Students ‘routinely abuse’ assessment deadline extension requests

Students are routinely misusing “easy to abuse” university systems that allow them to secure extensions on assessment deadlines, academics have claimed.

In a study into staff perceptions of how undergraduates seek deadline extensions for “personal extenuating circumstances”, university employees explain that students “use the processes strategically rather than for the unforeseen circumstances for which adjustments are intended”.

The paper published in Studies in Higher Education, which summarises comments from 41 staff members at a university in the north-east of England, outlines how “widespread awareness” of the procedures that grant time extensions to those suffering from illness or personal difficulties meant that the system was often being “dishonestly” gamed by students.

“Students know that they can request an adjustment using self-certification, and plan to do this in advance,” said one interviewee quoted in the study.

“Weeks before a deadline I have heard a student saying that they are going to use a self-certification for an extension because they are going to visit some friends a few days before the deadline.”

Another complained about perceived “widespread dishonesty” among students making requests. “The problem is that the system is there and publicised, and far too relaxed. Students think it is their right to get adjustments so will request them without good reason,” they explained.

Requests “come in for reasons that in the past would not have stopped students from submitting work on time, such as them having a cold or feeling under pressure due to competing deadlines”, said another interviewee, adding: “If they feel a bit stressed or worried about their coursework they will request an extension. In the past they would have had to get over this and get the work finished, but now they don’t.”

The study’s author, Helen St Clair-Thompson, a reader in psychology at Newcastle University, told Times Higher Education that she had begun examining the issue after hearing about rising numbers of reports across UK higher education.

Tips on implementing a more agile and responsive assessment extensions process

With some administrative staff reporting “enormous” volumes of requests that had become “unmanageable”, it was worth considering whether these systems should be reviewed, said Dr St Clair-Thompson.

“Some staff wondered whether it would be better to have automated systems where a limited number of requests are automatically approved, so you wouldn’t need to evaluate these requests,” she explained.

Interviewees also raised concerns about the broader implications of growing flexibility in assessment deadlines.

“Many were concerned that academics weren’t preparing students properly for the workplace,” Dr St Clair-Thompson said. “Are we making allowances that will not, in the long run, help students?”

jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com