As the final-year cohort, we collectively believe that the strike action, which has taken place over 6 weeks this academic year, has affected our ability to complete the dissertation due in on the 30th of April. Due to the industrial action, some dissertation supervisors have been unavailable to be contacted, hence there is concern from the year that students may not get the support they need during this critical point. Moreover, the strikes have also impacted mid-terms and final essays adding increased pressure overall which has further impacted our ability to work on our dissertations. Many of us support the strikes but having been affected across the full three years of our degree, especially in our final year, we are concerned our final grade may be affected.

We therefore believe that an extension would be beneficial in this exceptional circumstance to allow all students to have their enquires responded to and be given sufficient time to complete the dissertation. Moreover, this would help ease the anxiety from having 6 weeks disruption in the most important year of our degrees.

Please sign if you feel that an extension is fair and necessary. Please note, signing does not mean that you would have to use the extension.

This petition was inspired by action taken at other universities where an extension has now been granted.

Just to reiterate, this does not take away from many students' support for the strike. Some lecturers are going above & beyond to help supervisees despite the strike but an extension would mean that they didn't have to do that.

Added 15/03:

The coronavirus is due to cause further disruption to our studies with class cancelations, online teaching and the end of face-to-face contact. The global epidemic has added further pressure and distress for third year students. At this confusing and worrying time students are left panicking over whether they should attend classes or visit the library. We are stuck between the necessity to carry on as normal to finish our work to the original deadlines and following advice advice from the government and media to practice social distancing to protect the vulnerable - including our own families.

Please consider how both these circumstances has severely impacted student wellbeing.