The Academic Study Board the Faculty of Engineering makes its decisions on the basis of a concrete, individual assessment, in accordance with applicable law and the principles of general administrative law. To ensure that the decisions are made on the basis of factual considerations, and that equal cases are treated equally, the study board has built up a practice for the assessment of applications of dispensation and credit transfer.
The study board's decisions are based on the conditions at the Faculty of Engineering. This means that the decisions cannot be directly compared with decisions at other faculties at SDU or other educational institutions.
Exceptional Circumstances
It is a prerequisite for approval of dispensation that the Board of Studies assesses that there are documented exceptional circumstances.
- Exceptional circumstances can be e.g.
- Your own documented, serious illness.
- Suddenly emerged documented, serious illness in immediate family
- Deaths in the immediate family
- When you become a parent
- Divorce
- Etc.
- The exceptional circumstances must be described and documented.
- There must be a direct causal link between the specified exceptional circumstances and the student not being able to complete their studies.
- Exceptional circumstances cannot occur routinely, and these must be circumstances that you as a student cannot have control over yourself, and which you have not been able to predict the event of. In other words, exceptional circumstances may not be circumstances which you could have avoided by common sense, which you could have foreseen or which you yourself have caused.
- Examples of circumstances which are NOT considered exceptional circumstances:
- Your financial circumstances
- A broken heart
- Vacation
- Stays abroad, regardless of whether they are related to your studies or not
- Employment
- That you have children (except when you become a parent)
- Moving to a new place.
Rules you MUST follow
- It is the practice of the Academic Study Board to grant dispensation from the curriculum's rules on the first-year examination in situations with the student's documented, serious illness, or documented, serious illness in the immediate family as well as comparable, documented personal circumstances that have prevented the student from completing their studies.
- It is the Study Board's practice to include the student's academic ability in the assessment.
- According to the practice of the Academic Study Board, dispensation for long-term study inactivity requires particularly compelling reasons, and that an improvement in the condition must be expected within a reasonable future.
- It is the practice of the Academic Study Board to grant dispensation from the curriculum's study activity requirements in situations with the student's documented, serious illness, or documented, serious illness in the immediate family as well as comparable, documented personal circumstances that have prevented the student from completing their studies.
- According to the practice of the Academic Study Board, dispensation for long-term study inactivity requires particularly compelling reasons, and that an improvement in the condition must be expected within a reasonable future.
- It is the practice of the Academic Study Board to grant dispensation from the rules concerning the maximum study period in situations with the student's documented, serious illness, or documented, serious illness in the immediate family as well as comparable, documented personal circumstances that have prevented the student from completing their studies.
- It is the practice of the Academic Study Board to include the student's academic ability in the assessment.
- According to the practice of the Academic Study Board, dispensation for long-term study inactivity requires particularly compelling reasons, and that an improvement in the condition must be expected within a reasonable future.
- It is the practice of the Academic Study Board to apply the principle of proportionality. This means that the Board includes the number of passed courses on the study programme in the assessment of the exceptional circumstances.
- It is the practice of the Academic Study Board to grant dispensation for further examination attempts in situations with the student's documented, serious illness, or documented, serious illness in the immediate family as well as comparable, documented personal circumstances that have prevented the student from passing their courses.
- It is the practice of the Academic Study Board to apply the principle of proportionality. This means that the Board includes the number of passed courses on the study programme in the assessment of the exceptional circumstances.
- This dispensation is only possible in the bachelor's and master's programmess. In other words, it is not possible in the Bachelor of Enineering programmes. SDU cannot dispense with this rule.
- The Academic Study Board may dispense from the binding to obligatory or elective subjects, provided that the exceptional circumstances are directly related to the subject. This may, for example, be in situations where the course in question is no longer offered, and where the student has been absent from the tuition and examination due to exceptional circumstances.
- Extension of study time, academic ability and the student’s wishes for the academic composition do not constitute exceptional circumstances in this connection.
Lack of Prerequisites for Following courses and Study Activities
- It is the practice of the Academic Study Board to grant dispensation from the prerequisites for writing the final project in situations where the student is considered to have the necessary academic prerequisites to write it, or where a refusal would give an unreasonable delay in the student's study time, in relation to the scope of uncompleted courses, measured in ECTS points.
