Hei,
Since the earlier email I have received several complaints from students
that the Pro Gradu Xmas week extension is unfair on students who Pro Gradu
work will not fall over this period.
This custom started last year when it was pointed out that since students
are not allowed to work over bank holidays those whose Pro Gradu work fell
over the Christmas period were penalized, having less time to complete their
Pro Gradu work. In the interests of fairness and after discussion with
senior staff, one week was extension was automatically given to these
students to make up for the lost time.
This year when I tried to set up the same automatic system it has been
pointed out that Christmas falls on a weekend and therefore there is only 1
day of bank holiday and so granting a week extension was unfair to students
whose Pro Gradu work did not fall over Christmas.
In reality it is not that simple. People, including supervisors, want to
spend time with their family over Christmas, with many having to travel to
see them and so the university empties for about a week whether Christmas
falls on a weekday or the weekend. Since it is not safe for students to work
in the lab on their own if everyone in your lab goes away for a week then
you have to not work for a week and if the week is unavailable for you to
work through no fault of your own then you should be given an extension.
Since people will argue this is group specific then lets complicate things
and make it so.
a) I will assume that you are unable to work for a week over Christmas and
grant 1 week extension unless I hear from you (lets cut down the paperwork
to a minimum). If you fall into this category then you must have at least 5
days not including Saturdays and Sundays not working in the lab to make it
fair to the rest please.
b) If Pro Gradu students discuss the situation with their supervisor and
find that they are unable to work for a longer period because of the way the
lab operates (as in 2 cases last year), then please let me know in the usual
way with a letter signed by your supervisor and a longer extension will be
granted, since you are unable to work through no fault of your own.
c) If Pro Gradu students discuss the situation with their supervisor and
find that they are able to work fully over this period (remember no working
alone in the lab is allowed for health and safety reasons) AND they decide
that they will work over this period i.e. that they will not have a week
off, then please let me know by email and work the appropriate number of
days to have a total 5 month thesis work.
This is not the start of the slippery slope. We will not start issuing
extensions for trivial reasons. We will continue to issue extensions to
students ONLY because they are unable to work through no fault of their own.
In my mind Christmas falls into this category.
Everything is designed to try to make things as simple as possible to
administer and to make things as fair as possible for all students.
VBW,
Lloyd
p.s. Note the extension system usually works only in terms of weeks, not
days so please don't flood me with requests to have an extra day because you
are unable to work 6 days over Christmas and the automatic extension is only
for 5.