What does withdraw without academic penalty mean?
With trimester 3 kicking off, there’s a few dates and terms that you should be aware of.
We totally understand that life can sometimes get in the way, and the seemingly awesome idea to fast track your degree by studying all the units you planned suddenly becomes overwhelmingly stressful and complicated. Luckily, you are able to withdraw from units without both academic penalty and financial liability…but how?
Things we’re going to touch on;
- Census date
- Last day to withdraw without academic penalty
- Special examination
- Special consideration
- Remission of fees
Okay, so let’s start with perhaps the most important date to keep in mind, Census Date.
Census date is the absolute last day to withdraw from a unit without having to pay for it. This is a simple process that can be done through the Enrolment Variation tab in MyUNE. Census date for this trimester 3 falls on the 23rd of November. The easiest way to ensure you don’t miss any important dates is to check the UNE Principle Dates and mark off anything that applies to you on your planner or calendar.
As census date is relatively early in the trimester, it is easy to feel as if you are in control and on top of your uni work, however, as lectures start to build up and assignments seemingly start to take up all your spare time, it can quickly become overwhelming and you may want to drop one or more unit after census date. The good news is you can – but you need to follow a bit of a process!
Another super important date to pay attention to is the ‘Last day to withdraw without academic penalty’. As suggested, it is your last chance to drop a unit without it resulting in an N grade. It is not deemed as a fail and will not impact your Grade Point Average (GPA). For trimester 3 in 2020, this falls on the 14th December 2020.
You will, however still incur financial liability and have to pay for the unit. This date is often shortly before the exam period begins for that trimester and once said exam period begins it is no longer an option to drop a unit. Again, check UNE Principle Dates.
We understand that sometimes circumstances beyond your control occur after both of these dates that impact negatively on your ability to study. When this is the case there are options available to you. You may apply for a Special Examination. This process has to be done correctly, it is done via an application in AskUNE. It requires you to submit any supporting documentation to prove your studies were impacted by circumstances beyond your control. It is really important to know that you must submit this application within 5 working days of your final exam and if successful you will be required to sit the special exam in the next examination period.
Special Consideration may also be available to you. This application process is the same as that for a special exam via an application in AskUNE and must also be completed within 5 working days of your final exam. If granted, you may receive a maximum increase of 3% of your final grade.
Finally, you may apply for a remission of fees for the unit or units you were unable to successfully complete. If approved, the cost of the unit(s) are either removed from your HECS debt or paid back to you. When applying for remission you must prove that you were unable to satisfactorily complete the unit due to circumstances beyond your control that occurred or worsened after the census date. This is done through this application form.
If you’re an international student – you may also want to chat with the UNE International Office to ensure this won’t affect your visa.
It’s really easy to feel overwhelmed with these processes – we are here to help and point you in the right direction should you need assistance with any of the above applications or just to chat through the process – feel free to contact us here the more info you can give us in our initial chats, the quicker we will be able to help you!
Student Success is also available to discuss your course progression and options. They can be contacted via live chat, or phone 02 6773 2000.
