Lavender

Administrative withdrawal


 

The Disciplinary Regulations allow for a process known as administrative withdrawal, details of which can be found in Appendix 3 of the Student Disciplinary Regulations. When a student’s breach of College Regulations can be demonstrated to be due to reasons of incapacity such as a serious emotional or psychiatric condition, a modified version of the normal procedure may be offered.

This will consist of up to 2 formal written warning letters requiring improvements in behaviour. If the behaviour persists after the issue of the second letter or if it is too severe to allow for continued attendance, a formal withdrawal hearing would be convened. It is hoped though that this would not be necessary and that the student would be able to seek appropriate support to manage the condition, or interrupt their studies if necessary, in order to recover. Where appropriate, the formality of the proceedings may be lessened to reduce any adverse psychological impact this may have on the student.

An example of where the administrative withdrawal process may be used is if a condition had caused a student to become involved in significant damage of College property.  Where this might normally be treated as a major offense leading to termination, if a student could demonstrate that the incident was triggered by a psychiatric or emotional condition which was now under control, College would check that the student was aware of and using all the appropriate support services and issue a formal warning outlining the behaviour that must not recur and the precautions that must be taken.  If the problem recurred the student might be withdrawn. A student who is withdrawn due to incapacity could reapply to re-join if in time the condition was clearly demonstrated to be under control.