Holiday/Leave of Absence

Home Students

Home students have an annual leave entitlement of 30 days per academic year (plus 8 national Bank Holidays). Any annual leave ought to be discussed with your supervisor. As students are not employees, annual leave is not compensated if not utilised, though you may carry over 5 days into the following academic year. For York students, annual leave can be requested via Flexitime.

Student Visa Holders

Student Visa holders have an entitlement of 30 days of annual leave per academic year. There are slightly different procedures across the different IGGI institutions for those with a student visa:

• York: annual leave is to be requested through e:Vision and also Flexitime . For visa holders, however, you are  also required to come to the department within 24 hours of your return date to confirm you have returned. To do this you will need to present your student ID at the reception desk.

• QMUL: you will need to obtain signed written permission from your supervisor of your agreed annual leave dates. Once received please forward this to Shopna Begum, the IGGI administrator at QMUL, who keeps record of PGR's annual leave.

• Goldsmith's:

Leaves of absence allow you to take an authorised break from your studies for medical or personal reasons. Please note that these ought to be authorised in advance and will be for a specific period of time.

Home Students

York: breaks of less than a month can be approved at departmental level, but there will be no extension to your deadlines. Longer absences must be approved by the Special Cases Committee. To apply for a leave of absence you can use the request form. Up to maximum of one year and within following guidelines:

• Within the first month of beginning your studies. In these circumstances, you should withdraw from your programme and apply to recommence at a later date. 

• Three months or less before your submission deadline.

• If the leave of absence would extend the total duration of leaves of absence to more than two years.

For further details of the conditions of a leave of absence please consult the University website.

QMUL: Procedure is the same as for annual leave if less than 30 days. Special permission for absences of 31-60 days must be sought from IGGI QMUL manager . Sometimes longer absences can be authorised. For more info see Queen Mary University Authentication (qmul.ac.uk) 

Student Visa Holders

The rules on leaves of absence for student visa holders changes depending on the duration of the absence and can impact their immigration sponsorship from the University. In some cases, there may therefore be a requirement to leave the UK.

York: typically sponsorship will not be withdrawn for absences of less than 60 days, however there are conditions on this. It is worth consulting the university webpage to ensure that you understand your responsibilities when applying for a leave of absence as a student visa holder. For absences over 60 days, sponsorship will be withdrawn and students will need to leave the UK and re-apply for a visa to resume their studies.

QMUL:  you may interrupt for a minimum of one month and a maximum of two years in total. Interruptions for a period longer than this will be granted only in highly exceptional circumstances and with the permission of the Queen Mary Academic Registrar. In other cases you must get permission from your academic school.

Your Tier 4 or Student immigration permission requires you to be enrolled and studying full-time at Queen Mary. If you interrupt, your permission will normally be curtailed and you will need to leave the UK. Your Tier 4 or Student immigration permission does not allow you to interrupt and stay in the UK for work experience, to earn money for your studies, or to spend a “gap year” in the UK. Please see our guidance on Reporting and Curtailment for more information. 

The complete guidance on conditions for student visa holders is available from the Queen Mary website.