UCL Academic Manual

Students Interrupting their Programme of Study for Reasons of Mental Ill-Health or Substance Abuse

contact: Dr Ruth Siddall, Dean of Students (Welfare)

Policy

Experience has suggested that some students who have to interrupt their programme of study because of illness are not themselves the best judges of when they are fit to return to study. So that they may derive the proper benefit from their studies and also so that they do not provide a risk or burden, as a result of continuing illness, to staff and other students, UCL should take reasonable steps to satisfy itself that students who interrupt for health reasons are indeed fit to return to study.

A committee chaired by the Dean of Students (Welfare) has drawn up a UCL policy that requires any student interrupting their course of study for reasons of ill-health to provide evidence that they are fit to return to study before they are re-instated on their programme of study. It applies only to those students where a formal interruption of their programme of study has been agreed by the Department and Faculty Tutor and recorded by the Registry and Academic Services. The evidence should take the form of a letter from the medical practitioner responsible for their care, stating that they are fit to return to study: a statement of diagnosis and treatment is not sufficient. In the event that such a letter is not forthcoming or is equivocal, UCL should require the student to submit to examination by a doctor appointed by UCL in order to seek the evidence that the student is fit to return to study.

Administratively, Faculty Tutors and Faculty Graduate Tutors will be the responsible officers for implementing this policy, with advice from the Director of Registry and Academic Services and the Dean of Students (Welfare), where necessary.

November 2012