York Online Programmes: taking time out

The York Online Programmes are designed to be flexible and to let students balance their studies around work and other commitments. One of the most important tools you can use to plan your studies around other life events is to build scheduled breaks into your programme. 

Breaks of this kind always begin at the start of the next online learning period, and you are expected to let the University know that you intend to take a break (see ‘How to apply’ for further guidance).

You can request a planned absence for any reason, and evidence is not usually required. 

Taking a break means that you will miss one or more of the modules that you are due to study. It will not be possible to take any modules that you miss until they are next offered. It is always worth checking the York Online Module Schedule to see when the module will run again. You can also talk to your Student Success Coordinator about the impact that taking a break will have on your trajectory and programme end date.

Failure to sign up for a new module or inform the University that you are planning to take a break will mean that you are placed on an unauthorised absence. If you are on an unauthorised absence for more than two consecutive online learning periods then you will be withdrawn from studies.

Sometimes circumstances happen that you can’t control and didn’t expect. If you are studying on weeks 1-7 of a taught module and something happens that disrupts your studies, you can request to take a break from that module, and return to teaching at a later date.

Breaks of this kind always begin immediately: you cannot request a Leave of Absence start date that is in the past. If you believe that a previous module was also affected by the same circumstances, then you should consider whether to request Repeat Study at the same time as submitting your break request.

You can take an immediate break from your studies for a range of reasons, including health (physical or mental), compassionate, employment, financial or motivational grounds. However, if you want to take a break in order to focus on upcoming assessments or simply intend to plan a flexible break in your studies, then your absence can only begin at the start of the next online learning period.

You cannot take an immediate break from a module after teaching (weeks 1-7) has been completed. If you need support during week 8, speak to your Student Success Coordinator about the York Online Fit to Sit / Submit policy.

When you return to the module that you paused, you will rejoin that module from the start, as part of a new cohort. You will be expected to sit the end of module assessment, and the mark you achieve will be used to calculate your final award. 

Mid module assessments

Some modules have a mid-module or component assessment that counts towards the final module mark. If you are studying on one of these modules when you request to take a break, then you will be allowed to repeat the mid-module assessment if you submit the request before the assignment deadline has passed or the exam has started. If you submit a break request after the assignment deadline or exam start date but want to take the assessment again, then you will need to provide evidence that demonstrates your circumstances have negatively affected your ability to prepare for or sit the assessment.

Assessments for other modules

Sometimes you might be preparing for an assessment for a previously completed module when you request to take a break. This could be the end of module assessment for the preceding module, an extension, a reassessment or a ‘sit as if for the first time’ (SAIFFT). Assessments for other modules are not usually covered by your break request, so always check whether you will also need to declare yourself not Fit to Sit / Submit if you cannot take your assessment now.

The capstone project module (CPM)

You cannot usually request to take a Leave of Absence whilst you are studying on the capstone project module for your programme. This is because the capstone project module is based around your independent research. If you encounter circumstances that prevent you from studying whilst you are on the capstone project module, then you should submit a claim and supporting evidence using the online Exceptional Circumstances Application Form. If the circumstances you describe suggest you will need to take a break from your studies, the York Online Support Team will get in touch to discuss your options.

To learn more about the support available during the capstone project module, take a look at your Orientation Module in Canvas and at the accompanying York Online Programmes Handbook.

There are rules about when you can request certain kinds of absences, and how long breaks can be.

Absence duration

• A single period of Leave of Absence can be up to 12 months in the first instance. You can extend your break by submitting a new break request in the eight weeks before you are due to return to your studies. See ‘Extending your Leave of Absence’ below for more information.
• There is no maximum limit on the total amount of Leave of Absence you can take. However, if your break request means that you would have spent more than two years on Leave of Absence in total, then your request will require additional approval from your Department’s Chair of Board of Studies.
• A Leave of Absence must be longer than two weeks. This means that if you submit a break request in week 7 of the module, you will not be able to return to your studies in the next online learning period. If you have encountered circumstances that have impacted you for a brief period of time, you should use the York Online Fit to Sit / Submit policy to request a short deadline extension or to defer your assessment instead.

