Some students at Dunaskin Mill forced to vacate their flats during exam season

On Friday afternoon, students at Dunaskin Mill were made aware that some of them would need to vacate their flats during exam season.

Beginning on the 2nd of May 2023, internal and external building works are taking place at the student halls. The mandatory work will be happening for 12-14 months, significantly impacting the student experience. It is expected that the work will be block by block, each block taking two months to be completed.

According to the email: “There will be access required to every bedroom, kitchen, hallway. Access will be over a two-day period from the hours of 10am-5.30pm. During this time, you will need to be vacant from your room, to allow the contractors (to carry out) out the works.”

The email students received

However, the first part of the work being carried out is happening during the height of exam season, when the vast majority of exams are being held online. With the library busier than ever, students have voiced concern as to how they will be able to sit their online exams. If they are unable to find a space in the library and cannot study in their flats, there leaves very little option of where to sit the exam.

As one student jokes, maybe they’ll have to sit their exam “in a local cafe”.

The student goes on to mention how many of their flatmates are impacted, with almost all of them having an exam on those days.

What makes this announcement particularly concerning is that students were given very little warning, with the exams a mere few weeks away. The majority of students are international students, too, which means they will be unable to return home to do the exam.

A representative for Dunaskin Mill stated:

“It will not be every room being worked on, on the same day, this means we will be able to allocate quiet space for the residents temporarily displaced from their rooms whilst this mandatory work is being carried out. As stated in the email below we will be carrying out drop-in sessions to go over this with residents who will be staying here during the duration of the works to cover any questions they will have.”

Whilst allocating a quiet space for students could be of some help, it is still not an ideal measure. In fact, this could cause even more stress. If a student is sitting a timed exam, not knowing when they’ll have to vacate their room for a quiet space… It doesn’t exactly give ideal exam conditions.

Dunaskin Mill have acknowledged the disruption these works will cause and have offered students the chance to cancel their bookings for September and receive a refund on their deposit.

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