The Latin word exeat ("he/she may leave") is most commonly used to describe a period of absence from a centre of learning.[1] Exeat is used in Britain to describe weekend leave from a boarding school.[2] It is also used at certain colleges to define a required note to take absence from school either for entire days, or parts of a day for appointments, interviews, open days and other fixtures.[3] Students at Oxford University[4] and Cambridge University and other British universities must also obtain permission to leave college.[5]
A similar method of exeat notifications is used in many Commonwealth schools.[6] It is common for Australian schools to call the long weekends of leave enjoyed by boarders an exeat weekend. This results in the boarding house closing for the weekend. This typically involves an extra day of leave associated with a public holiday to create a long weekend.[7] In New Zealand an exeat may refer to a period of day leave from a school. This is used as a way to record the coming and going of students from the campus.[8]