Bristol Uni: ‘No student will be disadvantaged’ by exam failure after student protest

University apologise following online exam failure one student described as ‘a complete and utter shitshow’


Bristol Uni have told students who couldn’t access their online exams this morning that they will not “be disadvantaged in assessments due to these issues”.

The university issued the statement after more than 50 Engineering students protested outside the Queen’s Building following their disrupted exam this morning which one student bluntly described as “a complete and utter shitshow”.

The online exam portal, Blackboard, went offline this morning shortly before students were scheduled to sit their exams. Many exams were delayed until 12pm noon by which time the site was active again or had their exam cancelled and rescheduled for later in the exam period.

Despite needing A*AA to study Engineering, one student had a rather simple solution to the disruption to his exams

Engineering students were left angry by the decision to reschedule exams later in the assessment period as they feel this will interfere with their revision for their other exams.

John, a second year Engineering student, explained: “We have two days between this exam and our next one. The problem is, by rescheduling this exam into the current exam period, it takes a lot of time away from time we previously would have been spending revising for other exams.

“We’ve had seven days to prepare for this first exam. What lots of students have done is structure all their revision around their timetable.

“With more time for this exam, we were banking on getting a better score. The very short amount of time we have before our next exam, [and therefore] the lower grade we would get, would be accommodated by this first exam”.

Students are also angry after many were eventually able to access their exams and began completing them before being told their efforts were pointless because they’d been cancelled and rearranged. Aiden, another second year Engineering student, told The Bristol Tab he was “an hour and 45 minutes into his exam” before receiving an email saying it had been cancelled.

Bristol Uni have apologised to students for today’s disruption. In a statement to The Bristol Tab, a university spokesperson said: “We acknowledge the stress and anxiety this morning’s outage has caused and apologise for the disruption.

“No student will be disadvantaged in assessments due to these issues. If you were affected, your School Office will be in touch with further information”.

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