Temporary withdrawal advice needed please

[Houseplantmad]

DC, year 3, is likely to have to temporarily withdraw from uni immediately due to a serious health issue. What do I need to know about temporary withdrawal please?
Uni are being very supportive.

Good that uni are being supportive. My youngest is on a temporary interruption (for placement). Uni have kept her registered as a student so she has access to all student facilities. They asked her about how much contact she wanted from the department during her time away and what sort of help she might want to get up to speed again on her return. They have quite a lot details on their website about what they can help with.

Agree with @SandyIrving . The supportive signs thus far are an excellent sign.

DS should contact their Personal Tutor, School’s Student Support Officer or Director of Undergraduate Studies (titles may vary between universities) regarding the next steps. If the uni is still on break, the SSO may be the easiest to contact with the DUS as the second most likely option.

In my School the DUS decides on whether to allow temporary withdrawals, and for how long (eg whether renewable, conditions and details for rejoining the School, etc. I know of universities where the Mit Circs Committees decide this). So in my School your DC would be submitting paperwork to or having a brief discussion with the DUS at some point. If the PT can be reached right now - and some cannot be - a good one can be enormously helpful in unforeseen ways

Best wishes to your DC

Thank you both @SandyIrving @poetryandwine that's very helpful. We've contacted personal tutor, who had been appraised by the department and is also being very supportive.
Could I also ask what this means in terms of credits, and resuming please? DC has successfully completed assignments for the four modules of semester 1 and has taken two exams. DC will miss two exams later this month so I assume will resit those in the summer - is that right?

In terms of resuming and completing Year 3, does that mean the whole year has to be repeated from September, or just the modules about to be started i.e. they would resume in January 2025?
Thanks again for your help.

Where I am they'd keep the term 1 module credits (resitting any not yet taken term 1 exams in summer if they were well enough - and would be uncapped) and simply resume next January to do term 2 modules.

Oh keep SLC informed - the term 2 maintenance loan assuming now received will have to be returned to SLC.

Hi, again -

Good question, OP. These will be decisions for the university in keeping with their policies

Does DC feel that their performance on the two exams they took was compromised by the emergency? If so they might want to submit a Mit Circs petition - with evidence, of course.

However we now come to the question of timing the remaining exams, any mitigations and resumption of studies. At my university, if DC is well they are likely to be offered the chance to take the missing exams during the resit period and to receive their true mark. (Students who resit a failed exam normally have their mark capped at 40%, the minimum Pass mark). The mitigation we would probably offer for the other exam(s) is Resit as First Attempt, meaning DC could earn an uncapped mark on the exam taken in the resit period. But we would prob only do this for any failed exams. DC must study for two exams already, the priority is to keep the number down.

I know this leaves a gap around underperformance. If this were to affect degree classification (or even if not) we would prob be open to a petition to drop the marks from the two earlier exams, if def linked to the emergency. The bar for evidence is high.

If DC passes all of their Sem 1 exams and withdraws for Sem 2, we would prob ask them to resume for Sem 2 in Jan 2025.

The moral from spending a lot of time on Mit Circs committees is Health First, physical and mental. You sound very thoughtful. I will however gently say that we see a trend of students resuming studies before fully regaining their health, only for their problems to repeat. Luckily they are at a life stage where their bodies, including their brains, do have resilience and in many cases they can truly recover from bad setbacks if they take ample time. It is the worthwhile thing to do. We do see many success stories! Again, best wishes

@titchy has given important financial advice! FYI students can get a loan for one year longer than the term of their degree, so Student Finance is not breathing down DC’s neck, at least.

Thank you @titchy and @poetryandwine - very helpful.