Timings: taking a planned absence

• You can request to take a break for the next online learning period at any point when module registration is open. You can check the module registration deadline for the next online learning period under ‘Key actions’ in e:vision.
• It is not possible to request a Leave of Absence that starts more than one online learning period in the future.

Timings: requesting an unplanned absence

• If you are in weeks 1-7 of a module, then you can request for your break to start immediately. If approved, you will be allowed to return to week 1 of that module.
• If you are in week 8 of a module, then you will not be allowed to take an immediate break. This is because you have completed the module teaching. Your Leave of Absence will need to start at the beginning of the next online learning period. If you have encountered circumstances that mean you are not able to sit the end of module assessment, then you should declare yourself not fit to sit via the York Online Fit to Sit / Submit process. Alternatively, if your ability to engage with the module teaching was severely disrupted, you should check if you would meet the criteria to request Repeat Study.
• It is not possible to request a Leave of Absence that has a start date (or end date) that is in the past. If you experienced circumstances that negatively affected your ability to study in a module where all teaching (i.e. weeks 1-7) has been completed, then you should consider whether you would meet the criteria to request Repeat Study.

Timings: returning from your Leave of Absence

• The end of a Leave of Absence must always align with the beginning of a new online learning period: you cannot request to return to your studies part way through a module.
• Sometimes it might not be possible for you to return to your studies on the date you requested. For example, if you have requested a very short break but will need to meet conditions of return before recommencing your studies, it might not be possible to process your break request before the deadline for meeting those conditions has passed. If your requested return date cannot be accommodated, the York Online Support Team will contact you to discuss alternative options.

Tips for requesting a break

• Always try to submit a break request as soon as you know you aren’t going to be able to study. It is much easier to take a Leave of Absence than it is to get Repeat Study.
• If you are requesting an immediate break, check what week of the online learning period you are in. This will affect whether you receive a refund for the module, and which assessments will be deferred for you to sit upon your return to studies.
• If you are unsure when you can take a break, or how long for, then remember you can ask your Student Success Coordinator for advice.

You will not usually be required to provide evidence in order to take a Leave of Absence. However, you will be expected to provide evidence if:

• you are also applying for Repeat Study;
• your request would mean that you have spent more than two years on Leave of Absence in total;
• you are requesting to take a break from a module that had a mid-module or component assessment and you want to repeat that assessment.

You may also be required to provide evidence that you are fit to study as a condition of returning from your Leave of Absence (see ‘Conditions of return’ below for more information).

Your own account is an important source of evidence, but in the cases listed above independent supporting evidence is usually also required. This evidence needs to be in English or accompanied by an English translation. Independent evidence should corroborate your account of what happened, when it happened, and how it affected your studies. You can find further guidance about evidence requirements in the York Online Registration, Absence and Engagement policy.

The level of approval required for you to take a break in your studies depends on a number of factors.

• How much time you have spent on a Leave of Absence in total (this is the sum of any previous absences plus your new break request).
• Whether you are requesting to repeat a mid-module (component) assessment, or have submitted a Repeat Study request as part of your Leave of Absence.
• The timing of your request. (For example, whether you are requesting to take a planned break for the next online learning period, or an immediate break from your current module.)
• Whether the reason(s) you give for requesting an absence will require you to meet conditions of return.

In most cases your request will either be automatically approved, or checked and approved by a member of the York Online Support Team.

If your new request would mean that you have spent more than two years on Leave of Absence in total, then your Leave of Absence will need to receive additional approval from your Department’s Chair of Board of Studies.

If you submit a Leave of Absence to take an immediate break from the same module for the third time (i.e. you are asking to restart that module for the fourth time), then your request will require approval from Special Cases.

