Student Engagement Monitoring

Monthly supervisory meetings: PGR student visa holders should continue their current monthly meetings and log them using the UofG Helpdesk Engagement Form.

From 23 May: PGT student visa holders (dissertation/project) should meet with their supervisor(s) every month and register the meeting via the UofG Helpdesk Engagement Form.

Meeting format: These meetings must be either entirely face-to-face or a mix of face-to-face and online. All meetings cannot take place online.

Non-progressing PGT students: student visa holders who, following the Spring exam diet have not met the academic requirements to begin the dissertation/project in May, are still required to record their engagement during this period, as it is not possible for us to continue visa sponsorship on the basis that students are revising for their resit exams in August. It is recommended that students in this position continue to meet their supervisors monthly.

Holidays/absences: PGT student visa holders may take a short holiday of up to 3 weeks away from Glasgow without seeking permission from their School, if they are not required to attend any meetings or preparatory sessions during this time. Absences of more than 3 weeks during this period will result in withdrawal of sponsorship, and loss of eligibility for the Graduate Visa. Colleagues are asked to submit a Helpdesk Form if students notify them that they are taking an unauthorised absence of more than 3 weeks.

The new systems and processes implemented in January for monitoring student engagement have been adopted well and there is good coverage across the institution, so Schools/Colleges are asked to cease any local methods for capturing engagement of student visa holders which do not feed into the APEX dashboard.

Schools who have previously used other methods (e.g. Moodle Attendance Plugin) for monitor engagement for all their students, not just those with a student visa, can continue to do so, but the Moodle Attendance Plugin will not be used as evidence of a confirmed check-in in AY 2025-26 for visa monitoring purposes. Only SafeZone check-ins will.

Work is continuing to standardise our processes for recording and reporting absences and placements, as well as issuing CAS for visa extensions, and colleagues from Schools, Colleges and other Services will be brought into these conversations where required in advance of the new academic year beginning.

An expanded Immigration Compliance team within Student and Academic Services will soon be operational, managing compliance activities for sponsored international students. The team is expected to be operational from July onwards, and further information will follow shortly.