History students are raging after exam scheduled for same day as extended dissertation deadline

Seriously though, what IS history??


Due to COVID-19, Cardiff Uni history students had their dissertation deadlines pushed back from May 4th to May 12th, to ease the stress and anxiety that comes at this time. However, this didn’t stop the School of History, Archaeology and Religion (SHARE) putting exams the day before, on and the day after their dissertation is due.

This now means that history students working to complete their dissertation by the 12th will now need to ignore the extended date and bring their work forward, in order to properly prepare for their exams. Dissertations have already been disrupted with the library closures, which were only announced to students just three hours before they closed their doors.

SHARE also pushed back the exam timetable release date to today due to the school needing extra time to work it out. However, despite the uni reassuring students that they will ‘look after’ them in terms of assessments, third years have taken to Twitter and group-chats to express their disappointment, stress and the pressure they now feel to complete major assessments within days of one another.

Chris believes the diss extension is now void

The Tab Cardiff spoke to several history students, who all have an exam on or the day before their dissertations are due.

Chris, an Academic Rep for SHARE said: “This puts students at a disadvantage by causing even more stress at this time of national crisis. Furthermore, this timetable is drastically unfair on those students who are impacted by pre-dissertation deadline exams who are expected to juggle the same workload as those students who do not have exams so early but with significantly less time. It is wholly unrealistic and unreasonable to expect students to be able to revise at the same time they are writing up and finalising the longest piece of assessment of their undergraduate careers.

“I call on the University to take decisive action to rectify this shambolic timetable immediately or risk facing many student complaints and a damaged reputation for years to come. People will not forget how organisations behaved in this time of crisis, I urge them not to underestimate their students.”

Another history student, Alex said: “Finding out I have an exam the day before the dissertation is due has added to already an incredible amount of stress I am feeling and completely ruined my schedule for getting my diss done.

“On top of strikes and COVID-19, it feels like a massive kick in the teeth from the uni. The timetables also being released less than three weeks before the start of exams is a joke and not enough time for students, like me with dissertation, to revise properly.”

Matt, another history student told The Cardiff Tab:”The allocation of my exam dates has made me extremely annoyed as it appears that the university has arbitrarily decided on these dates, as it is not as if they need to book an exam hall. These exam dates also intrude on the dissertation extension given to compensate for COVID-19 complications, completely defeating the whole point of the extension in the first place.

“The uni says that the extension should be used to focus on my dissertation yet they hold exams in the middle of it. It makes no sense whatsoever.”

With COVID-19 and strike action (which occurred at the beginning of the year), many third year students are concerned with the number of teaching weeks they have lost. Placing exams on the same day their dissertations are due seems like the final straw for Cardiff uni history students.

The Cardiff Tab have requested a response from the university and will update this article. 

If you are concerned about coronavirus, you can find more help and guidance here.

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