Sometimes it will not be possible to approve your Leave of Absence request without making amendments to your reason for absence or the date of your return, and requests to repeat any mid-module assessments may require appropriate supporting evidence in order to be approved. However, your Leave of Absence request will be approved unless the University has serious concerns regarding your ability to successfully complete your programme. 

You should request to take a Leave of Absence in e:vision. Paper forms or requests submitted by email cannot be accepted. To request a Leave of Absence, go to e:vision and select ‘Take a break in studies’ (you can find this under ‘Key actions’). This will take you to a short form, which you will need to complete and upload any supporting evidence if required. Your Leave of Absence request will not be visible to University staff until you confirm that you are ready to submit.

When you are completing your request, you will be asked to provide a reason for why you want to take a break. The reason that you select will affect whether you are allowed to sit assessments during your Leave of Absence. If you are unsure which reason is most appropriate for your circumstances, take a look at Appendix 1 in the York Online Registration, Absence and Engagement policy. If you need any further help in order to complete and submit your break request, your Student Success Coordinator can support you through the process.

Once your request has been submitted, you will receive an automated email confirming that your request has been received, which will include a summary of your Leave of Absence request. You can also view your break request in e:vision. Occasionally we may require further information or evidence before processing your Leave of Absence, so you should check your University email account or e:vision regularly whilst your request is pending. If you submitted a Repeat Study request at the same time, the two requests will be reviewed and processed separately.

Taking a Leave of Absence may extend your programme further than you expect. This is because you may have to wait until you can sign up for any module(s) you have missed. You can check when your modules will be offered next by referring to the York Online Module Schedules. Take a look at ‘Default absences’ below for more information about how this may impact your programme end date.

Refunds

• If your Leave of Absence will cover a future online learning period and you have already registered and paid for a module that is running at that time, then your payment will be refunded (if you pay as you go) or credited to your account (if you paid for the entire programme up front).
• If you request to take an immediate Leave of Absence during the refund period (the 14 days after the module registration deadline), then your payment for the affected module will be refunded (if you pay as you go) or credited to your account (if you paid for the entire programme up front).
• If you request to take an immediate Leave of Absence more than 14 days after the module registration deadline, then you won’t receive a refund for the affected module. Instead, your payment for that module will be retained and reapplied when you return to the same module in the future.

Further payments

You will not be asked to pay for a module twice. This means that if you take a Leave of Absence part way through a module and do not receive a refund, you will be permitted to register for that module upon your return to studies without paying the fees a second time. However, if you were refunded for the module when you went on Leave of Absence, then you will be expected to register and pay for that module again.

UK regional government funding

If you receive a UK student loan (such as from Student Finance England), taking any break in your studies will mean that your loan payments are suspended. This is because the University is obliged to let your loan provider know that you have paused your studies. We will also let your loan provider know once you have returned to your studies, but we can only do this after you have resumed (ie after your next module start date). This means that you may have to pay for your next module before your student loan has resumed.

Pausing your loan payments may also alter any future payment dates. Consequently you should contact your loan provider for more information on the impact of taking a Leave of Absence on your personal loan schedule.

Other sources of funding

If you receive any other source of funding to support your studies, then it is your responsibility to check that your intended break complies with any funding rules. You will also need to take appropriate steps to inform the funding body of your Leave of Absence.

The purpose of taking a Leave of Absence is to take time away from your studies. This means that in most cases, you will not be permitted to take assessments or continue to study.

However, there are certain circumstances where you will be expected to take assessments during your break. These are:

• when your Leave of Absence is due to start after your current module (including if you submitted your break request in week 8). You still need to take any remaining assessments for your current module, even if the deadlines / exam dates are after the Leave of Absence has technically started
• when you are taking a Leave of Absence because there are no modules available for you to study (see ‘Default absences’ below for more information)
• when you have outstanding assessments from previous modules and you are taking a Leave of Absence specifically to focus on assessments.

