Annual leave

The annual leave year, for both the accrual and taking of leave, is 1 January to 31 December.

Taking annual leave

It is always important for the health and wellbeing of employees that they take leave from work, which is why we encourage colleagues to take all their annual leave during the leave year. 

The leave entitlement for full-time staff employed all year is as follows:

Grade A to D:  284.7 hours (39 days) inclusive of bank holidays and closure days.
Grade E+:  299.3 hours (41 days) inclusive of bank holidays and closure days.

The number of discretionary hours (days) available to book will depend on the number of bank holidays and closure days that fall on your working days.

For part-time staff working fewer days or hours, leave entitlement is proportionate. You can calculate your pro-rata leave entitlement with our Annual Leave Calculator 2023‌. 

Compressed hours is a type of flexible working arrangement that allows you to condense your total working hours into fewer days.

For instance, you could complete your full-time hours of 36.5 hours per week over 4 days, working 9.125 hours per day (the fifth day would be a non-working day) or you could work a 9 day fortnight, working 8.11 hours per day for 9 days (the tenth day would be a non-working day).

Your holiday allowance is not changed if you worked compressed hours. This is because you still complete the equivalent hours of a standard week (36.5 hours per week). However, the value of a day’s holiday deduction varies depending on the number of hours worked on that day.

Example

 
Weekly working hours
Working pattern 
Daily hours worked
Hours deducted from your annual leave allowance if taking one week's annual leave
Person A     36.5hrs Five days a week, every week 7.3 36.5hrs
Person B 36.5hrs 9-day fortnight (compressed hours) 8.11

40.55hrs or 32.44hrs (depending on whether the non-working day is part of the week on leave)

Person C 36.5hrs 4-day week (compressed hours 9.12 36.48hrs

 

The annual leave entitlement for staff joining or leaving the employment of the University during the course of the year is proportionate to their completed service during the leave year. Use our Annual Leave Calculator 2024 to help you calculate these part-year entitlements.

Use our annual leave calculators to help you calculate annual leave entitlement for part-time employees and staff who join/leave mid year.‌

Annual Leave Calculator 2024

Annual Leave Calculator 2025

Annual Leave Calculator 2023

Confused by decimals in iTrent and wondering how they convert to minutes? You are not alone. Please use this guide to help you -  A guide: decimal to minutes

The procedure for booking annual leave in your College or Service will be explained to you by your line manager during the first week of your induction.  Staff are encouraged to book annual leave via Trent Self Service and we strongly recommend you use this system.  Your Line Manager will advise you of any changes to this procedure.  You should review your annual leave records on iTrent and report any errors to your manager or discussing them with the PS Connect HR helpdesk by calling 01392 726981 and pressing option 2 or by visiting the PS Connect Portal. This includes ensuring that your working pattern is recorded on Trent correctly as this will affect your annual leave balance.

It is not recommended that you use Trent to record your annual leave if you have no fixed working pattern and in these cases it is vital you keep a record of your annual leave so any outstanding, untaken annual leave can be paid to you if/when you leave the University. 

The timing of leave is by agreement with the relevant Manager/Head who will take into account both individual preferences and operational requirements. 

Staff in academic roles

Staff in the Education and Research and the Education and Scholarship job families will normally take their leave during University vacations. Leave will not normally be permitted during term-time. See the holidays section on the terms and conditions pages for full details.

Term-time staff

For staff working term-time only, their annual salary includes their pro-rata paid leave entitlement, to be taken on unspecified days during the vacation periods. Leave may not be taken during term-time.

Staff are expected to take their leave in the leave year in which it is accrued. While there is no entitlement to carry forward leave, where it is not possible (eg for operational reasons) for employees to take all their leave entitlement, they may - with the permission of their Pro Vice Chancellor/Head of Service or delegate - carry forward up to 36.5 hours (pro rata) leave to the following year. Your manager will be asked about this in an email from HR in November each year. You do not need to take any action.   

Any leave carried forward should be taken by 30 April in the following year or it will be lost. If a member of staff has more than 36.5 hours (pro rata) outstanding at the end of a year, the excess over and above 36.5 hours will be lost. There is no entitlement for payment in lieu of untaken leave. 

In exceptional circumstances, with the approval of the Pro-Vice-Chancellor/Director of Service, employees may be able to carry forward more than 36.5 hours (pro rata).  

