6.13 Time limits

6.13.1 Students must meet the credit requirements of their awards within specified time limits (see below). These limits include any periods of temporary withdrawal, and any allowances which are made for exceptional circumstances. Students who fail to meet assessment requirements within these time limits will be required to withdraw from their course.

• A table on Maximum Time limits will be added after 6.13.4.
  
  

For undergraduate awards, students are subject to an overall time limit of 8 years to complete a programme leading to a Bachelor’s degree (or 10 years to complete an undergraduate degree which includes a foundation year*); and 5 years to complete a programme leading to a Foundation degree award. However, students should make themselves aware of the financial consequences of extending their period of study beyond the normal duration of the programme on which they are enrolled.

Students on Top-up programmes are permitted up to three years of full-time study (or four years of part-time study, provided they have studied part-time at that level for at least two years).

For 'Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy the maximum period of registration is six years. 

*In order to qualify for progression from a foundation year/Year 0 programme to Year 1 of a Bachelor’s degree, students must pass all their module requirements within two years (and no more than four semesters within that time period).

Students must also show that they are making appropriate progress within levels. Students on undergraduate programmes who have not passed modules worth at least 45 credits in any two successive semesters of study will be withdrawn from their course by the relevant Examination Committee, unless exceptional circumstances apply. Compensatory pass marks cannot be awarded to enable a student to meet this requirement, unless the student has otherwise met all progression requirements for that level of study, as described above. This requirement also applies to Integrated Master's programmes.

• The stage time limit information will be removed but an overall time limit for an award will remain.
• The following point will be added
  Students on Top-up programmes are permitted up to three years of full-time study (or four years of part-time study, provided they have studied part-time at that level for at least two years).
• For 'Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy the maximum period of registration is six years.

For Integrated Master’s degrees (primarily made up of undergraduate level study), students are subject to an overall time limit of 10 years to complete the programme*.

*As an undergraduate programme, an Integrated Master’s degree may also include a foundation year, which - as noted in 6.13.2 above – must be completed within two years. In this case, the 10 year time limit to complete the full award commences at the point where a student moves from the foundation year to the first year of degree-level study.

For Master’s degrees, a student must meet the award requirements within a maximum period of five years, unless formal approval for a longer maximum period of study is granted (for example, where a longer period is required in order to enable students to meet the requirements for an Apprenticeship - see below) - this will be recorded in the programme specification, through the normal programme approval process.

Students on postgraduate taught programmes who fail to submit any work for assessment within a single semester without formal approval or valid exceptional circumstances will be withdrawn from their course. 

The following table summarises the variations of maximum time limits for the range of qualifications: 

As noted in 2.2.1 above, Apprenticeship programmes combine on and off the job learning, and - under ESFA rules - apprentices must engage in ‘off the job’ training for at least 20% of their contracted work time. The normal and/or maximum duration periods for degree programmes associated with apprenticeships may therefore be extended to enable this - any approved variations to the normal duration of study will be set out in the programme specification.

The time limits set out above apply to the academic qualification associated with the Apprenticeship. Additionally, for apprenticeships which have a non-integrated End Point Assessment, the maximum time allowed between completion of the academic award and completion of the EPA will be given in the relevant Apprenticeship Standard. 

For Doctoral degrees, the thesis must be submitted within the minimum and maximum periods of registration given in the table below. Periods of suspension (temporary withdrawal) are added to the overall timescale for these programmes to ensure students are not disadvantaged. In the same way, if a student has not submitted their thesis for examination by the end of the maximum period of the programme, approved applications for periods of extension are added to the overall period of the programme. Students who fail to submit their research proposal within the approved time limits will be withdrawn from the programme.

Continued registration is conditional upon demonstrating appropriate academic progress, through meeting annual monitoring and transfer and progression requirements.