If you are expected to take assessments, you will be informed of this and you should monitor your University email, or set up email forwarding, to ensure that you do not miss instructions. Missing an email about your assessment is not grounds to mitigate failure if you don’t attempt the assessment or submit work late.

If you are unable to sit an assessment that is scheduled to take place during your Leave of Absence, then you should request to defer the assessment or to sit it ‘as if for the first time’ at a later date using the York Online Fit to Sit / Submit policy.

Sometimes a Leave of Absence is approved with conditions of return. This usually happens when we want to ensure that you are definitely ready to return to your studies and will be able to progress with your programme successfully. For example, if you take a Leave of Absence on health grounds, you may be required to provide evidence of your fitness to study before you are allowed to register for a new module. 

Medical confirmation that a student is fit to return to studies is the most common condition of return. However, other conditions of return are also possible, such as being required to complete outstanding assessments before registering for a new module. Sometimes you might have more than one condition of return. You will be told via email about any conditions of return when your Leave of Absence is confirmed.

You will be reminded of any conditions of return in a second email, which you will receive eight weeks before you are due to return to your studies. You will need to fulfil your conditions of return by the specified deadline in order to be able to register for a new module at the date you intended. Make sure you regularly check your emails in the two months before your Leave of Absence is due to end, and respond promptly if we request further information.

Conditions of return are formal requirements that have to be met before you will be allowed to resume your studies. This means that if you can’t meet your conditions of return by the deadline, you need to request to extend your Leave of Absence. If you take no action, then you will be withdrawn from your programme.

You can request to extend an existing Leave of Absence. You can do this for a number of reasons, including if:

• your reasons for the original Leave of Absence are still ongoing
• new circumstances have occurred that mean you are not ready to return to your studies yet
• you were set conditions of return and are not able to fulfil them by the deadline

In any of these cases, you can request to extend your Leave of Absence by submitting a new break request in e:vision. The new Leave of Absence will start immediately after your original Leave of Absence ends.

If you want to request to extend your current Leave of Absence, you should note that:

• you will not be able to submit your new break request until you are in the final eight weeks of your current absence
• if you have conditions of return for your current break, these will be applied to the new Leave of Absence too
• if you have conditions of return for your current break and want to take a new Leave of Absence to focus on assessments, you may be required to meet the conditions of return from your original Leave of Absence first

If there are no modules available for you to study at your intended return date, then we will put you onto a default absence automatically. Take a look at ‘Default absences’ below for more information.

If you are coming to the end of your break, it is important that you inform the University of your intentions (ie whether you intend to return to studies or extend your period of absence) before the registration deadline for the next online learning period. If you take no action before the module registration deadline, then you will be placed on an unauthorised absence or (if you have unfulfilled conditions of return) withdrawn. You can find the module registration deadline under ‘Key actions’ in e:vision.

The module registration process

Once you are in the final eight weeks of your break you will need to confirm your intention to return to your studies. You must complete this process before you can register for your next module. To do this, go to e:vision and select ‘Return from or extend your break’. This will give you access to a short return to study form. You should also use the same form to submit evidence that you have fulfilled any conditions of return.

Once you have completed the return to study process and have been resumed, you can register for your next module through the normal module selection process in e:vision. Depending on what modules you missed during your Leave of Absence, you might be registering for a new module, or returning to a module from which you have previously taken a Leave of Absence. If you are returning to a previous module, then you will not be required to pay a second time unless you previously received a refund for that module. When you have successfully registered for a module, you will receive an email confirming that registration is complete and providing direction on next steps. If you do not receive this email, then you have missed a step, and should log back into e:vision to complete the process.

The deadline to complete the return to study process and register for your next module is the module registration deadline. You can find this deadline under ‘Key Actions’ in e:vision. 

If you miss the registration deadline, then you will be put on an unauthorised absence for the duration of that online learning period, which will extend your programme end date further. If you are on an unauthorised absence for more than two consecutive online learning periods then the University will assume you are no longer interested in pursuing your studies and you will be withdrawn from your programme.

