Leave of Absence

hattoncracker

Hi guys,

I was just wondering, has anyone any information on what happens if you take a leave of absence? I have had a bereavement, due to the nature of it it's going to take me a long time to heal, and I need a few months off. I am attending counselling in UL and I was told that I could take one. Ideally, I would like to come back next January and repeat my second semester, and continue on..

Would I have to pay the full fees for next year if I did it?

OhMSGlive

hattoncracker wrote: »

Would I have to pay the full fees for next year if I did it?

AFAIK, no, just for the modules you are repeating.

Oh, and my condolences.

Chimaera

Condolences on your loss. I would talk first to the counselling service about this - I doubt it's the first time someone has needed to take a leave of absence on medical or compassionate grounds so they should be able to give you some advice on it. SAA should also be able to give you some advice on the situation.

Spom

Very sorry to hear about your loss. Normally when you're applying for leave of absence you apply ahead of time, i.e for a semester/year that hasn't begun yet. However I found myself in a similiar situation to yourself two years ago where-by circumstances rendered me unable to complete a semester that I had already begun, so I know exactly what happens in this situation. You will have to submit a leave of absence form in time for the next student status comittee meeting, which I believe is on the 27th of June, but I'm unsure of when the dead-line to have the form submitted by is. In your case you will be applying for retrospective leave of absence and because of this you will be probably required to have letters or other documentation in support of your request. SAA will give you further details on what they will deem sufficent evidence for your particular case - for me I had to provide a letter from the medical professional I was seeing at the time, for you it might involve submission of a letter from a counsellor.

It is very important that you do not attempt to sit any end-of-term exams - if you do so then your application for leave of absence will not be approved. I am absolutely certain of this, I know someone whose application was rejected upon this basis and they only sat one exam. I also happened to end up chatting with the assistant dean of Mary Immaculate College once while out shopping when I was waiting for my own LOA to be approved and she advised me of this also - she is on the student status commitee for MIC so she would definitely know and MIC is a part of UL so it all works the same way. It makes sense if you think about it - you are applying for retrospective LOA more or less on the grounds that you were "absent" for the semester gone by, if you sit exams then you clearly were not absent.

As for fees, if you have this semester already paid for then you will have to pay nothing next year. It is not as though you are repeating a semester - you will be technically sitting a semester for the first time which you have already paid for. It doesn't matter if you have any form of coursework already completed to date, just be sure not to sit the exams.

hattoncracker

Spom wrote: »

Very sorry to hear about your loss. Normally when you're applying for leave of absence you apply ahead of time, i.e for a semester/year that hasn't begun yet. However I found myself in a similiar situation to yourself two years ago where-by circumstances rendered me unable to complete a semester that I had already begun, so I know exactly what happens in this situation. You will have to submit a leave of absence form in time for the next student status comittee meeting, which I believe is on the 27th of June, but I'm unsure of when the dead-line to have the form submitted by is. In your case you will be applying for retrospective leave of absence and because of this you will be probably required to have letters or other documentation in support of your request. SAA will give you further details on what they will deem sufficent evidence for your particular case - for me I had to provide a letter from the medical professional I was seeing at the time, for you it might involve submission of a letter from a counsellor.

It is very important that you do not attempt to sit any end-of-term exams - if you do so then your application for leave of absence will not be approved. I am absolutely certain of this, I know someone whose application was rejected upon this basis and they only sat one exam. I also happened to end up chatting with the assistant dean of Mary Immaculate College once while out shopping when I was waiting for my own LOA to be approved and she advised me of this also - she is on the student status commitee for MIC so she would definitely know and MIC is a part of UL so it all works the same way. It makes sense if you think about it - you are applying for retrospective LOA more or less on the grounds that you were "absent" for the semester gone by, if you sit exams then you clearly were not absent.

As for fees, if you have this semester already paid for then you will have to pay nothing next year. It is not as though you are repeating a semester - you will be technically sitting a semester for the first time which you have already paid for. It doesn't matter if you have any form of coursework already completed to date, just be sure not to sit the exams.

Thank you very much for this response.. It was so informative!! I had mid terms this week, thank goodness I didn't go in for them...

RDJMPC

Also, the Education Officer would be a good point of contact too with this, or alternatively refer to the Student Academic Handbook. It's available on the UL website, go into search. Its a great wee handbook to have at hand. I use it a lot!