King’s students start a petition for a no-detriment exam policy

Students of King’s College London have created a petition asking for the university to implement a no-detriment policy for KCL university assessments.

On March 26, the university emailed students explaining that first year modules will not contribute to students’ degrees and progression to second year will be on a pass/fail basis. However, second and third year exams will still contribute to their degree.

The University of Exeter and University of Edinburgh have already implemented this policy. As a result, as long as students pass their exams, “their average will remain the same as, or higher than” the average they have already achieved.

The petition asks King’s to “follow in the footsteps” of these other universities and states:

“This petition is asking King’s College London to take into account these extraordinary and unprecedented conditions, with the introduction of a no-detriment policy.”

“Many students will be struggling to study due to lack of appropriate working environments and resources, as well as being negatively impacted by mental or physical illness during this terrifying time.”

“This no-detriment policy is necessary to ensure an equitable chance at achievement for all students.”

“This no-detriment policy would mean that students would still have to participate in end of year assessments, but without the fear that this will negatively impact the grades we have worked so hard towards during our time at university.”

“This would mean that as long as students obtain the pass mark of 40 in further assessments, their average will remain the same as, or higher than, the average already attained. If students achieve higher than their current average in further assessments, then they can still raise their final mark.”

The petition was started 24 hours ago and has already received 1,852 signatures at the time of writing.

The petition can be found here.

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