A dispensation is a permission to be exempted from the usual rules and regulations that apply to your degree programme. The Study Board has the authority to grant you a dispensation from its own rules and, in some cases, from rules laid down in executive orders.
Any applications for a dispensation is processed on the basis of an individual assessment based on your specific, individual circumstances. Therefore, the Study Board must always make an concrete assessment of your individual case.
How to apply for a dispensation
- Choose the application form that covers the type of dispensation you need
- Follow the instructions for filling out the application form
- Enclose any relevant documentation.
When you apply for a dispensation, you must give reasons as to why you believe you are entitled to an exemption from the general rules.
This means that in many cases, you must provide an explanation of what “extraordinary circumstances” you are being affected by and you must be able to document them with, for example, a doctor’s note.
Examples of extraordinary circumstances:
- Illness
- Maternity leave
- Illness or death in your immediate family
- Disability, for example dyslexia
- Jury duty as a lay judge or juror
Examples of circumstances which are not normally considered to be extraordinary:
- You have a holiday trip planned on the same day as your examination
- You work a part-time job and can’t keep up with all of the courses required by your programme regulations
- The bus was running late on the day of your examination
A good explanation will meet the following three requirements:
- It describes one or more circumstances that are extraordinary in the sense that they are not something you often encounter (i.e. they do not occur on a regular basis).
- It describes how the extraordinary circumstances are beyond your control. Thus, it should not describe circumstances that could have been avoided by being more careful, that you should have been able to foresee or that are otherwise “your own fault”.
- It describes how the extraordinary circumstances significantly affected your ability to comply with the rules and regulations from which you are requesting a dispensation.
Processing an application for a dispensation always involves a case-specific assessment. Therefore, your must describe the extraordinary circumstances in such a way that you provide the Study Board with the best possible basis on which to assess your application.
Study plan
If you are applying for a dispensation from the study activity requirements or the time limit regulations, you must submit a study plan. There may be other cases where it would also be a good idea to include a study plan for your future course of study, for example when applying for a dispensation from the first-year examination.
A study plan is a document that outlines when you plan to take the rest of the courses for your programme.
You must provide documentation supporting your application. If your application is substantiated by illness, you must enclose a valid doctor's note or other medical documentation. It is up to the Study Board to assess whether the documentation provided is sufficient for granting you a dispensation.
Please be aware that the doctor's note provided to the Study Board must include a medical evaluation and that there must be a clear correlation between your spell of sickness and the matter from which you are applying for exemption.
If your illness is protracted or chronic, the doctor's note should make clear exactly how it has been of specific importance to the matter from which you are applying for a dispensation. Otherwise, the Study Board cannot make a decision on a fully informed basis.
Certain types of applications will require you to enclose an individual study plan.
Examples of documentation:
- Doctor's note
- Documentation of divorce
- Birth certificate
Formal requirements for a doctor's note
A doctor's note should, as a minimum, include the following information:
- Your name, civil registration number and address
- The doctor's name and address
- Which information in the doctor's note is based on the doctor's own examination of your, and which is based on medical records or provided by yourself
- Name of the your general practitioner
- Any medical information relevant to the application
The Study Board will make its decision based on your application and the documentation provided by you. You will receive an written answer by e-mail when the Study Board has made its decision.
If you need guidance on your specific situation, please contact the student counsellors at the Faculty of Science.
Below you can read more about different types of dispensation and what information you will be asked to provide when filling out the application form.
Types of dispensation
Once the registration period has passed, all course registrations are binding and can be cancelled only by dispensation from the Study Board.
The Study Board may grant you a dispensation to deregister from a course only if you can document that extraordinary circumstances are presenting you from attending the rest of the course.
You must enclose an individual study plan accounting for the remainder of your course of study.
Apply for dispensation to deregister from a course
Please note that special rules apply to elective courses.
Once the registration period has passed, all exam registrations are binding and can be cancelled only by dispensation from the Study Board.
The Study Board may grant you a dispensation to deregister from an examination only if you can document that extraordinary circumstances are preventing you from preparing for and/or attending the examination.
You must enclose an individual study plan accounting for the remainder of your course of study.
The Study Board may grant you a dispensation to change the project title if your project takes a different turn than initially expected.
The Study Board may grant you an extension of the submission deadline if you can document that extraordinary circumstances are preventing you from keeping the deadline. Any extension of the submission deadline must be approved first by your project supervisor, then by the department teaching committee, and finally by the Head of Studies. Therefore, it is crucial that you contact your project supervisor before submitting an application for extension of the deadline.
Regardless if your application concerns a change of the project title or an extension of the submission deadline, you must submit your application no later than 4 weeks before the submission deadline.
The Study Board may grant you special exam conditions if you have a mental illness diagnosis or a physical disability, or are dyslexic or dyscalculic.
Any special exam conditions may not lead to a change in the academic level of the examination.
Apply for special exam conditions
Please note: You must submit your application and any necessary documentation no later than 30 March if your application relates to the summer examination period, and no later than 30 October if your application related to the winter examination period. If you submit your application after these deadlines, it is not necessarily practicable to take the special exam conditions into consideration when planning the exam – in which case you risk that your application will be rejected, even if you otherwise meet the requirements for special exam conditions.
The Study Board may grant you an extension of the submission deadline for a written exam if you can document that extraordinary circumstances are preventing you from keeping the submission deadline, or if you are covered by certain other dispensation possibilities.
In a few cases the Study Board may grant you an extension for academic reasons, for example if you have 2 or more exams at the same time.
You will almost always have three attempts to pass your examinations. Being absent from an examination also counts as an attempt.
In order to be granted any further examination attempts, you must have been affected by exceptional circumstances. You must provide a thorough explanation of these exceptional circumstances in your application and substantiate that these circumstances are the reason why you have failed to pass one or more examination attempts.You must be able to provide documentary evidence of these exceptional circumstances, e.g. a doctor’s note. Many other forms of documentation may also be used depending on the specific situation.
Some courses have entry requirement. An entry requirement may consist of a single course or multiple courses, which you must have passed in order to register for the course. Any such requirements are stated in the course description of the course concerned. You may be administratively deregistered from any course for which you do not meet the entry requirements.
However, the Study Board may grant you an exemption from the prerequisites of a course if you can substantiate that you have the qualifications required to take the course, even though you do not meet the prerequisites.
You must enclose an individual study plan accounting for the remainder of your course of study.
In order to remain enrolled as a student at SDU, you must pass at least one exam a year. Read more about the study activity requirement.
The study board may grant you a dispensation from the study activity requirement if you can document that extraordinary circumstances are preventing you from being an active student, or if you are covered by certain other special dispensation possibilities.
You must enclose an individual study plan accounting for the remainder of your course of study.
Apply for dispensation from the study activity requirement
2-year Master’s degree programmes must be completed within 2 ½ years
The Study Board may grant you a dispensation from the time limit regulations if you can document that extraordinary circumstances are preventing you from completing the programme within the time limit.
You must state in your application when you expect to complete your programme and you must enclose an individual study plan accounting for the remainder of your course of study.
Apply for dispensation from the time limit regulations
If you need to apply for dispensation for any other rules or regulations, please use the general application form.
Casework time
When you send an application to the Study Board, it might take up to 8 weeks before your application is processed. When your application has been processed by the study board, you will receive a decision on your SDU e-mail.
You may be asked to submit additional documentation or a detailed explanation if the Study Board needs more information in order to process your application.