Hi,
I require a help regarding my extension fees. I was supposed to submit my thesis on 18th January (as per deadline of my original PhD time-scale) however I have submitted my thesis on 21st January and I have been fined a late fees of £300. This delay in one working day happened because my supervisors had a meeting for a final correction at 3:30pm on 17th Jan with a final thesis upload to my supervisors on 21st January. Now university has sent me a delay fine of £300. I am not in a position to arrange this money (somehow just surviving for my PhD write-up period). Can anyone advise how can I approach for waiving my extension fees. I have talked to my supervisor and he have also complained to the univ. about this fees for a delay of just one (official) day but Univ. does not agree.

Stephensen

Somewhere, some computer system will have flagged you have not submitted therefore has automatically billed you the £300. Unis. being Unis., they'll stick to their gouns on this.

As the delay was departmental, I suggest you pay the £300 and claim it back from your department as expenses with your supervisor's agreement. Alternatively, your supervisor will have his / her own budget, thus if you cannot find the £300 then see if the department will pay.

The alternative is your PhD (at least ultimately the award of it) is delayed until the issue of the £300 is sorted out. In the end, someone will have to pay the money to keep the bean counters and jobsworths happy.

I guess your supervisor could escalate up to Dean of Faculty level such that the person (in the Graduate School, Registry or Finace depending on your Uni. regulations) insisting you pay decides he or she is not on a high enough pay grade to argue. :-)

Ian (Mackem_Beefy)

Hi there,
this sounds rather unfair, 1 working day delay not due to your fault is hardly a huge delay.
how much is 1 year of extension year fees typically? can you ask them to pro-rata it down so you pay 1 day of extension year fees..... I paid for half an extension year for mine as I needed extra time,
otherwise Ian's idea is a good one :)....
or other ideas...
did you have a scholarship or research budget for expenses? if there is any money left in your expenses budget you could ask if it is moved over to cover this bill.
finally.. if you have a staff contract, you may get reduced course fees, sometimes up to 50% off (though in my current uni it is 25%).. you could negotiate a reduced fee if they are unwilling to waive it all.
cheers

Psychresearcher,

At my old place, you went one day over the limit and you copped the overrun fee for the whole year. Unis. have lots of admin. people who at times are right jobsworths full of their own self impotance. It's not necessarily the person insisting you have to pay either, as their own totals may have to tally in order not to get grief from their own at times clueless boss.

I just paid my £250 on day one of the overrun, knowing from past dealings with finance that arguing with them was pointless.

Ian (Mackem_Beefy)