Does anyone think that coursework deadline policies are too harsh?

Last year I had an essay to hand in, I did it well before the deadline. In fact, I did it so much earlier that I forgot to hand it in until 3 hours after the deadline had closed.

So I have been in the same situation, but I (and most people here) understand that most people hand-in late because they spent most of the time doing bugger all, then crammed it overnight, then the printers break the following morning and they miss the deadline.

Some people do simply work at their optimum last minute, this has always been the way for me. Even so, do you not find it slightly ridiculous that with a stringent no marks after the deadline rule, somebody who hands it in 2 hours late and somebody who hands it in a week late both get the same punishment? Graduated penalties make far more sense - after all, if somebody starts 48 hours before and puts a **** ton of effort in and misses it by an hour because of bad timing then 5 or 10% off is a good punishment to say, "this essay didn't get the mark it deserved because you cocked up slightly", rather than, "everything you did is now worth nothing".

It's a bit harsh imo, my uni is the same though. They used to have a 10% reduction for every week over the limit, but then people would deliberately hand in work later knowing that even with the 10% less marks they'd still get higher than they would have done if they rushed it last minute. My question was why leave it last minute then? But that's some students for you.

10% per week!? Surely that must be 10% per day.

I think the strict deadlines rules are good, if anything they should be stricter. Part of the requirement of doing well at university is being able to manage your time, so that you complete your work on time. People losing marks for not being able to do this is the only way to separate those who can, from those who can't/don't.

Having relaxed deadline punishments just defeats the purpose of having deadlines in the first place.

Well I don't see the difference I'm afraid

Think about it, the period of time you have to complete an essay is perhaps 1 or 2 weeks (ignoring the large gap of time they give you when they first tell you about the essay, if your degree is more focused on one-off essays rather than consistently grading you by them). 2 weeks is 14 * 24 hours, which is 336 hours. If you handed it in 2 hours late then you should've started it two hours earlier! The whole point of the penalty is to slap you awake, you shouldn't have a work ethic which is guaranteed to heap stress upon you as well as produce sub-standard work. University is just as much about time management as it is knowledge, and whether you're late because you didn't start in time, or you just didn't bother, or you're one of those meticulous people who edits and edits until it's too late, in the real world those deadlines are important so uni tries to make you respect them now

p.s. sorry if I sound a bit harsh, it's just there's so many people on my course who don't do the work until it's too late, and then are doing all-nighters for the last 3 days, hand it in 2 minutes before the deadline and then promptly go to sleep for the next two days. Whereas I'm pacing myself, eating well, sleeping well, and having no-one to talk to when I've done my essay because everyone else is locked in their room chugging red bull and writing furiously

Well today I finished my coursework just a few minutes late as the Uni said everything was submitted online/had printer problems but they said I will get no marks for it at all. I think that's very harsh & a better policy would be to take a mark away for every minute some goes over the deadline or something like that atm I just feel like all that effort was for nothing lol.

I'm well aware of what 'extenuating circumstances' covers. Those other problems you refer to can be resolved by simply asking for help/advice and starting early.