to twenty working days.

You are expected to return to the UK on the stated end date of your absence (unless your absence was for thesis writing up and you have confirmed you will not be returning).  On the first University working day after your authorised absence ends, you must report in person to your programme administrator to confirm that you have returned by the agreed date.

If you are unable to return by the date provided on your request form, you should submit a new authorised absence request with evidence that supports why you require longer than planned.

If you do not report your return, or submit an extension request, the University may be required to report withdrawal of immigration sponsorship to the Home Office.