As a postgraduate research student (PGR), can I take a temporary withdrawal from my studies?

If you are a postgraduate research (PGR) student, you are able to take a short period of leave, or a temporary withdrawal from your doctoral degree.

You can self-certify sick leave for up to six days. You should inform your supervisors if you need to take such leave. This would not be covered by sick pay provision.

For longer periods of absence, for example due to medical reasons, parental or maternity leave,  jury service or other reasons, you would need to apply for a temporary withdrawal of up to 12 months from your programme. Evidence would usually be required to support the application.

More details on this and funding implications for periods of leave can be found in our postgraduate research “Absence Procedure” which you can find on our Useful documents page.

If you have any questions about this, you can email the Research Degrees Programme Management Team at researchdegrees@surrey.ac.uk

• It is extremely important that students who are on a visa read the first two documents in the section for international postgraduate research students at the link above, as there are restrictions which must be adhered to

• If you are self-funded, you should consider selecting whole calendar months in your temporary withdrawal request so that you are not charged full fees unnecessarily

To make a request for a temporary withdrawal via the APESC (sub-committee of the Doctoral College Board) go to Surrey Self-Service. You should log in and navigate to “Research Programme Details”. Then click on the “Requests” tab and select from the drop-down list “Temporary withdrawal”. Your evidence should be uploaded to the request. For practical guidance on how to do this, you can view the “How to submit a new request (change of registration)” document on our Useful documents page.