Geography students looking to study abroad have been offered the opportunity to extend their degrees by a year in order to accommodate for Covid-19 restrictions.
A petition started this May has successfully influenced department policy meaning that students who have just finished their first year will have the opportunity to spend a year abroad in 2021/22 before completing their final year.
Those who take this opportunity will have their degree programmes extended by one year. Rather than incorporating study abroad options into their second year, Geography has decided to offer an extended course to students who had their study abroad applications cancelled by the pandemic.
Undergraduate students James Foley and Henry King are credited in an email from the department for starting the petition which led to this change.
The email states that the college “Agreed to programme regulation changes†meaning that there may be room for other departments to follow suit if they wish.
Many students were upset to learn that opportunities to go abroad had been cancelled for the rest of 2020. Those intending to travel for a semester in 2021 are yet to receive news of whether they will be able to.
If other departments do follow suit, then the ability to postpone study abroad opportunities until after second year may be attractive to students worried about the uncertainty caused by Covid-19.
See the petition which sparked this change here.
