Student Leave Management

Student Leave gives an institution one clear way to set rules, receive requests, make decisions, and tell students what happened. It replaces informal messages and paper notes with a visible request that has dates, a reason, a decision, and an approval history.

This guide explains the process in everyday language. The exact options available to a person still depend on their role, campus, department, and the policy that applies to the student.

Review one complete test journey: configure a campus policy, submit a student request, approve it with remarks, confirm the student notification, and verify the matching attendance result.

1. Set the rules first

   Institution Admin opens System Settings > Student Leave. The institution baseline is the default rule. A selected campus can have its own rule when that campus needs different limits, notice periods, document requirements, leave types, or half-day timings.

2. Define each leave type

   Add one leave type per line using code|Display label|yes or no|Approving authority. For example, medical|Medical Leave|yes|HOD. The code is the stable internal name, the display label is what students see, and the authority decides who receives the request.

3. Student submits a request

   The student opens My Tasks > My Leaves, selects the leave type, chooses the date or date range, selects First half or Second half when the policy allows it, writes a reason, and attaches evidence when required.

4. The request reaches the configured authority

   The leave type determines the approving role. The request appears in that role's leave work area. A department HOD is used when the leave is assigned to HOD; if no suitable HOD is available, the configured fallback route is used.

5. The authority reviews and decides

   The authority checks the student, dates, reason, document, policy, and academic context. They choose Approve or Reject and add remarks. The student then sees the decision and the remarks in My Leaves.

6. Attendance follows an approved leave

   After approval, attendance for matching classes is treated as Excused when the approved leave covers the class time. A submitted, rejected, or withdrawn request does not excuse attendance.

Who does what

• Student: submits an accurate request, adds evidence when needed, watches its status, and reads the decision remarks.
• HOD: reviews requests assigned to the HOD authority for the student's department and makes a decision with remarks.
• Campus Admin: reviews campus-scoped requests when the leave type is assigned to Campus Admin and manages the campus policy where authorised.
• Finance: can be selected as an approving authority when the institution wants Finance to review a particular leave type.
• Institution Admin: controls institution policy, can see the institution's leave activity, and can monitor requests sent to different authorities. Institution Admin is not automatically allowed to approve or reject a student leave request.

Institution baseline and campus policy

The institution baseline is the starting rule used by every campus unless a campus-specific rule overrides it. To edit a campus rule, select that campus in the Policy scope dropdown. The page reloads that campus's values, and saving changes only that campus.

This keeps the setup simple: one institution default, with local exceptions where they are genuinely needed. A campus in another country can therefore use its own notice period, document rule, term limit, leave types, and first-half or second-half timetable without changing another campus.

What the main policy fields mean

• Maximum leave per academic term: the most leave days a student may use under that policy during the academic term.
• Minimum notice: how many days before the leave starts the student must submit the request.
• Document required after: the number of leave days after which evidence becomes mandatory.
• Campus transfer usage: whether the student's term usage continues to matter after moving to another campus.
• First half and Second half timings: the campus time windows used when attendance decides whether a half-day leave covers a class.

Leave type settings

• Code: a short stable name such as sick or medical. It is saved with the request and should not be casually changed.
• Display label: the friendly name students select, such as Sick Leave or Medical Leave.
• Half-day support: Yes allows a single-date request to use First half or Second half. No means the request is full-day only.
• Approving authority: the role that should receive requests for that leave type. The choice is part of the policy used for new requests.

The student journey in My Leaves

• The summary shows the student's campus, current academic term, used days, and remaining days.
• The current policy card shows the maximum, minimum notice, document threshold, and transfer rule that apply now.
• The request form accepts a single date or a date range. Dates outside the academic term are not allowed.
• The leave type controls whether half-day selection is available and identifies the approving authority.
• The reason explains why the student needs leave. A supporting document is attached when the policy requires one.
• The request card shows the status, dates, days, campus, reason, submitted time, supporting document, decision date, and authority remarks.

Status words in simple language

• Submitted: the student sent the request and it is waiting for the assigned authority.
• Approved: the authority accepted the request. Matching attendance can be marked Excused according to the approved dates and half-day window.
• Rejected: the authority did not accept the request. The authority's reason is shown to the student.
• Withdrawn: the student cancelled the request before a final decision. It is not counted as used leave and cannot be approved later.

How usage is counted

Used this term shows approved leave only. Submitted requests are still reserved when the system checks whether a new request would exceed the limit. Rejected and withdrawn requests are excluded completely. A full day counts as 1.00 day and a half-day counts as 0.50 day. Remaining available leave is the policy limit minus approved and submitted days, never less than zero.

If a student transfers campuses, past usage does not disappear. The destination campus policy applies to new requests. For example, if the student has used 9 days and the new campus limit is 8, the student cannot create another request under that 8-day limit during the same term. The system does not silently reset or erase the earlier usage.

Half-day leave and attendance

Half-day selection appears only when the chosen leave type allows it. First half and Second half are configured for the selected campus, so a campus can use its own timetable boundaries. A half-day request is normally for one date; a multi-day range remains full-day unless the policy explicitly provides another rule.

When attendance is recorded, the system compares the class time with the approved leave window. A matching class can become Excused. A class outside the leave window is not excused. An explicit Present mark remains Present, and the system does not create an attendance record for a class that has no attendance record.

Notifications and unread work

The student receives confirmation when a request is submitted, withdrawn, approved, or rejected. The configured approving authority receives a notification when a new request arrives or is withdrawn. Approval and rejection remarks are included where appropriate.

Emails use the institution branding and mail-from settings through the queued email worker. Unread counts appear in the relevant navigation and My Tasks area. The count is cleared when the person performs the relevant action, not merely because the page was opened.

Security and privacy

Only authorised users can view a request or its private supporting document. The uploaded file is stored under a system-generated name, while authorised users see the original file name for recognition. Institution leave policy changes are restricted to the email address stored for that institution.

Every request keeps its policy context and decision history so a later policy change does not rewrite an older request. Use the institution date format for dates shown to users; the standard display convention is DD-MM-YYYY when selected in System Settings.

If something looks wrong

• If a request is not visible, check the leave type's approving authority, the student's campus and department, and whether the correct role account is being used.
• If a document is missing, confirm that it was attached before submission and that the person viewing it has permission to access private evidence.
• If attendance is not Excused, confirm that the request is Approved, the class date is within the approved period, and the class time overlaps the full-day or half-day window.
• If a policy value looks wrong, select the correct campus in Policy scope before editing. A campus selection controls which policy is loaded and saved.