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Chapter 19 — Student Offboarding

Overview

When a student leaves the group — through graduation, end of exchange, or any other departure — their access must be cleanly revoked and their in-progress work must be properly handed off.

An unmanaged departure creates orphaned branches, stale PRs, undocumented code, and knowledge gaps that slow the group for months.

Timeline: Start Two Weeks Before Departure

Offboarding should not happen on the last day. Begin two weeks before the student's final date.

Timeline Action
2 weeks before Identify all open work; assign handoff tasks
1 week before Complete handoff documentation; close or transfer all items
Last day Revoke access; final knowledge transfer conversation
After departure Archive student branches; verify backup

Step 1: Inventory Open Work

Find everything the student has open:

# List branches the student has pushed
git branch -r | grep -v HEAD

# On GitHub: filter Issues and PRs by assignee

For each open item, decide:

Item type Action
Merged PR Nothing to do
Open PR (reviewable) Merge before departure or transfer to another author
Open PR (unfinished work) Close with explanation; archive branch (see below)
Open Issue assigned to student Reassign to maintainer or another student
Branch with uncommitted work Student must commit and push before leaving

Step 2: Handoff Documentation

For any significant in-progress work, the departing student must write a handoff note. This can be a comment on the relevant Issue or PR, or a short document in docs/:

The note must include:

  • Current state of the work
  • What has been done and what remains
  • Any non-obvious context (numerical subtleties, failed approaches, physics assumptions)
  • Any relevant papers or derivations not yet referenced in the code

This documentation is the student's last scientific contribution to the project. Treat it seriously.

Step 3: Archive Unmerged Branches

Branches that contain useful but unfinished work should be archived as tags before being deleted:

# Tag the branch state for preservation
git tag archive/student-LASTNAME/feature-xyz feature/feature-xyz
git push origin archive/student-LASTNAME/feature-xyz

# Delete the branch from GitHub
git push origin --delete feature/feature-xyz

# Delete locally
git branch -d feature/feature-xyz

The tag archive/student-LASTNAME/feature-xyz is a permanent record that can be retrieved if the work is resumed later.

Step 4: Verify All Work Is Pushed

Ensure no work exists only on the student's local machine:

# Student runs this on their machine:
git push --all origin
git push --tags origin

Verify on GitHub that all expected branches and tags are present.

Step 5: Final Knowledge Transfer

Before access is revoked, have a 30-minute conversation covering:

  • Status of all in-progress work
  • Any domain knowledge not documented in the code
  • Passwords or shared credentials that need to be rotated
  • Any external collaborators the student was communicating with

Take notes. This conversation is the last opportunity to capture institutional knowledge.

Step 6: Revoke Access

On the student's last day:

For personal repository: Settings → Collaborators → [Student username] → Remove

For organisation teams: Organisation Settings → Teams → [Team name] → Members → Remove [Student]

Revocation does not delete the student's commits, PRs, or issue comments. Their contributions remain in the repository history permanently. Their name will appear in git log forever — which is appropriate attribution.

Step 7: Post-Departure

  • Remove from GitHub repository collaborators (if not already done)
  • Remove from group mailing lists and communication channels
  • Optionally: add to an alumni list in the group README
  • Rotate any shared credentials the student may have had access to

Offboarding Checklist

2 Weeks Before

  • All open PRs identified and action decided (merge, transfer, or close)
  • All open Issues reassigned
  • All active branches identified

1 Week Before

  • In-progress branches committed and pushed
  • Handoff documentation written for significant unfinished work
  • Unmerged but valuable branches archived as tags

Last Day

  • All work pushed (git push --all origin && git push --tags origin)
  • Knowledge transfer conversation completed and notes taken
  • GitHub access revoked

After Departure

  • Student removed from communication channels
  • Any shared credentials rotated
  • Final backup created (git bundle)
  • Repository reviewed for stale branches