Managing short Leave of Absence process

The new form for requesting leave to study away from Edinburgh for a temporary period of between 5 and 30 days can be accessed from Short Leave of Absence Requests - Power Apps.  The form should be completed by the student.

A leave of absence is required where students undertake compulsory and optional activities related to, or part of, the programme of study away from campus in Edinburgh.

Examples of study related activities include conferences, workshops, projects or placements, paid or unpaid placement activities including work placements, internships or other research activities. This includes postgraduate research students who are completing research or are in the writing up stage of their dissertation and undertake study related activities away from campus.

A leave of absence is specifically related a programme of study and is not for other types of leave requests such as time off for illness, caring, travel or writing up away from campus. Further information on other absence and concession options is available at Forms for students | The University of Edinburgh

Short leave of absence request does not cover:

• Absences longer than 30 days - information is available from your school/deanery teaching office or at Leave of absence | The University of Edinburgh for postgraduate students.
• Absences less than 5 days - you should discuss these directly with your supervisor or student advisor.

A step by step video of the form completion process can be found here.

Processing requests

Step by step guidance on how to review requests and update the status can be found here.  

Short LOA Status Update SOP document:

A video showing the school dashboard and the process of opening a requests to review it and updating the status following a decision can be found here. 

A view of requests is available at college level showing requests across all schools for college staff, a video showing this dashboard can be found here.