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Leave of absence from your course

Students who have received a new course offer and wish to delay their studies by a year may be eligible to defer their course commencement. To check eligibility, please read the information here. 

If you wish to take some time off from your course, you should apply for a leave of absence.  

If you are an international student there are additional rules, so make sure you read the information for international students on this page. 

You can apply for a leave of absence under the following criteria:

Standard coursework

  • You can apply for Autumn and/or Spring session (Summer is an optional session, no leave of absence required) 
  • A maximum of two consecutive sessions per application (e.g. starting 2022 Autumn session and returning 2022 Summer session) 
  • A maximum of four sessions during a single course 

Postgraduate Online coursework

  • You can apply for a single session (e.g. Session 2) or multiple consecutive sessions (e.g. Session 2-4)
  • A maximum of 6 consecutive sessions per application (e.g. starting 2022 Session 1 and returning 2023 Session 1)  

  • A maximum of 12 sessions during a single course (equivalent to four standard sessions) 

If you are in a course that primarily uses the short teaching sessions (i.e January, February, March, etc) and you would like to apply for a leave of absence, please submit an online enquiry. You only need to submit an online enquiry if you intend to take 6 consecutive sessions of leave. 

Ready to apply? 
Log in and submit your application via the
Subject > Leave of absence tab
My Student Admin

How to apply for a leave of absence?

Submit an application in My Student Admin. To be eligible to apply, you must:

  • have satisfactorily completed the requirements of at least one subject in your current course
  • have not already taken leave of absence for more than four sessions of your current course
  • apply before the Census date of the session you wish to start your leave of absence

You can check the progress of your application via My Student Admin.

If you don’t meet the eligibility criteria but have exceptional circumstances, you also need to:

  1. Submit an online enquiry before the census date of the session you wish to start your leave of absence 
  2. Scan and attach relevant documents to support your application to your online enquiry. Relevant documents may include a medical certificate, an official letter from doctor, employer, counsellor, minister of religion or parent/family member.

The online enquiry will be referred to your Faculty's Responsible Academic Officer (RAO) for assessment. 

You’ll receive an email outcome of your application to your UTS webmail account. 

What happens if my leave of absence is approved? 

If your leave of absence application is approved:

  • Your tuition fees liability will be adjusted to take into account your leave of absence (as long as your application was made on or before the census date of the relevant teaching period)
  • Any credit balance of relevant tuition fees previously paid will be refunded to you
  • If necessary, we may notify your leave of absence to: 
  • Student ID card related access:
    • You're no longer entitled to a travel concession 
    • You won't have access to UTS campus or facilities during your leave of absence period
    • You won't have access to the UTS Library, including electronic resources
  • You won't have access to CareerHub or GITLab
  • If you have access to Interactive High Performance Computing, you will lose access (but your data will not be deleted)
  • You will still have access to My Student Admin and MyTimetable, to make changes to your enrolment and allocations (as long as the dates of the enrolment does not overlap with the approved leave of absence period)
  • You will still have access to log into My Student Portal, to submit AskUTS enquiries, eRequests, new applications to study, and view your previous enquiries
  • You will still have access to log into your UTS webmail account and other Microsoft 365 apps
  • You will still have access to Canvas, however without enrolment into subjects, there may not be any content for you to access

What do I need to do if my leave of absence is approved? 

Before you go on leave:

  • Check your contact details are up-to-date
  • If you receive a Centrelink benefit (such as Youth Allowance, Austudy and Abstudy), you must advise Centrelink within 7 days. Further information, and contact details are available on the Centrelink website

While you’re on leave:

  • Keep your contact details with us up-to-date
  • Continue to check your UTS email account

Before you come back from leave:

I want to return early- what do I do?

If you wish to return early from a leave of absence, submit an eRequest to place your request before the last day to enrol of the session you wish to return in.

I can't return from my leave of absence- what do I do? 

If you’re unable to resume your studies by the census date of your approved leave of absence, either:

We’ll formally withdraw you from your course if you don’t apply to extend your leave of absence or formally withdraw from your course yourself. If you’re formally withdrawn and want to recommence your studies at UTS later, you need to reapply for admission (readmission is not automatic).  

 

Student and related rules:
7.6 Leave of absence