Supporting documents for compassionate or compelling circumstances

When you apply to defer your studies, take a study break, underload, or transfer to another university due to compassionate or compelling circumstances, you need to provide supporting documents.

You’ll need to provide supporting documents that clearly show:

• your compassionate or compelling circumstances
• when they occurred
• how long they lasted
• their level of impact.

Compassionate or compelling circumstances

Compassionate or compelling circumstances are personal circumstances that are involuntary and outside your control (such as medical, family, wellbeing or enrolment circumstances) that prevent you from going ahead with your studies.

All documents need to:

• be from an independent source or authority
• be recently dated
• confirm that your circumstances are ongoing and relevant to the timeframe
• be submitted in English – documents written in a different language need to be translated into English by the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters (NAATI) or an overseas notary department with a common seal.

Do not, under any circumstances, submit fraudulent documentation

You must give us information that is true, accurate and complete – without intending to mislead or gain advantage. If you make a false statement or provide a falsified document:

• your application will be rejected, and
• we'll refer the matter to Student Conduct and Complaints for an academic misconduct investigation.

You’re responsible for making sure the documents you supply to us are genuine, accurate and complete. Penalties for submitting a forged, altered or falsified document can include exclusion from the University, a fine of up to AUD $1,000 and a permanent record in Monash systems.

To find out more about your responsibilities (and what you should do if you don’t have the required supporting documents), see our documentation integrity page.

Documents you can provide

Deferral, intermission and underloading

Medical certificate

A medical certificate must specifically suggest that you take a study deferment, intermission or underload (depending on what you’re applying for).

Your doctor can provide the certificate at the consultation (including a Telehealth appointment). The certificate must be dated.

If you’re on campus, you may be able to make an appointment for a medical certificate at the University Health Services.

Acceptable certificate

An acceptable medical certificate needs to:

• be printed on the medical centre/doctor’s surgery/pharmacy letterhead
• have a heading of Medical Certificate
• include a date of issue
• have a statement specifically suggesting a study deferment, intermission or underloading (depending on what you’re applying for)
• include your doctor's name, provider number and signature, or your pharmacist's name and signature
• have your medical centre/doctor’s surgery/pharmacy stamp.

Medical letter

You can get a medical letter of support if you couldn’t get a medical certificate when you were unwell.

The letter must state when and for how long you were unwell, and it must specifically suggest you take a study deferment, intermission or underload (depending on what you’re applying for). The doctor or pharmacist writing this letter must have knowledge of your medical history or condition.

The letter must be on the medical surgery, doctor’s or pharmacy’s letterhead, signed and dated by the doctor or pharmacist. Also, a pharmacist’s letter should include the doctor’s name.

Certificate from a social worker, lawyer or psychologist

In this certificate, a practitioner (e.g. social worker, counsellor or lawyer) registered with a relevant professional body must state that compassionate or compelling circumstances require you to take a study deferment, break or underload, depending on what you’re applying for.

They don’t need to give details about your trauma, but they must say when you were affected by this and for how long.

Statement from a counsellor

If you've been seeing a counsellor in an ongoing way about issues affecting your study, you can talk to your counsellor about completing a Health Professional Report (HPR) to support an application under compassionate and compelling circumstances.

Death notice or certificate

A death notice or certificate must state the full name of the deceased and their date of death. You’ll also need to provide evidence of your relationship with the deceased.

Police report

The police will determine the content of this report. If it doesn’t give enough detail to indicate how your circumstances have affected you, you’ll need to provide this information in an impact statement.

In some cases, you may need to provide a statutory declaration (or equivalent) as well as a police report.

Notification from external organisations

This includes obligations to defence services, Juries Commissioner’s Office and emergency services such as the Country Fire Authority. It can also include other civic obligations required by law in other countries.

You need to provide a letter from the appropriate authority (e.g. Army Reserve, Juries Commissioner’s Office or Country Fire Authority).

This letter must state the dates and nature of your obligation and how this requires you to take a study deferment, break or underload (depending on what you’re applying for). It should be on official letterhead, signed and dated.

Statutory declaration

A statutory declaration is a written statement that you (the declarant) sign and declare to be true and correct in the presence of an authorised witness. In the statutory declaration, you should declare and explain your specific circumstances and how they have affected you. You must also state when you were affected, and for how long.

A statutory declaration (or equivalent) must be signed and declared to be true and correct in the presence of an authorised witness. By signing it, you agree that the information in it is true. You can be charged with a criminal offence if the information is false.

To find out more about statutory declaration, including step-by-step instructions for obtaining a statutory declaration and details about who is authorised to witness it, visit the Victoria State Government web page.

Transferring universities

Offer letters

You need to have a valid offer letter from another registered Australian provider before we can approve your release.

If you’re under 18

Support from a legal guardian or sponsor

A copy of written approval or a letter from your parent or legal guardian supporting your transfer.

Accommodation and welfare documents

Your new education provider must accept responsibility for approving your accommodation, support and general welfare.

Support from government sponsors

Written support for the transfer from your government sponsor (if relevant).