12 Late work policies | Extensions | Deferrals

Late work policies

LATE WORK POLICY – ALL MODULES IN JOURNALISM AND MEDIA

All assignments must be submitted by the published deadline. A deduction of 2 percentage points per calendar day (including weekends) will be applied to late work, unless you have approved ECs. The deductions continue for 15 days and/or until the grade is capped at 40 percent.

Important note: If you are seeking an extension of less than 7 days on an assignment worth less than 20 percent of the module you may seek such an extension from your head of year only.

Otherwise, extensions are only granted through the EC process and requests must be made in advance. Late EC applications are not normally accepted. This policy applies to all modules and is implemented automatically to ensure fairness for all students. Individual module convenors/lecturers cannot give extensions under any circumstances.  

You must fill out and submit this form to the College of Arts Office.

No other extensions are allowed locally. Any late work will otherwise always be subject to late work penalties (2 percent per day to a maximum of 15 days capped at 40 percent).

Valid reasons for lateness include illness or bereavement. Avoidable problems such as malfunctioning computers, car trouble, books being unavailable at short notice, poor time management including participation in extracurricular or professional creative industries activities including festivals, film shoots, etc. are not valid reasons for lateness.

Students who are ill or in distress can be assured that their work will be accepted late, provided that they provide appropriate documentation to the College Office and/or Head of Year/Programme.

If you need to defer an assessment

Deferral means postponing a university examination or assessments from the end of the semester to the summer period. This will usually be granted in cases of serious illness, bereavement of an immediate family member or other extremely serious circumstances as vetted by the College Office. Decisions about deferral can only be made by the College of Arts office. Applications can be made through the Extenuating Circumstances application form for the College of Arts.

You can review FAQs on deferrals here: https://www.universityofgalway.ie/exams/timetable-advice/deferrals/

Summary notes on extensions, deferrals, repeats and penalties for late work 

• Late work is penalised at two points per day including weekends and bank holidays.
• Extensions can only be granted through the College of Arts Office.
• Work that is any more than two weeks’ late (14 days) cannot be accepted even if students have medical certificates etc. without a deferral from College Office. Students whose work has not been submitted by this time will automatically be listed as having failed or must seek permission from the College Office to defer the assessment.
• If you provide a cert saying that you were sick for two days, then you can hand in your work two days’ late without penalty. But if your cert says you were sick for two days and you hand in a week late, you will lose marks.
• We ask students to make every effort to submit work on time. Late essays lead to administrative difficulties and may delay the processing of your results.

Review again the full university policy on extenuating circumstances here.

You can access the College of Arts Form for submission of extenuating circumstances forms for 1) extensions or 2) deferrals of a module here.