Cardiff Uni schools are cancelling exams and extending deadlines

Emails have been sent to students explaining these changes


ENCAP (School of English, Communications and Philosophy) have cancelled examinations in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

The school recently sent out an email to students which also notified them that any current deadlines are extended by two weeks. Exams will be replaced with new coursework or changes to the proportion of current assessments.

A general email was sent this morning detailing the changes, but students have been told they will be informed about them by their module leaders in due time.

In the email sent by Martin Willis, Head of ENCAP, he has said that students will have “a 2 week extension on the present deadline for your end of semester coursework”. He also stated in the email that all exams “will be cancelled and will either become a piece of coursework or will be subsumed within an existing final piece of coursework.”

The school has made it clear that these decisions were not made lightly.

An email sent to final year students has highlighted that their principal aim is to make sure that final year students are able to graduate at the appropriate time, “even though [they] will not be able to celebrate that together at the Summer graduation ceremony as normal”. These changes are specific to the school of ENCAP, while other schools have made different changes.

SHARE (School of History, Archaeology, and Religion), have currently made the decision to move examinations online. However, no more details have been given to students on the subject.

The changes are becoming extremely stressful, particularly for joint-honours students as the changes are being made for each school, leaving those who are part of two schools feeling more stressed and confused.

The Cardiff Tab spoke to students who take joint honour degrees where both sides of the degree are taken in different schools:

“It’s really frustrating how one school does one thing and another does something totally different. Things are stressful enough as it is and you’d think the uni would be trying to make things consistent across the board.”

The frustration is ongoing for students where a lack of consistency in the changes being made to their assessments and examinations are not communicated between schools.

“It is hard to know what to do because the school sends emails out telling us to look after our health and well-being but how are we meant to do that when we are stressing over essays, dissertations and exams? It is hard to know where the uni stands with schools sending different information to their students.”

Have you been directly affected by coronavirus? Email tips to [email protected] 

If you suspect you have coronavirus, you should phone NHS Direct Wales on 0845 46 47 or 111 for advice. 

Recommended stories by this writer: 

Cardiff psychiatry lecturer gives his top tips on staying sane during self-quarantine 

Cardiff University schools tell students that physical exams will not take place 

COVID-19 crisis postpones Cardiff Medics’ assessments until next academic year