Dispensation

• Choose the form that covers the type of dispensation you need.
• Fill out the form according to the instructions.
• Explain the extraordinary circumstances you believe justify your request for a dispensation.
• Attach any necessary documentation. If you have many attachments, it may be beneficial to compile them into one long PDF file.

When filling out the form, you must clearly and precisely justify why you believe there is a reason to grant you a dispensation from one or more rules. You must make sure that your situation is easy to understand and that it is clear how your studies have been affected by extraordinary circumstances.

Please explain how the extraordinary circumstances have had a decisive impact on your need to apply for a dispensation from the study board. There must be a causal relationship. This means that the extraordinary circumstances must have a scope and timing that have prevented you from complying with a given rule.

A good explanation meets three requirements:

1. It describes one or more circumstances that are extraordinary in the sense that they do not occur regularly.
2. It describes how the extraordinary circumstances are beyond your own control. Anything you could have avoided with ordinary caution, anything you should have been able to foresee, and anything that is “your own fault” in any other way cannot be considered extraordinary circumstances.
3. Finally, it describes how the extraordinary circumstances have been crucial to your ability to comply with the rule(s) you are seeking a dispensation from.

When your application is processed, the Study Board will always make an individual assessment of your specific case. Therefore, you must describe the extraordinary circumstances in a way that provides the study board with the best possible basis for assessing your case.

Documentation

You must be able to document the extraordinary circumstances – for example, through a medical certificate if your reason is illness.

Individual study plan

For some types of dispensation, you are required to attach an individual study plan – for example, if you are applying for extra exam attempt. An individual study plan is a description of when you plan to take the remaining courses in your programme.

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 exam.
• You work a part-time job and can’t keep up with the maximum time of registration.
• The bus was running late on the day of your exam.

You must provide documentation supporting your application. If your application is substantiated by illness, you must enclose a medical certificate. 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 medical certificate 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 medical certificate 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. 

Examples of documentation:

• Medical certificate
• Documentation of divorce
• Birth certificate

Requirements for medical certificates

A medical certificate 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 you, and which is based on medical records or information 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.

When applying for a dispensation from the Study Board for Science, it is important that you express yourself clearly and precisely. You must make sure that your situation is easy to understand and that it is clear how your studies have been affected by extraordinary circumstances.

Your application must always include a justification where you explain:

• The nature of the extraordinary circumstances. These must be circumstances that do not occur routinely.
• You must describe how the extraordinary circumstances are beyond your control.
• You must explain how the extraordinary circumstances have had a decisive impact, necessitating your application for a dispensation. There must be a causal relationship. This means that the extraordinary circumstances must have a scope and timing that have prevented you from complying with the rule you are seeking a dispensation from.

Documentation

The study board requires documentation that supports your justification in the application.

If you justify the unusual circumstances with illness, you must attach a valid medical certificate or other medical documentation. It is up to the study board to assess whether the documentation is sufficient and provides a basis for granting an exemption.

Regulatory basis

According to Section 18 of the Danish University Act, the study board is among other things, granted the competence to process dispensation applications from students.

The study board has the ability to grant dispensations from its own rules, for example, those set out in programme regulations, and where there is a provision for dispensation in other regulations. An dispensation is an exemption from the usual and fixed rules that apply to an education programme.

The processing of a dispensation application must be based on an individual assessment of the concrete circumstances of the student. Therefore, a concrete assessment must always be made in each individual dispensation case.

The study board’s ability to grant an exemption is often conditional on the existence of extraordinary circumstances. Extraordinary circumstances concern specific, individual circumstances of the student.

With a few exceptions, you can unregister from any course from the start of the semester and for 21 days thereafter.

Read more about change of registrations at the start of the semester.

Once the 21 days have 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. However, special rules apply to elective courses.

Read more about extraordinary circumstances.

You must enclose an individual study plan accounting for the remainder of your course of study.

With a few exceptions, you can unregister from any exam from the start of the semester and for 21 days thereafter.

Once the 21 days have passed, all exam registrations are binding and can be cancelled only by dispensation from the Study Board.

Read more about change of registrations at the start of the semester.

The Study Board may grant you a dispensation to deregister from an examination only if you can document that extraordinary circumstances make it necessary.

Read more about extraordinary circumstances.

You must enclose an individual study plan accounting for the remainder of your course of study.

If your individual study activity or Master's thesis project takes a different turn than initially anticipated, the Study Board may grant you a dispensation to change the project title.

If you can document that extraordinary circumstances are preventing you from keeping the submission deadline, the Study Board may grant you an extension of the deadline. Any extension of the submission deadline must be approved first by your main supervisor, then by the department teaching committee, and finally by the Head of Studies. Therefore, it is crucial that you contact your main supervisor before submitting an application for extension of the deadline.

Read more about extraordinary circumstances.

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 examination conditions if you have a mental illness diagnosis or a physical disability, or are dyslexic or dyscalculic. Any special examination conditions may not lead to a change in the academic level of the examination.

Read more about special examination conditions.

Application deadlines

• 30 March for dispensations in relation to summer exams
• 30 October for dispensations in relation to winter exams

If you submit your application or any necessary documentation after these deadlines, it might not be practicable to take the special examination 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 examination conditions.

As a general rule, you have three attempts at passing each exam.

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 extraordinary circumstances. You must provide a thorough explanation of these extraordinary circumstances in your application and substantiate that these circumstances are the reason why you have failed to pass one or more examination attempts. 

Read more about extraordinary circumstances.

Some courses have entry requirements. An entry requirement may consist of a single course or multiple courses which you must have passed in order to register for another 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 entry requirements of a course if you can substantiate that you have the qualifications required to take the course, even though you do not meet the formal entry requirements.

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.

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.

• Read more about the study activity requirement.
• Read more about extraordinary circumstances.
• Read more about dispensation possibilities for special student groups.

You must enclose an individual study plan accounting for the remainder of your course of study.

2-year Master’s degree programmes must be completed within 2  ½ years of enrolment.

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, or if you are covered by certain other special dispensation possibilities.

• Read more about the time limit regulations.
• Read more about extraordinary circumstances.
• Read more about dispensation possibilities for special student groups.

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.

If you need to apply for dispensation from any other rules or regulations, please use the general application form.