Petition to Continue Studies Without Interruption

If you are using one the Generative AI tools (Chat GPT, Anthropic, Gemini, etc.) to help create your letter, remember:

You should NOT submit what is produced without editing it;
You need to ADD the details specific to your case. The committee needs to know dates and circumstances, and it needs to hear YOUR voice;
Petition letters lacking the necessary details will lead to unsuccessful petitions – while you can use LLMs to help create a draft, they should only be used as a tool to get you started.

A Petition to Continue is a request to continue your studies without interruption when your academic decision is a required withdrawal or debarment (i.e., a one- or two-year required absence from the university due to poor academic performance).

It is strongly recommended that you meet with an advisor prior to submitting a petition.

If you had extenuating circumstances that caused you to be unable to achieve the required minimum GPA for your year level, and if those circumstances have been mitigated, you may wish to submit a petition to continue.

If you had circumstances that clearly affected your decision to not drop or withdraw from courses, you may wish to instead submit a Petition to Drop a Course from the Transcript.

Personal Statements: You will be prompted to answer specific questions about your academic performance, why you remained enrolled in courses, and how you have resolved or will resolve any issues that affected your studies.

You will also be asked to provide a clear plan for how you will return to good academic standing, which should include your planned courses or course load and the grades you expect to obtain.

Your explanation about your resolution of any issues and academic plan are key to this type of petition, as you need to demonstrate that your future academic endeavours will have a different outcome than your most recent previous sessions.

Supporting Documentation: You are very strongly encouraged to upload documentation that supports your description of your past circumstances or your plan to continue. Petitions that are submitted without supporting documentation are rarely granted.

While there is no specific deadline for this type of petition, you need to plan to submit it with enough time to receive a result and enrol in courses before the start of the term you wish to join. The Petitions Committee meets once a month from August to June.

You can contact Academic Services to ask about the deadline to be included in the next Petitions Committee meeting agenda.

*It is highly recommended that you prepare your responses in a Word processor and copy + paste them into the form. Note that you can save your progress and resume later if you need time to write your responses or gather documentation.*

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