Whenever I talk to people about the growing demand for (and where facilitated growing take up of) assignment extensions and the self-certification of extenuating circumstances or health issues, I hear a surprising range of theories as to the cause.
Some put it down to the mental health crisis, others argue it’s about deadlines not being properly spaced, and some attribute it to students struggling with the language, or not having the talent or work ethic of students in the past.
Not nearly enough seem interested in interrogating the time question.
Back in 2020’s summer of Covid prep, it became increasingly clear that the working groups and Gold Command teams were spending almost all their time on “provision” – failing to think through the conditions that the sector was enrolling students into for independent study, let alone all the other aspects of their week that were going to be spent alone and/or online.
It was, I think, a symptom a wider problem – a sector, regulator and government that endlessly surveys students on what is staged, but barely knows what its students think of the support and facilities on offer around the edges, flailing and failing to understand the wider life contexts into which all of that fits.
