Extensions

I have a new responsibility! And that is managing the extension request. All our assignments have a deadline, and if the students fall ill, or need to go to a funeral, or something, they can ask for an extension. Electronically, of course. And someone that needs to deal with these extension requests. It is quite a lot of work! A LOT of requests are filed. And the idea is that we as academic staff take turns. And I suppose my turn has now come!

The bloke who has done it for years invited me and Laura, who is the other person who will be doing it, to a meeting where he could explain the ins and outs to us. Together with his wife; she is an academic support officer, and she handles the extension requests in our sister School. 

This is a good time to hand over; it is summer, so we currently practically have no undergraduates. The old cohort is going to graduation this week, and the new cohort starts in September. We have some students who need to do some supplementary assessment over the summer, but you can't get an extension on supplementary assessment. So until things kick off again in the new academic year, the only extensions we could expect are postgraduate taught students, who hand in their dissertations in early September. So we will make a gradual start!

Quiet times

 

As I said; it is a lot of work, and you can't take a break from it. Students filing for an extension can be in quite a lot of distress, and you can't leave them hanging. I will have to discuss taking annual leave with Laura, because if we would be away at the same time that could be really unfortunate. 

One thing my colleague told me is that it can be quite satisfying, because you feel like you really make a difference to students when they have a difficult time. And that sort of thing always buoys me up. I'm not sure if all the students find that easy to imagine; after all, in another role I am the person who talks sternly to them if they have broken academic integrity regulations. And probably gives them a penalty. That might get you a reputation that you enjoy kicking people down rather than lifting them up! But that is not true. 

I don't know when my first request will come in. And I don't know how difficult I will find it to deal with this. Stay tuned! I suppose it will get busy in either October or November… and then it won't stop until the end of the academic year. I'd better brace myself!