As autumn drew in and students returned to their term-time homes, the University of Edinburgh was preparing to drop a bombshell on its students – a revised extensions policy.
It comes at a time of dramatic increase in the number of extension requests and approvals, since the 2020/21 academic year. In the 2022/23 academic year, about 25% of students received extensions; in one cohort, the number shot to over 60%. The university says this had an effect on both staff and students, impacting marking, feedback time, and decisions on late penalties.
The change in policy also acts as an attempt to provide quicker responses to extension requests. By allowing students to self-certify their own extensions, there is less reliance on staff manually approving requests, which often took longer than the expected two working days to complete.
But what is this new policy?
The new policy will limit coursework extension requests to 3 per academic year, of which students are automatically guaranteed approval. These extensions are for four calendar days only (as opposed to the previous seven) and each extension can apply to multiple assessments where deadlines fall in the same four-day calendar period. Students are able to apply for extensions no earlier than ten days before the assignment deadline.
The certainty of receiving extensions seems like a benefit, but many students think the three extensions limit feels less than reassuring. Speaking to a group of third years, one said, “I’m almost afraid to apply for an extension, even though my reason is valid – what if something worse happens next semester?”
“It feels like we’re being punished,” commented another.
By introducing a “self-certified” extension policy, the university also aims to improve its Data Protection Laws. In the old policy, students were expected to provide detailed descriptions of their situation, to then be reviewed and approved to receive extensions.
Due to the high number of extension requests, the extensions application process received and captured sensitive data (“classified as ‘special category data’ by the Data Protection Laws,” writes the university) for over 40% of the student population.
The biggest change to the policy is the limit on extension requests. The university recommends any students who have used up their extensions, but need to request another, should instead apply for Extraordinary Circumstances. For many students, this does not accommodate for situations that would normally qualify for an extension, but not for Extraordinary Circumstances.
“You hear of people who’ve left their essays until the last minute, so they apply for extensions under the assumption it will get approved – and it usually does. So, this system is good in that sense,” said a student from the school of HCA. “But not everyone does this, and it feels unfair to assume that everyone who applies for an extension is trying to trick the uni.”
To those new to the university, the old policy did not restrict the number of extensions students could apply for, instead entrusting students to determine independently what they would and would not need an extension for.
This change in policy begs one looming question: why are so many of the University of Edinburgh students applying for extensions?
In a time of student homelessness and increasing food prices, there’s a reasonable argument to be made that many students are occupied by stresses considerably worse than a late mark on their essays. Working overtime to afford basic necessities to live in one of the UK’s most expensive student cities can impact a student’s availability to study, only for them to be accused of “poor time management”. There is support available for those with financial issues, but is this support up to standard and do students know where to look for it?
Clashing course deadlines also propel students to request extensions. For many humanities courses, coursework is frequently due before the exam period, meaning students must manage lectures, tutorials, and assignments before the allocated revision period, so the relief of a short extension can often go a long way for students to produce a piece of work to a reasonable standard. An improvement in course communication might benefit those students, resulting in fewer extension requests.
By treating students like offenders (which is the undertone many students seem to take from this change) for requesting extensions during increasingly challenging circumstances, the university invites an atmosphere of hostility rather than reassurance. To assume that every student applying for an extension is trying to cheat the system is naïve.
Perhaps this new system will work, or perhaps the university will instead see rocketing numbers of students with late penalties and requests for Extraordinary Circumstances – only time will tell.
Photo by Olena Bohovyk on Unsplash