Criminology third years were given the wrong exam paper

On Monday, third year Criminology students were faced with everyone's worst nightmare: Being given the wrong exam paper.

Candidates in a third year Criminology module granted extra time were given the correct paper, while those without extra time were given the paper many speculated was intended for August resits.

One of the paper's two essay questions "combined" two topics in a way that hadn’t been covered in the module, meaning students who hadn't revised enough topics were forced to reuse information from the same topic across both questions.

The department later emailed students to acknowledge the mix-up, and claimed none of the tutors were responsible. The email also assured students they would not be disadvantaged by the mistake.

The department also claims to "have no idea" how the mishap occurred, and told students they would be investigating the matter.

A later email from the head of teaching programs told informed students the marks would be looked at "to determine impact," and would mitigate any negative effect this might have, were any to be found.

Students have been emailing their student office, who have been unable to tell them what actions, if any, will be taken.

Nothing can be done until the exams have been marked, at which point the University will be able to see the impact that the different exam paper had.

Students have been told not to individually apply for special considerations, as the situation is being investigated for the module as a whole.

One Crushampton commenter said that the exam paper contained content that had not been taught. Another said the exam “was harder, but do-able”, whilst others have been calling the mistake “awful”, and an “absolute mess”.

An email from the head of teaching programs told students: "We are sorry about the problem with the exam many of you faced yesterday.

"This has now been investigated and and an administrative error was made after the module convenor submitted the correct exam to the student office. The student office wishes to apologise for this error and the concern it has caused you.

The marks [of the exam] will be scrutinised very carefully to determine impact. If this is detected there are procedures in place by which it can be mitigated."

A University of Southampton spokesman told the Soton Tab:

"We can confirm that students studying the same module received two different exam papers, one was the intended paper and the other was a supplementary paper prepared for students who need to resit the exam in September.

"We have apologised to all students affected and will determine whether any further action is required when all papers have been marked. The questions on both exam papers were based on the content that the students have studied over the past semester".