If you are experiencing a medium-term or long-term personal difficulty (which is not related to disability), a temporary learning agreement (TLA) could help you manage your learning, so that you can successfully complete your level or stage of study within your current academic year.
If you are affected by personal difficulties for more than 14 days and up to (at most) the end of your current academic year, you might benefit from a TLA. Your personal academic tutor (PAT) can explore this with you. Please note: a TLA is not a permanent arrangement, and it cannot offer reasonable adjustments or special arrangements.
You will need to meet all of the following criteria to be eligible for a TLA:
TLAs are available to all students on undergraduate and taught postgraduate courses, including students at partner institutions. However, they are not for students on research courses; if you are on a research course, you should contact graduatecollege@canterbury.ac.uk for information about support options.
If you are on a Student Route Visa, a TLA would need to be in line with your visa and the University’s UKVI Sponsored Students: Attendance and Engagement Policy and Procedure. If you have any questions about this, please contact the Compliance Team.
As a TLA is an agreement between you and the University, you must be fully involved in its development and all subsequent reviews. If you are unable to engage in these TLA discussions (or your studies in general), a TLA is not right for you, and taking a break (or 'interrupting') is likely to be a better option if it is early enough in the academic year for you to do so.
Please be aware that any delay in completing an assessment or reassessment might impact when you receive your results for the relevant module/level. This could:
Temporary learning agreements are one of several ways that the University supports students who are unable to submit work on time or attend their exams because of events which are beyond their control.
Before you begin to discuss a TLA with your PAT, check that one of the following isn't more suited to your needs:
A TLA will provide you with additional academic support by your Course Team to help you successfully complete your learning and assessments in the current academic year.
The support can take a variety of forms:
An extension refers to an academic coursework deadline that has been extended to a later date in the same Semester/Trimester. The assessment is submitted and marked in time to be considered at the relevant Module Board; the extended date cannot be beyond the relevant Board date.
A deferral refers to the postponement of an examination or time-constrained assessment to the next designated assessment period after the relevant Module Board (and in line with the Course’s academic calendar).
A temporary learning agreement is unable to do any of the following:
You TLA needs to be developed in consultation with your PAT. This will include things like:
You will also need to provide evidence that supports the reason for your TLA. The type of evidence is dependent on your situation, and could include statements by the University's Student Wellbeing Services or Chaplaincy staff, employers, external bodies such as registered Charities or the Citizens' Advice Bureau, community or faith leaders. It also needs to be:
It cannot be:
If you have already submitted evidence to the University (for another reason) and wish to use it in support of your TLA, you will need to confirm this to your PAT and provide them with details of the evidence you want included, why you feel it’s relevant and who has it. We cannot seek evidence from a person or organisation outside the university on your behalf.
Once you and your PAT have developed the draft TLA, your Course Director will review the draft and confirm if they are happy to approve it.
If your Course Director agrees to the draft TLA, your PAT will send you a final version of the TLA and ask you to confirm your acceptance of it, and your responsibilities towards it, within seven working days. If you do not confirm you accept the TLA within seven working days, it cannot be implemented.
For your TLA to be effective, it is important you make a commitment to meet any revised deadlines, take up additional support offered or recommended, and engage with review meetings. It is important for your academic success to adhere to the commitments you have agreed in the TLA and ensure that you:
If you do not meet the above expectations, your Course Team may determine that your TLA should be terminated.
When you are close to the agreed end date for your TLA, you will be asked to attend a review with your PAT to discuss the arrangements for closing down your TLA.
At the point your TLA end date is reached, your PAT will confirm it has finished, and notify the relevant Course Staff. If you have remaining modules and (re)assessments to complete for your current academic year after the TLA has ended, you will be expected to submit/attempt those assessments on the same dates as all other students on the module.
If, during your TLA period, you feel:
If you are not meeting your responsibilities in relation to engagement with TLA deadlines and review discussions, your PAT will contact you to discuss why this is the case, and how best to enable you to re-engage. It is important you respond to your PAT and engage with them in this discussion. If you do not, your PAT will have to notify your Course Director of this and the Course Director will decide whether to refer you into another University procedure (where relevant), or to the Faculty Panel for a decision on whether to terminate your TLA early.
If you have questions or concerns about a decision taken about a TLA, you should begin by discussing this with your PAT or Course Director to clarify why the decision was taken.
If the matter is not resolved to your satisfaction, you can request a review of one of the following decisions:
If you are making a TLA review request, it is important to know the review will only consider cases that meet one of the following reasons:
You will need to submit a TLA Review Request form to exceptionalcircumstances@canterbury.ac.uk, with your statement and accompanying evidence, no later than ten working days after the date you were notified of the TLA decision you are asking to be reviewed.
If you would like to seek support completing and submitting your TLA Review Request, you can contact the CCSU Advice Centre (advice@ccsu.co.uk).
The full details of the TLA Review process, and requirements on you and the University, can be found in Section 14 of the TLA Procedures.
If your concern is about another aspect of your TLA experience, you should raise this through the Student Complaint Procedure.
If your concern is about a Board of Examiners decision not to agree a TLA deferral, or about an assessment not submitted / attempted or already agreed by a Board of Examiners before your TLA was developed, you should raise this through the Academic Appeal Procedure.