- It is the practice of the Academic Study Board that the dispensation must lead to a shortening of the student's total study time, as compared with the situation where the student does not apply for the dispensation.
- It is the practice of the Academic Study Board not to grant dispensations for writing the final, unless the industrial engineering training (=the internship) has been completed.
- It is the practice of the Academic Study Board to grant dispensation from the prerequisites for writing a bachelor project in situations where the student is considered to have the necessary academic prerequisites to write it, or where a refusal would give an unreasonable delay in the student's study time, in relation to the scope of uncompleted courses, measured in ECTS points.
- It is the practice of the Academic Study Board that the dispensation must lead to a shortening of the student's total study time compared, as compared with the situation where the student does not apply for the dispensation.
- It is the practice of the Academic Study Board to grant dispensation from the prerequisites for writing the thesis, where the student is assessed to have the necessary academic prerequisites to write it, or where a refusal would give an unreasonable delay in the student's study time, in relation to the scope of uncompleted courses, measured in ECTS points.
- It is the practice of the Academic Study Board that the dispensation must lead to a shortening of the student's total study time, as compared with the situation where the student does not apply for the dispensation.
- It is the practice of the Academic Study Board to grant pre-approval of credit transfer for student exchange abroad for students on BSc (eng) and BEng programmes, who have passed all courses up to and including the 3rd semester. It is the practice of the Academic Study Board to deviate from this practice in situations where the student at a maximum lacks 5 ECTS, where the student's study progress is otherwise satisfactory, where the exam periods at SDU and the host university do not overlap and where the student has not used two exam attempts in the subjects missing from previous semesters.
- It is the practice of the Academic Study Board to grant pre-approval of credit transfer for student exchange abroad for students at master's level, who have passed all subjects up to and including the 1st semester. It is the the practice of the Academic Study Board to deviate from this practice in situations where the student at a maximum lacks 5 ECTS , where the student's study progress is otherwise satisfactory, where the exam periods at SDU and the host university do not overlap and where the student has not used two examination attempts in the course missing from the 1st semester.
- It is the practice of the Academic Study Board to grant dispensation from the prerequisites for participating in the internship in situations where the student is assessed to have the necessary academic prerequisites to participate in the internship, or where a refusal would give an unreasonable delay in the student's study time, in relation to the scope of uncompleted courses, measured in ECTS points.
- It is the practice of the Academic Study Board that if a student has uncompleted courses that are offered in the same semester as the internship, the scope of uncompleted courses can as a basic rule not exceed 5 ECTS points. In addition, it is the practice of the Academic Study Board that the dispensation in such cases is conditional on the student registering for and participating tuition and the ordinary examination in the missing course in question, and that the internship period is extended corresponding to the number of days the student participates in the tuition at SDU.
- It is the practice of the Academic Study Board not to approve individual study activities that are in fact preparatory work for degree finishing projects, and thus an extension of the project.
- Individual study activities must in principle not be related to the degree finishing project on the student’s current study programme or the qualifying education.
- The scope of individual study activities must not exceed 5 ECTS points, unless special circumstances apply.
- It is the practice of the Academic Study Board not to approve individual study activities that are based on existing courses.
- It is the practice of the Academic Study Board to grant dispensation from the submission deadline for the degree finishing projects in cases of parental leavey, serious (documented) illness, thereby comparable (documented) serious personal circumstances as well as practical problems with the production of material, which is necessary for the project.
- It is the practice of the Academic Study Board to grant dispensation for withdrawal from tuition and examinations in situations with the student's documented, serious illness, or documented, serious illness in the immediate family as well as comparable, documented personal circumstances that have prevented the student from completing their studies. It is the Study Board's practice to include academic ability in its assessment.
- It is the judgment of the study board that it must be ensured that the student is evaluated in a variety of evaluation forms throughout the study programme.
- In principle, it is not possible to obtain a dispensation for online exams for students due to a long-term disability.
- It is the practice of the Academic Study Board to approve up to a 25% extension of the duration of written examinations and oral examinations with preparation time. Thus, as a starting point, it is not possible to obtain a further extension on the basis of several disabilities.
- It is the practice of the Academic Study Board that students with a mother tongue other than Danish cannot be granted a dispensation for an extended duration of written exams if they have resided in Denmark for more than 5 years, unless they have other disabilities in addition to the mother tongue.