Leave of Absence

A Leave of Absence is an extended period of time away from a programme of study, at the request of the student, and approved by the relevant Governing Board.

Since August 2016, standard Leave of Absence applications can be made by students via their SISWeb account and these applications are managed by the appropriate College/School Office via Infohub.  Information on the UCD Leave of Absence Policy can be found in the(opens in a new window)University Governance Document Library and there are detailed guides available for (opens in a new window)staff and students as well as the directions below for staff use: 

Processing Online Applications for Leave of Absence

1. To view applications submitted for review, log into InfoHub and select the Students tab. Choose UCD Applications System and click on Student Decisions. Select Student Decisions – Leave of Absence to see the applications for your area. 
   
   
2. To view a new application for a programme click on the number that appears under Submitted, for Review. This will take you to a report listing new applications. If you want to view a historical application, select the number under the relevant status e.g. Approved by Board to view these applications. 
   
   
3. To see an individual application, select the application number (on the left-hand side of the screen). If you wish to edit an application, select Edit Answers under General Questions. 
   
   
4. To upload a document click on Application Checklist. 
   
   
5. Once you have reviewed an application that is Submitted, for Review and are satisfied that the student has taken all steps necessary for the decision, click on Add Decision, choose Referred to Board from the dropdown and then select Make Decision. 
   
   
6. You will be able to see the history of all decisions made for this application, and who made them, in the staff view of the application. The statuses for these applications can be used whether there is a single or double stage of approval (e.g. a School Committee, then a Graduate Board). 
   
   
7. There is no need to transfer data from paper forms or complete templates. The reports are available in Infohub and can be exported to Excel for use locally e.g. for a meeting where such requests are considered. 
   
   
8. If you are using a report with the status Referred to Board, make sure you select the correct academic year (in case a student has made an application for the next academic year). Using this report live will give you the option of drilling down to the application if a query arises. 
   
   
9. In order to add a decision to a Leave of Absence application, access an individual application and then selectAdd Decision. Select the appropriate decision from the drop-down menu, add any necessary comments e.g. date of meeting and, where necessary, the name of the individual Board. 
   
   
10. When a decision is changed to Approved by Board, an automated email will be sent notifying students of this decision. 
    
    
11. There is no automatic email for the decision Not approved by Board or Partly approved by Board. Communications on these decisions should be in line with previous practices. 
    
    
12. If you update a status to the Not Approved by Status then a student will be able to view this decision. Offices managing these applications may want to consider timing the email/letter in conjunction with adding this decision to InfoHub. 
    
    
13. As all applications are made and recorded within SISWeb/InfoHub, Registry is automatically informed of these decisions for action. There is no need to complete templates or communicate separately with Registry on decisions made through this system As applications are acted upon, their status will change to Processed (completely) or Processed (manually). 
    
    
    (opens in a new window)Further instructions on processing online applications for Leave of Absence 
    
    

Note:

Please note that applications made after a term has ended will require a paper form and cannot be made via the online system.