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We’re standardising assessment deadlines across the University

11 August 2025 · 2 min read
We’ve made a small, but important, change to assessment deadlines thanks to a suggestion made by our student representative body, the Student Senate.  

The Student Senate raised concerns that the time of day when assessments are due varied across the University and it was causing issues. 

From today, the deadline for nearly all your assessments will be midnight (or 11.59 to be really precise) on the relevant due date. None of your due dates will change—only the time of day.

What was the issue?

Students told the Student Senate that their deadline for one assessment might be 9 am, for another it could be 5 pm and another 11.59 pm. It was easy for students to assume the deadline was the same as last time, accidentally miss it and lose marks. And especially for our students juggling work and caring responsibilities, having those extra hours in the evening can make a big difference to their marks.

So, we could definitely see how the inconsistency was causing unnecessary problems and stress. 

We’ve listened

We’ve taken your concerns on board. Starting 11 August, the deadline for submitting nearly all assessments will be just before midnight at 11.59 pm. We’ve chosen the latest possible time to give you the maximum time to polish your work. 

Dealing with technical issues

If you have technical problems, make sure you’ve followed all the steps correctly first. There are instructions in Moodle’s Online Study Hub (you may need to enrol into the Hub first to use that link). 

We encourage you to submit your assessments inside business hours (Monday to Friday, 9 am – 5 pm). That way, if you experience any technical issues submitting your assessment, you can phone the ITS team on 1800 333 864. If it’s outside business hours, log a job with the ITS Service Desk, attaching screenshots of the error messages.

When we say ‘nearly all’ assessments

There’ll be a few exceptions to this rule. It won’t apply to online timed tests, assessments in practical settings, tutorial settings, and other scenarios. Any exemptions will be communicated to you by your unit coordinator or teacher.  

Have more suggestions?

Pushing for consistent deadlines is a great example of positive and successful advocacy by the Student Senate. If you have ideas about more improvements the University could make, have a chat with your Student Senate representative or drop them an email. They can investigate and put forward a case for change on your behalf.