I am the supervisor of an M Phil student who has extended his period of study twice. He's supposed to finally hand in his thesis today. Half an hour ago, our dept clerk called to relay an urgent message from registry, saying that he hasn't handed in anything yet.

I said "It's still early, he will probably hand it in at 4:59pm".

"Are you sure? Shall we call him just to make sure he hasn't forgotten?"

"He knows he is handing it in today - it should be no problem."

"Okay then, but I think I will give him a call, just to make sure he hasn't forgotten."


Now, saying all this, of course I don't know for sure about ANYTHING really. And judging from his past antics, I won't be falling off my chair with surprise if he doesn't hand in anything at all and then proceed to send me a five page rambling email about why he is in this sorry mess.