Regulations for postgraduate research students: Section 6

Section 6: Progression Extension Regulation

You may wish to seek impartial advice and support from the Students’ Union Advice Centre if you intend to apply for a progression extension.

6.1 Support available

6.1.1 We expect you to meet your progression submission deadlines. However, we understand that you may experience challenging personal or health-related circumstances at times during your studies and we offer a range of support services to help you deal with them.

6.1.2 Where long-term circumstances are impacting your studies, you should make full use of the advice and support available from the Student Wellbeing and Disability Services. If you disclose your circumstances to us, we may be able to make reasonable adjustments to support your studies via a Personal Learning Support Plan.

6.1.3 Where your circumstances cannot be resolved quickly or the support you need is beyond what our support services can reasonably provide, you may need to consider interrupting your studies. You should read the section on Interrupting your studies and discuss this with the Students’ Union Advice Centre before making that decision.

6.1.4 However, if the disruption is minor, a short extension may be all that you need.

6.1.5 If you fail to submit your work without an approved extension or interruption in place, you will be failed for non-submission and administratively withdrawn from your programme.

6.2 General principles

6.2.1 We may allow you to apply for a progression extension of up to 4 weeks (8 weeks for part-time candidates) to manage unexpected periods of disruption for the following:

• The submission of your research support plan.
• The submission of a progression monitoring report.
• The submission of amendments following a progression viva.

6.2.2 If your School grants a progression extension:

• It will not change the date of your future submission points.
• It will not result in a change to your final thesis submission deadline under any circumstances.
• You will still be expected to have your viva examination before the end of the academic year to complete your progression monitoring on time.
• You must stay on track with your research degree timeline.

6.3 Applying for progression extensions

6.3.1 You can find full details of how to Apply for a progression extension on our website.