Sometimes a module that you missed during your Leave of Absence will be offered at the same time as another module on your programme. If you are unsure which module you should study first, ask your Student Success Coordinator for advice. You can use the York Online Module Schedules to check which module(s) for your programme will be running at the date of your return, and to see when each module will be offered next.

Returning to a module in Canvas

If you register for a taught module from which you have previously taken a Leave of Absence, you will be allowed to rejoin the module from week 1. You will be added to a new iteration of the module alongside a new cohort of students. You may also have a new module tutor. You will not regain access to the older version of the module, and will be expected to engage with content in the new module. Make sure you understand which of the module assessments you will need to (re)sit in the new version of the module: failure to sit or submit an assessment that you are expected to attend will result in a mark of 0.

Please keep in mind that the department may have updated the module content since it was previously offered, including updating core texts and assessment activities. It is your responsibility to make sure that you engage with any new material and understand its impact on the module assessments.

Taking a Leave of Absence will extend your programme end date, meaning it will take longer to complete your studies. Depending on how many modules you have already completed, there may not be a module available for you to study in every online learning period after you return. This means that taking a break could extend your programme end date by more than you expect, and you may need to take additional breaks in your studies as a result.

When you submit a break request, e:vision will show you a new programme end date that takes into account the length of your requested Leave of Absence. However, this new programme end date cannot take into account any potential future absences. Consequently, if you want to understand what additional breaks you may have to take in the future when there is no module available for you to study, you should ask your Student Success Coordinator to help you plan your individual trajectory for completing the programme. You can use the York Online Module Schedules to check when your remaining module(s) will next be offered, and to plan when you are likely to need to take a break.

If you encounter an online learning period when there is no module available for you to study, the University will automatically put you on a kind of Leave of Absence called a “default” absence. In this situation, you will not be required to take any action and we will process the default absence on your behalf. The default absence will cover the duration of the online learning period when there are no modules for you to study.

Please note that you will only be put on a “default” Leave of Absence if there is no module that you are allowed to study: if you simply do not want to study your next module, then you will need to submit a request to take a break before the module registration deadline. Take a look at ‘How to apply’ above for guidance about submitting a break request.

Attending assessments during a default absence

As students who are put on a “default” absence have not requested to take a break in their studies, the University assumes they are fit to study. This means that if you are put on a default absence, you will still be expected to sit any assessments that are scheduled during that online learning period. 

If you are about to start a default absence but want to plan a break from your studies that includes pausing all assessments, then you should speak to your Student Success Coordinator about changing the reason for your upcoming absence. 

If you are already on a default absence and encounter circumstances that mean you are unable to prepare for or attempt an upcoming assessment, then you should request to defer the assessment using the York Online Fit to Sit / Submit policy.

Usually we would expect you to remain on Leave of Absence until the date of return that is stated on your Leave of Absence approval email. However, we recognise that sometimes circumstances can change in ways that make it necessary or desirable for you to return to your studies at an earlier date than you originally planned. For example, you might want to return to studies early if:

• an anticipated disruption (such as surgery or a training opportunity for your job) is cancelled or postponed
• you went on a Leave of Absence in order to focus on assessments and have completed all of your outstanding assessments
• personal circumstances that were affecting your ability to study (such as a health condition, or temporary additional childcare responsibilities) are resolved sooner than you could have anticipated.

In such circumstances, you may request to return to your studies early in e:vision.

You can only return to the beginning of an online learning period: it is not possible to request to return to your studies mid-module. You should also check the York Online Module Schedules before submitting your request, to ensure that there is a module available for you to study at your new proposed date of return.

Please note that you will still be required to fulfil any conditions of return before you will be permitted to return to your studies. 

Once you have been permitted to resume your studies early, you will need to re-enrol and register for a new module by the next module registration deadline. You can find this deadline under ‘Key Actions’ in e:vision.