Extensions: first few months

It had been June when I accepted the new responsibility of dealing with extension requests. And it is a quiet time. The only students who have assessment you are the MSC students. They hand in the report they write on their project in early September. So that is the only thing I can get extension requests for. 

I had underestimated how many I would get, and how early. I'm not quite sure how many students we have doing a project in total, so I don't know what the percentage of students is that so far has asked for an extension, but it is a considerable number! So that was a good way of getting into the swing of things.

With his responsibility I also got a flowchart. Sometimes, these requests are very easy to deal with. The flowchart just tells you that what the student has asked for is something they are entitled to, and then I just hit "approved" and send them a little message wishing them the best. You could also get a student who asks for an extension on the basis of something that does not count as a legitimate reason, such as a laptop breaking down. The University is quite specific that that is not valid. You are expected to back up your work, and you always have access to university computers. I didn't get such requests yet, but I imagine they are quite quick to manage.

Sometimes there is a bit more work involved. Students who say that their project requires lab work, but some equipment is broken, but they don't provide details, for instance. Then I have to work out who would know about that equipment (the supervisor or some person responsible for the equipment in question), and contact them to check if the story is true. 

You can also get complicated cases, where students for instance ask for an extension on the basis of one reason that is legitimate, and the one that is not. Then you have to ask them to separate these things. Sometimes they ask for a long extension, but that would then mean they are at risk of not having their work marked on time to graduate with their peers. That requires discussions with the Senior Tutor, and with the student themselves. They may very well not have considered that complication!

It is good to get to know the system a bit, and get some routine in judging the requests. In the new semester, you would have all the students having assessments. You can easily check the request centre, and find 100 cases there. You can't rely on a flowchart then; you have to do it off by heart! I'm glad I could practice in a time when you might encounter between 0 and 5. I don't think I've had to deal with more than that in one day yet. And quite a lot of days have none at all. But this is the calm before the storm! I'll be busy before the students submit, because then they ask for extensions, and afterwards, because then the academic integrity cases come rolling in…