Two Bristol Biomed exams annulled due to University errors

All students involved were given 0%


Due to administrative errors by the university, two Biomed exams were declared null and void by the educational authorities after students had sat them.

The exams were part of BREES, the ‘employability skills’ program.

Due to the exam abstract being available ahead of time, all students who sat the January exam were given 0 % and the paper was declared no longer part of their final grade and would merely be ‘formative’.

More recently, a paper within the same unit which had the wrong date on it was also voided and students were given 0%

No apology was given to the students apart from a passing comment in a lecture and all their hard work went to waste.

An anonymous Biomed student said that “students had sacrificed other work to revise for the exam and had pulled all-nighters to work on it. We all believe the ‘enterprise’ and ‘research’ elements of BREES are a waste of time as well as stressful.”

Another student also expressed his dismay:

“This year has felt like a waste of our time. Issues with IT would never be a valid excuse in industry for missing a deadline, I don’t see why we should have to put up with it as an excuse for losing marks that we have worked for.”

One would think, for £9000 a year per student, the dozens of admin and support staff could do better. Apparently not.