A TLA is not something you request by completing and submitting a form to your Course Team (as you would for exceptional circumstances). A TLA is developed in discussion with your personal academic tutor (PAT), who will work with you to draft the TLA document, ahead of its review by your Course Director.
If you think you might need a TLA, you should start by contacting your PAT to ask for a discussion about your difficulties. They will discuss with you the best support options for your situation, and if they agree a TLA is the right option for you, they will explain how the agreement will be developed.
If you have a (re)assessment deadline coming up and you have not yet been able to speak with your PAT about a TLA, you can submit an exceptional circumstances request in the first instance to obtain a short extension (if you meet the criteria) whilst you wait to speak with your PAT.
Yes. A TLA can be put in place in this instance, but it is important to note that the TLA cannot change a reassessment (capped) into a deferred first attempt (uncapped).
If you are asking for a TLA because of a difficulty someone close to you is experiencing and you intend to provide evidence that belongs to that person, you must ensure you have their permission to share their personal data (e.g. medical letters or legal documents) with the University as part of the TLA process. These requirements apply to any living individual over the age of 18. They do not apply to documentation relating to deceased individuals.
Providing permission for a living individual’s evidence to be supplied to the University as part of the TLA process is necessary to ensure you, and the University, are meeting the legal General Data Protection Requirements. You will need to supply a form with your evidence, for if the form is not provided then the University cannot consider that person’s evidence.
If you are the person’s legal guardian, for example their parent, you will not need to provide their permission, but you will need to confirm to your PAT that you hold legal guardian status.
If you are concerned about asking the person to sign the permission form, or they are unable to do so, you should consider providing any evidence you have which relates to you only. If you are unsure what to provide you can discuss this with your PAT.
No. If you have already missed a deadline before your TLA is developed this cannot be covered by the TLA. That assessment will be classed as a non-submission; if you wish to appeal that decision, once you get your agreed results for the module from the Module Board you will need to submit an Academic Appeal.
If you have missed a deadline/date set in your TLA and you did not contact your PAT before the deadline/date to ask for a further extension/postponement, you cannot have an extension or postponement for that work.
An extension only applies to coursework. It is where your deadline is moved to later in the Semester/Trimester your module is taught in, and the work is submitted, marked and presented to the relevant Module Board of Examiners. An extension cannot go beyond the Module Board date.
All coursework extensions must be agreed by your PAT (and Course Director) and should be reasonable and proportionate.
Requests to further extend or postpone a deadline/date already extended by the TLA are expected to be rare. If you want to request this you must contact your PAT before the deadline/date. If you make the request after the deadline/date, your PAT will not be able to consider the request and standard late penalties will apply to your assessment.
If you make the request before your deadline/date your PAT will only be able to agree to another extension/postponement if:
A deferral is the postponement of an assessment (normally an examination or time-constrained assessment) to the next designated assessment period for your course after the relevant Module Board of Examiners.
In rare cases, your Course Director may agree to recommend a deferral to the Board on the basis of your TLA (for coursework it is expected these decisions will be very rare). They will only do this if you meet the following criteria:
Your Course Director may agree to recommend a deferral to the Board, and the Board will then take the final decision about whether you can be offered this. They will make the decision based on the Regulations for Taught Awards, and you will be notified of their decision via MyRecord. It is important to be aware that a TLA cannot result in assessment being deferred beyond the end of the academic year in which you studied the module (unless you are eligible for Trail & Progress, or it is a Trimester 3 module).
Not unless you:
Where you do not fall into one of the above categories, any TLA deferral must be completed in the same academic year you studied the module. It cannot be deferred into the next academic year. When a deferral is agreed, you will be expected to take that attempt in the next designated assessment period for your course in the year you are studying the module.
If you have a TLA in place you could make an Impaired Performance Exceptional Circumstance request if you believe an additional short-term issue, unrelated to your TLA reason(s) impacted your performance in an exam or time-constrained assessment.
You cannot however us the Exceptional Circumstance to further extend or postpone an assessment already extended/postponed through your TLA. If you are worried you cannot meet a TLA deadline then you should contact your PAT to discuss this, before your TLA deadline.
Your PAT will consider a request for a further extension of a TLA deadline, but will only agree to this if you meet the criteria to do so. If they do not agree, the you will need to submit / attempt your assessment on the currently agreed date.
If you have a LSP already in place, you would not normally need a TLA as well. If you feel you need additional support to that already agreed in your LSP, you should contact Student Wellbeing Services to discuss this, to request a review of your LSP.
In some cases, where a student is experiencing an additional medium-term issue unrelated to their LSP condition, the Course Director and the relevant Student Wellbeing Team may agree it is appropriate for the student to have a TLA for a specific period of time, in addition to their LSP. This decision will however depend on whether a TLA is felt to be an appropriate form of additional support, and will be take on a case-by-case basis.
No. A TLA can only be used if you are actively studying in the current academic year.
If you have a TLA and decide to go on interruption then your TLA will end. When you return to study, if you feel you may need a TLA in that academic year, you will need to discuss this with your PAT when you return, and the TLA development and agreement process would have to be completed at that point.