Uni officials tell complaining students exam timetables won’t get any better

Angry students have received an email from the university warning them exam timetables can no longer be changed – despite the Union encouraging them to complain.

It comes after the university released a second timetable on 16th March to resolve issues in original schedules, which left some students with more than one exam per day.

Following complaints from students, the Union held a formal meeting and those affected were told to contact the Exam Administration Team.

Bruno King, a final year Politics and International Relations student, told us he’d been “screwed over”. His original exams were scheduled for the 28th May and 4th June.

However, the timetable change meant his exams were moved forward to April 28th and 29th, with his dissertation due in on 27th and a 5000-word assessment on 30th.

Bruno said: “If I had known about the exam timetable sooner I would have planned the time for my dissertation writing accordingly, but now I just have to do it all in two weeks.”

He attended the Union’s meeting to discuss complaints about the timetable, where he was told with sympathy by the Undergraduate Education Officer – who admitted Bruno’s was the worst timetable he had seen – that there was nothing he could do as “unfortunately they are not breaking any university policies”.

Finn Dean, another final year International Relations student, said: “This late and drastic change to my timetable will have a serious effect on my ability to study. All three high-value pieces of work are due within days of each other.

“Considering it’s my last year you think they could try and give third years a slightly easier time in this very important period, rather than stacking everything within four days early in the exam season.”

Those who emailed the university were given no alternative, with the university explaining why the changes had to be made before wishing students luck.

Undergraduate Education Officer Connor Rand said: “It’s clear wholesale changes to the timetable are unachievable and would be unwise, but in my open letter to Neil Ward this afternoon I have asked the University to continue to look at the situation for specific and often small cohorts, where changes to accommodate improvements in their timetabling may still be possible, for instance to avoid dissertation clashes.

“I continue to receive regular student comments about how unfair their timetable is, in terms of dissertation and coursework clashes and exam bunching, often with comparisons to the first timetable.

“In the past the university has been very open to taking up suggested Union improvements, for example around earlier release of exam timetables and no two exams on the same day for any student where logistically possible.

“I hope we can again work in partnership to deliver improvements for students, both in the short and longer term, and so the mishaps around this year’s timetable are never repeated.”