Any adjustments to your holiday allowance (including the approved carry forward of leave, or the carry forward of a negative leave balance) will be automatically added to your annual leave records by mid January 

There is no change to the following arrangements: 

  • An employee leaving the University who has not taken both their pro-rata holiday entitlement for the year and leave carried forward from the previous year will be expected to take this leave during their notice period, where this is operationally possible. 

  • Employees who are on sick leave at reduced sick pay can continue to book a period of their sick leave as annual leave (and receive holiday pay at their full-time rate), but there is no requirement that they must do so. 

  • Employees who are not normally permitted to take annual leave during term-time will continue to be required to take their carry forward leave outside of term-time. 

(This page was updated on 19 October 2023) 

To meet operational requirements, the University may require staff to work on a designated closure day, in which case alternative paid leave will be provided, to be taken by agreement with management, and no additional payment will be made. Staff in grades A to D may qualify for additional payment when they are required to work on a closure day in addition to their normal working week

Where attendance on a bank/public holiday is required, the University will in the first instance seek volunteers, subject to the right of the University to require staff to work on bank/public holidays to meet its operational requirements of the University where insufficient volunteers are available. Where staff are rostered to work on a bank/public holiday, the University will manage the rosters so that bank/public holiday working is evenly shared among staff. Where staff are required to work on a bank/public holiday within their normal working week, alternative paid leave will be provided, to be taken by agreement with management, and no additional payment will be made. Staff in grades A to D may qualify for additional payment when they are required to work on a bank/public holiday in addition to their normal working week.

The Bank Holiday and Christmas/New Year closure arrangements for 2024 will be as follows:

1 January 2024 Monday Bank Holiday
29 March 2024 Friday Bank Holiday
1 April 2024 Monday Bank Holiday
6 May 2024 Monday Bank Holiday
27 May 2024 Monday Bank Holiday
26 August 2024 Monday Bank Holiday
25 December 2024 Wednesday Bank Holiday
26 December 2024 Thursday Bank Holiday
27 December 2024 Friday University Closure
28 December 2024 Saturday University Closure
29 December 2024 Sunday University Closure
30 December 2024 Monday University Closure
31 December 2024 Tuesday University Closure

(Different arrangements for bank/public holidays may apply to staff based overseas: for more information contact globalemployment@exeter.ac.uk)

Please note, when Christmas Day falls on either a Tuesday or a Thursday, to avoid campuses being open for a single day (ie either Christmas Eve or 2 January) the University reserves the right to determine when one day of leave is to be taken.

The Bank Holiday and Christmas/New Year closure arrangements for 2025 will be as follows: 

1 January 2025 Wednesday Bank Holiday 
18 April 2025 Friday Bank Holiday 
21 April 2025 Monday Bank Holiday 
5 May 2025 Monday Bank Holiday 
26 May 2025 Monday Bank Holiday 
25 August 2025 Monday Bank Holiday 
25 December 2025 Thursday Bank Holiday 
26 December 2025 Friday Bank Holiday 
27 December 2025 Saturday University Closure
28 December 2025 Sunday University Closure
29 December 2025 Monday University Closure
30 December 2025 Tuesday University Closure
31 December 2025 Wednesday University Closure

(Different arrangements for bank/public holidays may apply to staff based overseas: for more information contact globalemployment@exeter.ac.uk) 

Please note, when Christmas Day falls on either a Tuesday or a Thursday, to avoid campuses being open for a single day (ie either Christmas Eve or 2 January) the University reserves the right to determine when one day of leave is to be taken. 

Reservists of the UK Armed Forces or Cadet Force Adult Volunteers are eligible for two weeks (73 hrs) of additional paid leave (pro rata for part time staff) as of 1st Jan 2024 if they are required to attend summer camps for training. This is in addition to the member of staff's normal leave entitlement.

Please see  Reserve Forces and Mobilisation for additional information. 

The university will seek to provide flexibility on the timing of annual leave for university staff who are partners of Service personnel before, during and after their partner’s deployment, subject to operational requirements. The university will consider allowing the employee to take an extended period of leave (from their standard annual entitlement) and/or allow leave to be carried forward into the following year or brought forward from the following year, subject to operational requirements. Please ensure you have discussed and agreed with your manager before taking the leave. You may need to discuss this with your HR contact to ensure it is reflected in itrent.

For more information on the support offered by the university please read the Armed Forces Covenant.