College has released their No Detriment package of measures for academic year 2020/21. You can read their official version here, but we thought we'd write about it as well, and include some examples, to make sure all students understand what their rights are and what to expect with this new package coming into effect.
Mitigating circumstances
During the pandemic, it can be quite difficult to obtain evidence for any case of mitigating circumstances. The College has instructed departments to accept self-certified mitigating circumstances claims where evidence can't be reasonably obtained by you. We have also worked with the College to put together an infographic explaining the process in more detail and making it clear what the possible outcomes are.
We have had quite a few emails from students telling us about their individual circumstances that are affecting their ability to study or do well in exams - for example, due to high levels of anxiety, having to take care of younger siblings, or because they don't have access to a proper study space. If you think you have also been negatively impacted, please make sure you apply for mitigating circumstances with your department - it is really important that they know about your individual situation to ensure you are not unfairly disadvantaged during assessments.
If you need any help, please get in touch with our Advice Centre to book a free appointment.
Students in different time zones
In the past, students in different time zones were asked to take exams at the same time as everyone in the UK. This meant that some students, especially those in the Americas, New Zealand or Australia were forced to take their exams in the middle of the night. While this only affected a small number of students, we thought it was important to ensure every single student can take exams at a reasonable time. We lobbied the College to allow students to take their exams a few hours later if the normal exam time falls outside of reasonable hours.
How will this work?
Shervin comes from the US and has been spending the pandemic with his parents in New York (EST time zone, GMT-05) while he studies remotely. His two-hour exam is scheduled for 10AM GMT, which means he would have to start taking it at 5AM local time. Instead, his department will arrange for him to start this exam 3 hours after everyone else, at 8AM EST. He will only be given two hours to complete his exam, just like everyone else, and the department might also ask him to sign an honour code.
First year students
We have successfully lobbied the College to introduce the same measures for first-year undergraduate students as last year. This means that when current first year students graduate in a few years, their first-year mark will count towards 7.5% of their degree if it increases their overall average, and will count for 0% if it decreases it.
How will this work? Example 1:
Michaela is a first-year Chemistry student in 2020/21. In her first-year exams she got 63%. She is graduating with a BSc in 2023, and her second and third-year average is 71%. Because her first-year mark was worse than the rest of her results, it does not count towards her degree classification, and she is given 71% as her degree mark.
How will this work? Example 2:
Abhijay is a first-year Computing student in 2020/21. In his first year exams he got 83%. He is graduating with a MEng in 2024, and his second, third and fourth-year average is 69%. Because his first-year mark was higher than the rest of his results, it counts for 7.5% of his degree, and he is therefore given 70% as his degree mark.
Exam resits
In the past, many postgraduate and final year undergraduate students were not offered the option of in-year resits. This meant that if they failed their summer exams, or if they could not take them for whatever reason, they had to wait another year for their next attempt, putting their further studies or jobs on hold. This year, we have successfully lobbied the College to commit to ensuring every student, including PGT students, will be offered an in-year resit, meaning that they will be able to take their exams in August or September if they could not sit them or pass them the first time. PGT students who still work on their projects in September and would prefer to take their exams in the following academic year instead will still be offered the option.
For the first time the College has also promised to scrap fees for in-year resits, so no one will have to pay for having a second go at their exams in the same academic year. We expect this change to continue even after COVID is over.
Cohort-wide “safety net”
We have heard from many of you that you are worried about everyone's productivity being impacted by the pandemic, and even that you felt like some exams have been made much more difficult. While some departments already have some scaling mechanisms in place to ensure that a given cohort does not perform much worse than cohorts in previous years, we felt that there is a need for a more uniform, College-wide rule, ensuring that students still do well overall.
We have negotiated with the College a "safety net", which is to be applied at a cohort level (i.e. a year group on a given course or a Master’s programme). Every department will ensure that the number of first-class marks or distinctions (70% or more) awarded in a given cohort will be the same or better than in the three pre-pandemic years.
How will this work? Example 1:
The marks of a cohort of 150 fourth-year Physics students are being considered at the exam board. After the initial marks are calculated, 68 students got a first-class degree. In the three years before the pandemic, the percentages of first-class degrees for fourth-year Physics students were 54%, 47% and 49% - an average of 50%. The cohort-wide safety net therefore dictates that at least 75 students should be receiving a first-class degree this year. To match this, the results of every student in the cohort are scaled up, bringing 7 students from a 2.1 into a first class.
How will this work? Example 2:
The marks of a cohort of 80 second-year ESE students are being considered at the exam board. After the initial marks are calculated, 32 students scored above 70%. In the three years before the pandemic, the percentages of students getting more than 70% in second-year ESE were 34%, 41% and 36% - an average of 37%. The cohort-wide safety net therefore dictates that at least 30 students should be scoring above 70% this year. Since 32 students are already getting above 70% after the initial marks were calculated, no scaling is applied.
Exam practice questions
On top of all of this, departments are still asked to provide practice questions for all exams – our recommendation is to release them no later than 5 weeks before the exam. Please get in touch with your reps if a lecturer does not provide any practice questions for your course. This is not a part of College's No Detriment package, but we thought we'd remind you anyway, since we found out that not all departments have been providing exam practice questions despite being expected to.
What about my individual safety net?
The College and indeed the whole sector have made it painfully clear that they will not be implementing the same individual safety net as last year. They believe it is impossible to introduce it because of the lack of data for a lot of students (e.g. someone who is graduating with a BSc this year could finish their degree with only their first-year mark counting), and they see less of a need for it because there has not been a very last minute change of assessments like last year. As far as we know, no other university in the UK has implemented the same kind of safety net policy as last year.
We understand that a lot of your individual circumstances made it very difficult, maybe even worse than last year, to study and perform in your exams. We know it’s not a perfect solution, but we really want to encourage you to apply for mitigating circumstances if you feel this has been the case.
We are still talking to the College about how else they can make sure you are not unfairly disadvantaged this year. Please get in touch if you think there is something specific we should be lobbying for.