Frequently Asked Questions

The Faculties of Medicine, Law, Dentistry and the College of Pharmacy are officially exempt from the new regulation and will not be using the SDA forms.

The SDA is available for use and it's use is encouraged. However, whether you choose to use the SDA in your course is up to you as the instructor.

Students are required to confirm if the self-declaration of absence option is available to them by checking with their instructor(s) or referring to their faculty, college, school, instructor-specific, or course-specific syllabi and guidelines, and work-integrated learning handbook policies.  

The Centre for Learning and Teaching (CLT) has edited the “Course Syllabus Template” to assist you. The template can be found here. If you need further assistance, please contact CLT at 902-494-1622 or clt@dal.ca

Yes.  Course instructors may approve exceptions to this new regulation to support students in successful completion of academic requirements. Faculties, colleges, and schools may approve changes to absence reporting timelines, the number of self-declaration of absence submissions, and to methods for providing absence information for the academic unit.

No. The regulation’s intent is to support students who miss or submit late an academic requirement due to their absence of 3 days or less.

If class attendance/participation is considered an academic requirement for your course, the student self-declaration of absence would be applicable.

Dalhousie Student Health & Wellness will only provide sick notes or medical certificates to students for short-term absences in the following cases:

1. A student’s Faculty or instructor is not using the “Student Absence Regulation”,
2. The missed or late academic requirement is considered final coursework, or
3. The test or exam falls within the last two weeks of an academic term.

Dalhousie Student Health & Wellness professional counsellors may only provide a sick note or medical certificate for short-term absences in the above cases and if a student is a current client receiving ongoing counselling.

Students are encouraged to stay at home if they have a communicable illness (such as flu-like symptoms) that is manageable at home to prevent further spread of illness to other students, staff or instructors.

For long-term absences, Dalhousie Student Health & Wellness health providers may only provide documentation for students who have been under the care of a physician, registered nurse, social worker, psychologist, counsellor, or psychiatrist during the period of absence and/or for management of long-term or chronic physical or mental health conditions. 

In addition, the SDA form cannot be used for any final coursework or exams and students must follow faculty, college, school, instructor-specific, or course-specific syllabi and guidelines, and work-integrated learning handbook policies.  

No. You may continue to compensate or accommodate students for missed or late academic requirements as you have before.

There are many options for faculty to adopt the new SDA form within their course(s). As a resource for course instructors, CLT has provided a Faculty Strategies for Addressing Missed or Late Academic Requirements. If you need further assistance, please contact CLT at 902-494-1622 or clt@dal.ca

For instructors using the SDA forms within their course(s), Academic Technology Services will be compiling reports by course and by Faculty. These reports will be sent to a Faculty designate as defined by your Dean.

Tracking and measuring usage of the SDA forms within Brightspace is crucial to the assessment and success of the new regulation.

In addition, the Student Success Centre and Student Access and Academic Support will be tracking trends of students seeking support, advising and/or accommodations in relation to the new regulation.

For instructors not using Brightspace to implement the Student Declaration of Absence form, it is up to the individual faculties to decide how to track and monitor the self-declaration form. Instructors should speak to their Deans, Associate or Assistant Dean for further instructions.

To simplify the process for implementing the Student Declaration of Absence Form as part of a course, the instructions for Faculty have changed. Faculty no longer need to import a zip package into their Brightspace courses to set up the form. Instead you now log in to Brightspace, select “Student Declaration of Absence” from the drop-down menu, and choose which course(s) you would like to implement the Student Declaration of Absence Form in. 

No. You may ask students to submit the form in-person or through email if you wish. However, these absences will not be included in the Brightspace reporting mechanism.