The University of Edinburgh’s College of Arts, Humanities and Social Science (CAHSS) has reduced its standard coursework extension from seven to four days.
Only those seeking a standard extension will be impacted, with language assignment extensions remaining at 24 hours and dissertation extensions staying at seven days.
Special circumstance measures – such as 14-day extensions for approved students and the additional entitlements for students with formal learning adjustments – also remain unchanged.
According to a recent email to students in the School of History, Classics and Archaeology (HCA), the change is designed to ease the strain caused by “the large number of assignments submitted with 7-day extensions”.
HCA hopes the change will ensure the “timely return of marks and feedback” and “the quality of our marking and moderation process”.
Reflecting on the changes, one HCA student said that:
“There’s definitely an issue with getting feedback quickly enough to help in the next assignment, but only having four days extra might just mean my deadlines are more bunched together and give me more stress.”
Another from the School of Law added:
“I didn’t even know it had changed, but I do feel like four days might not be enough if you’re struggling because of an illness or bereavement.”
The reduction pre-empts the introduction of an overhaul to the current Extensions and Special Circumstance policy, which the university hopes to implement in 2024.
The policy is currently under consideration by the Academic Policy and Regulations Committee (APRC) following a year-long review.
Initial policy proposals included the reduction of extensions to three days, a limit of three self-certifications each year and stricter evidence requirements.
Several of these proposed measures were revised following an open letter to the APRC from the Edinburgh University Student Associations’ (EUSA) sabbatical officers and 43 of the university’s elected representatives.
The revisions included increasing the extension period to four days, adjusting evidential requirements, and allowing one application to apply to three assessments simultaneously.
The open letter argued that: “this new policy treats students like offenders determined to deceive the University for their own gain.
“The lack of trust in its students creates a hostile and unwelcoming environment, while in reality, students are just trying to do their best in increasingly complex and challenging circumstances.”
Concerns among the APRC in August regarding the practicalities of rolling out the policy in time for the start of the 2023/24 academic year led to the postponement of a vote on the policy.
As a result, the Extensions and Special Circumstances policy has not been changed, with all evidential requirements and application expectations remaining the same.
However, CAHSS has used the flexibility in the current policy to adjust its extension period and honour the four-day extension agreed upon in the revised policy.
In contrast, the University’s College of Science and Engineering (CSE) and College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine (CMVM) offer three-day extensions.
Carl Harper, the EUSA Vice-President of Education, told the Student that:
“The fact that colleges still made reductions to the length of extension days is really disheartening and does worry me, but I’m happy that (to my knowledge) none of the other proposed changes to the policy regarding self-certification and evidential requirements have been implemented.
“If students think that there are certain schools that aren’t communicating this issue well enough to their students, or if they’re doing things differently in a way that’s very punitive, I’d like to know and am open to any kind of communication from students.”
A University of Edinburgh spokesperson said:
“Where a student experiences unexpected and short term circumstances that could have had an adverse impact on their ability to complete an assessment, we have a policy in place to support them.”
“As part of this support our regulations allow for extensions up to seven days, but in most cases the extension time needed is less.”
“We strongly encourage any student who thinks that they may need an extension to discuss any potential requests with their Student Adviser.”
Image: “File:Edinburgh – 40 George Square, University Of Edinburgh, Arts Faculty, David Hume Tower (block A) And Lecture Block (block B) Including Steppe – 20140421174922.jpg” by Enric is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.