Student Notices

The Office of Graduate Studies and Research wishes to advise that the Leave of Absence (LOA) online portal for Semester 1, 2026–2027 is now open and will close on September 11, 2026. For information on how to access in your student portal, please click here.

Please note the following:

1. Eligibility for LOA for Postgraduate Students:

-The Leave of Absence (LOA) option only applies to students who have registered, been financially cleared and have completed at least one (1) semester of their postgraduate programme.

-New postgraduate students who have received an offer to commence their postgraduate programme in September 2026, are not eligible for Leave of Absence (LOA).

2. Deferral of Postgraduate Programme – applicable only to new postgraduate students

-New postgraduate students who are unable to commence in September 2026 may request a deferral. Kindly submit a signed letter addressed to the Assistant Registrar, Graduate Studies and Research on or before September 11, 2026, via email to: STA-pg@sta.uwi.edu. The letter should clearly state:

the student’s name;

student ID number;

degree programme; and

reason(s) for the request.

-Please note that deferral requests submitted through the LOA portal will not be considered.

-Should you require clarification or further information, please contact your respective Faculty/Programme Representative or Customer Service Personnel at the Graduate Studies & Research Office.

3. LOA Approval Process

-Once a student submits an online Leave of Absence request, the student should check their online student academic record/unofficial student transcript located in the student portal within two weeks of the online submission to check on the decision on the LOA request i.e. approved or denied.

-Important: Please do not enter more than 50 characters (approx. 20 words or less) in the optional box. Should you exceed the word limit, your LOA request will not be received in the portal.

-An LOA portal status indicating “Pending”, confirms that your LOA request has been successfully submitted. If the status does not indicate “Pending”, exit the portal and repeat the submission process after at least one hour. On your second attempt, please enter 10 words or less in the optional /comments box.

4. LOA Approval Process for Postgraduate Students in:

(a) Institute for Gender and Development Studies

(b) Faculty of Law

(c) The UWI Seismic Research Centre

-Postgraduate students in categories (a-c) above are asked to submit a signed letter  with their  leave of absence request. The letter should be addressed to the Assistant Registrar, Graduate Studies and Research and submitted on or before the September 11, 2026 deadline date via email to STA-pg@sta.uwi.edu. The letter should clearly state:

--the student’s name;

--student ID number;

--degree programme; and

--reason(s) for the request.

-If the LOA request is for medical reasons, please refer to the section #5 below entitled “LOA for Medical Reasons Process”.

5. LOA for Medical Reasons Process

-Leave of absence requests for medical reasons e.g. pregnancy, may be submitted throughout the semester.

-As the online LOA portal closes on September 11, 2026, students requesting LOA for medical reasons after this date should submit their signed letter addressed to the Assistant Registrar, Graduate Studies and Research. (inclusive of the information listed in #4) via email to STA-pg@sta.uwi.edu,

-An official medical letter from the student’s doctor must accompany this late LOA request. Requests submitted without the required medical documentation will not be accepted/considered.

-Postgraduate Students are asked to submit their medicals via email to: STA-pg@sta.uwi.edu

6. Online LOA Portal - Technical Difficulties

For technical difficulties, students are asked to send an email clearly explaining with screenshots the technical issue to servicedesk@sta.uwi.edu

Please refer to the following link for additional information: https://sta.uwi.edu/resources/documents/StudentHandbook.pdf