Temporary learning agreement

Temporary learning agreements: headline information

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:

• Your personal difficulty meets one (or more) of the University’s acceptable reasons.
• You can provide appropriate professional evidence which demonstrates your difficulties and that they are likely to last for the medium-term or long-term.
• You have raised the issue with your PAT early enough in the academic year that a TLA can make a difference.

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:

• Affect your ability to start your next year of study on time, potentially holding up the release of your student finance.
• Delay the completion of your studies, if you are in your final year. This might mean your graduation will be at a later date.
• Impact upon your visa obligations, if you are on a Student Route Visa. If this occurs close to the end of your course, it could also affect your application to the Graduate Route.

What support can a TLA offer you?

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:

• Academic support: including tutorial support and advice about how to access academic writing skill guidance.
• Extensions to academic coursework or postponement of exams/time-constrained assessments: If you need it, a TLA can agree extensions or postponement of deadlines/dates for (re)assessment that is due to be submitted/completed from the date your TLA is developed up to the end date of your TLA. Please note:
  • TLAs cannot agree any changes to the arrangements or requirements for placements, or to practice-based assessments.
  • Not all assessment deadlines can be extended or postponed (for example group work).
  • A TLA cannot include assessments that occurred before the TLA is developed.
  • If an extension or postponed date is agreed through your TLA, this will be a firm deadline; if you do not meet it, you will be subject to late penalties as normal.
  • Further extensions/postponement of TLA deadlines/dates will only be agreed in rare circumstances.
• Deferral of assessments: A TLA is designed to help you complete all your (re)assessments by the time the Module is considered by a Board of Examiners. In rare cases (where you meet specific criteria), your Course Director may agree to recommend to the Board that a (re)assessment is deferred to the next formal assessment period for your course, after that Board. A TLA cannot defer a first assessment into the next academic year and it cannot change a reassessment into a first assessment.
• Other types of support: Your PAT will discuss with you other support you might wish to obtain in addition to your TLA, either from the Student Wellbeing Service or another department within the University as appropriate to your circumstances.

What can a TLA not do for you?

A temporary learning agreement is unable to do any of the following:

• Change your attendance/engagement requirements or agree distance learning; you will still be expected to attend teaching and engage with all your module assessments.
• Include retrospective (re)assessment deadlines (i.e. any deadline that was before the point your TLA was developed).
• Offer further attempts for (re)assessments you have already completed/attempted.
• Extend the duration of an exam or time-constrained assessment.
• Change the learning outcomes you must achieve through an assessment.
• Change the type (mode) of assessment you are expected to complete for the module (unless an alternative exists in the approved course validation).
• Agree reasonable adjustments or special arrangements for assessments.
• Make adjustments to professional placements or practice requirements, or assessments.
• Extend your maximum period of registration on a course or level of study.
• Change a reassessment (capped) to a first assessment (uncapped).
• Make adjustments to any requirements associated with non-academic elements of an Apprenticeship course.
• Change your module(s) or course/pathway or change your mode of study; for this, you will need to subject a changes to study request via MyRecord.

TLA terms and conditions

You TLA needs to be developed in consultation with your PAT. This will include things like: 

• The TLA start and end date.
• Any extensions/postponements to assessment deadlines/dates, from that point until the end of the TLA.
• Any deadlines/dates which cannot be moved, and how you will be supported in meeting the scheduled deadline/date.
• The first review date for your TLA.
• What support the Course Team can offer, and what support you are recommended to access from other areas of the University (e.g. Wellbeing Support and advice or further academic support from the Learning Skills Hub).
• 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.

Supporting evidence

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:

• In writing.
• Name you (or if your evidence is about someone else, you will need to clarify their relationship to you and follow the guidance in the FAQ about using someone else’s data at the end of this page).
• Recent enough to clearly apply to the current academic year and to the point in time where you are asking for the TLA.
• Provide enough information to demonstrate the difficulty you are experiencing and that it is likely to last for a medium- or long-term period.
• From a professional source (dated, and on headed paper if appropriate).

It cannot be:

• Only a statement from a parent, partner or friend
• Verbal or anecdotal
• Dated substantially prior to your current academic year
• Solely in the form of newspaper articles, social media postings, appointment cards (where the reason for the visit is not specified), photocopies (or scanned copies) of over-the-counter medications or photographs of a personal nature.

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.  

Your commitment once a TLA has been agreed

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:

• Understand the TLA process and your responsibilities in it (and ask your PAT if you are unsure about anything).
• Ensure you understand the implications of extensions, postponed (and in rare cases, deferral) of assessment on the timing of your academic results, progression and/or award, funding and (where relevant) visa requirements.
• Meet the revised deadlines agreed in your TLA.
• Engage with review discussions about your TLA, as requested by your PAT and set out in your TLA form.
• Respond in a timely fashion to communications from your PAT/Course Director.
• Tell your PAT/Course Director (at the earliest opportunity) if you feel you might need additional support or changes to your agreed TLA deadlines/arrangements.
• Tell your PAT/Course Director if your circumstances change substantially (for better or worse) so they can discuss with you if a TLA is still the best support route for you.

If you do not meet the above expectations, your Course Team may determine that your TLA should be terminated.

Ending a TLA

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:

• You no longer need the extra support as your circumstances have changed/improved (or because you have decided to interrupt instead), you must contact your PAT to discuss this. Your PAT will then agree with you the date the TLA will end and explain any implications for assessment due after that date. They will then notify the relevant Course Staff. 
• Your circumstances are continuing and you feel the TLA end date you previously agreed may need to be extended to a later point in your current academic year, you must contact your PAT as soon as possible. Your PAT will discuss this request with you, and where appropriate will ask the Course Director to consider your request. Please note: Extensions to TLA end dates will only be agreed where there is good reason to do so, and the extension does not go beyond the end of your current academic year. Requests received after the TLA end date has passed cannot be considered.

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.

Request a review of a TLA decision

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:

• The Course Director (or Faculty Panel) have not agreed your draft TLA.
• The Course Director has rejected the request to extend the end date of your TLA.
• The PAT has decline your request for a further extension/postponement of an assessment in your TLA.
• The Course Director has rejected the request for a TLA deferral recommendation to the Board of Examiners.
• The Faculty Panel have terminated your TLA.

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:

• There is evidence which demonstrates the decision was not undertaken in line with the TLA Procedure.
• There is new evidence available which could not reasonably have been provided at the time of the decision, and which may have had a material impact on the decision reached.

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.