Evening,

I enrolled on a masters course in September 2008 whilst working as a full time teacher and was at the final part of the degree. As my job is demanding I requested an extension on my end date which was disallowed. I only found this out Thursday of last week by chasing it up with the administrator and because of this I had missed the cut-off date for appeals. The university have said I cannot continue my studies and have therefore awarded me with a Post Grad Diploma. I am furious at this decision because not only have I paid in full but the university made no effort to contact me in time to even try and appeal and now I am being ignored by the Student Union and the administrator involved.

I am told by a friend who is currently working towards her Phd that you can resubmit your dissertation because her friend was in the same position some time ago.

Any help would be appreciated.

It's really difficult to comment as different institutions have different regulations regarding completion dates. Your institution will have regulations regarding how long a student has to complete the degree (part and full time) but they usually allow more than one academic year. How did you find out that the request was not granted? Depending on whether the university informed you by their usual means or not (eg if they sent an e-mail which you failed to open for weeks) you may have grounds for an appeal. You would need to have evidence that the university made no attempt and that you were not negligent (eg by changing phone number / address and not informing them).

The university I work at has regulations which make it clear that all appeals must be made within a specific period of time and only if you were unable to do so (eg if you were in hospital) can that be overruled.

You need to speak to someone in the university advice / student support office who can guide you on the regulations (or is there a tutor you get on well with who you can speak with). I don't think the fact that you have paid will make any difference.