Refusal of enrolment, now what?

Have you been denied continuing your education next year? Then no doubt you need to let that news sink in for a while.

Maybe you didn't made the right choice when it comes to your studies? Or maybe you did, but you suffered from fear of failure and/or procrastination, or you just didn't find the right study method/attitude?

Your learning path coaches from your program and/or the STUVO staff can help put things in order, help you think through the reasons for your refusal, and discuss with you the various options for the future.

You can find the list of learning path coaches here, and those of STUVO staff here.

Sociaal werk volwassenen header

(Temporarily) stop studying

Taking a break from your studies can be useful, for example, to gain other experiences and competencies, replenish your financial reserves and, above all, think about what you really want. This can be done, for example, through volunteer work or a real job opportunity.

The pitfall with such a study break, however, is that you may take it unnecessarily long and end up not returning to study.... This occurs even faster if you are not already a born student.

If you are a bachelor's student and you have no way to reclaim learning credit, then continuing to study at the bachelor's level is no longer possible. 

If you return to your original program after the denial period has expired, the counters in terms of the number of enrollment opportunities for each course unit will return to zero. Previously granted exemptions and credits already earned are retained. Tolerances and outstanding tolerance credit remain equally valid.

If your program has since undergone a program change, however, those credits may not all be relevant anymore and you will have to take "additional" course units.

Learn more about (temporarily) stopping your studies? 

Apply for an exception to the refusal

If your refusal was due to special individual circumstances and you believe you have a sufficient chance of still obtaining your degree, you may ask approval to still start or complete a study programme. Exceptional admission can be granted by the director of the cluster together with the Head of the STUVO department. They will treat the information you provide them with confidentiality and will take into account in their decision the course of study you have already completed and your chances of successfully completing the program.

Students who wish to apply for an exception to the refusal must submit a well-motivated request in writing (a letter) to the director of the cluster at the latest on the 10th of October.  You send the reasoned request by letter to the director of your cluster through this online application. This is also possible before the 25th of February for students who, in the same academic year, have not yet submitted an application for an exception to the refusal. 

As exceptions are only allowed on the grounds of special individual circumstances, students must be very clear in their request on which special individual circumstances it is based. This information is kept confidential. In their decision, the competent persons take into account the already completed study track as well as the chances of the student to complete the programme successfully.

Full information on the exceptions to refusal of enrolment can be found in Art. 34 of the Education and Examination Regulations on the Odisee student platform.