Occasionally you may encounter circumstances that disrupt your ability to study and need to apply for a pause to your unit - this is called a deferral.
Deferral - A break in study (pause) to a unit. This will require supporting evidence for deferrals above 3 months.
Maternity Leave - If you are pregnant, you can apply for 12 month Maternity leave from the expected date on your MATB1 form.
For a short deferral (3 months) you will not need to provide supporting evidence. You can apply for a short deferral once per unit. The maximum deferral(s) time is up to 12 months per unit in total, whether this is from one application or more.
There is guidance in the Learner Support course page about applying for deferrals, including the forms to apply, and the extenuating circumstances policy.
Once you have checked you have grounds to apply (section 10 of the policy) and arranged appropriate supporting evidence for deferrals over 3 months (section 12 of the policy) you can submit your application via the helpdesk, or via learnersupport@oca.ac.uk The panel have up to 20 working days to review applications once the clerk has checked and confirmed that your application is complete, so please ensure you apply in good time, with enough course time remaining for you to defer (pause).
If you do not have enough course time remaining to defer, you may also want to look at the extensions information:- How do I apply for extra time on my unit (extension)