“UCDSU President Conor Anderson took to the ‘No Detriment’ Facebook group on Monday night in light of the recent news that both UCC and Trinity have brought in new accommodations to assist students during the ongoing pandemic …” (more)
[Rosie Kuntz, College Tribune, 19 January]
“Northern Ireland’s two main universities have been urged to follow the lead of their counterparts in Great Britain and introduce a ‘no detriment’ policy to protect student grades against the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Alliance MLA Stewart Dickson said he has written to both academic institutions, asking them to follow the policy …” (more)
[Mark Bain, Belfast Telegraph, 13 January]
“In the midst of escalating case numbers and yet another lockdown, it would have been easy to miss the nugget of good news for students last week. After third-level students were yet again ignored in the announcement of lockdown restrictions, Trinity students had reasons for small celebration. College announced in an email that some of the mitigation measures, introduced last summer for exams, would remain in place for the upcoming examination season in recognition of the current ‘extremely difficult and stressful situation’ in which students have to try and study …” (more)
[University Times, 10 January]
“Trinity’s branch of the Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT) has said that mitigation measures for assessment should only be introduced in ‘exceptional’ circumstances and should not continue past the coronavirus crisis …” (more)
[Sárán Fogarty, University Times, 9 January]
“It is no secret that online learning has proven to have both advantages and disadvantages. Having the classroom ripped away from students has left many hunched over their laptops at home for what seems to be hours on end …” (more)
[Shannon McGreevy, Trinity News, 9 January]
“It’s the day before the start of the January examination period at Maynooth University so I thought I’d do a quick post on the topic of examinations or, as they are right now, online timed assessments. First, for readers elsewhere, full-time undergraduate students at Maynooth what is called 60 ‘credits’ in a year, usually split into two semesters of thirty credits each …” (more)
[In the Dark, 7 January]
“University College Cork (UCC) has reintroduced the No Academic Disadvantage measures for their upcoming examinations this January. All students received an email from the Interim Registrar Stephen Byrne on Wednesday stating that ‘in recognition of these exceptional circumstances’ the University has ‘reinstated the additional No Academic Disadvantage” policy and these measures “will apply for the full academic year 2020/2021’ …” (more)
[Fiona Keeley, University Express, 6 January]
“For people who are in their fourth year of college or have been in Trinity for four years, they will have now studied under a total of three different exam structures; the most recent being exams after Christmas. This new exam structure was implemented after the coronavirus pandemic shut college down a number of weeks early last year and forced the majority of teaching and mentoring online …” (more)
[Phoebe Otway-Norwood, Trinity News, 1 January]
“The health risks posed by COVID-19 mean most Canadian university classes are online this year. As a result, some students will write exams online via remote proctoring platforms that surveil their activities. These tools go by names like ProctorU, Examity, Respondus and Proctorio, among others. Designed by for-profit tech startups, they monitor students’ laptops, tablets or phones during the course of an exam …” (more)
[Bonnie Stewart, The Conversation, 3 December]
“A lack of student support and anger around the ‘No Detriment’ policy is the the reason the University College Dublin Students’ Union (UCD SU) will no longer push for the Covid-19 Assessment Guidelines to be extended into this exam season, according to SU President Conor Anderson …” (more)
[Stephen Kisbey-Green, College Tribune, 1 December]
“Trinity’s Senior Lecturer Kevin Mitchell is proposing that College does not bring in any emergency measures for the upcoming exam period similar to those introduced for last year’s summer exams. Mitchell said that College ‘will certainly employ a sympathetic approach and increased level of flexibility’ for individual cases due to the ongoing pandemic …” (more)
[University Times, 25 November]
“The sudden onset of Covid-19 in early March required a rapid re-think of how normal assessment processes would work from home. Temporary measures were put in place to address the added pressure of the pandemic to the summer exam season, but UCC has made the decision to rescind such measures for this academic year …” (more)
[Maeve McTaggart, University Express, 24 November]
“In light of Covid-19 disruptions to the college calendar, University Management have made the decision that the previous provisional results period will not be held allowing students to freely repeal their grades in a formal two week window before final results …” (more)
[Eve Moore, College Tribune, 17 November]
“On Friday I finished correcting the batch of Repeat examinations that were within my remit. I think the other staff have done likewise. All the marks now get uploaded and cross-checked and before another meeting of the Exam Board the year’s examination process to an end …” (more)
[In the Dark, 23 August]
“A Sinn Féin TD has urged NUI Galway to reverse its decision to charge students almost €300 for each repeat exam. Mayo TD Rose Conway-Walsh said that any fees charge must reflect the costs involved and the changed circumstances of students …” (more)
[Michael Malone, Galway Daily, 14 August]
“So here I am in my office while the first batch of our repeat examinations gets under way here in Maynooth. They seem to have started correctly so I’ve taken a break to have a cup of coffee and catch up on the news …” (more)
[In the Dark, 12 August]
“Timed written examinations continue to dominate university assessment. In most professions, the need to recall and write down specific information from memory under timed conditions is rare. Yet every year across the world students are crammed into exam halls to do just that …” (more)
[Naomi Winstone and David Boud, The Conversation, 11 August]
“Trinity incorrectly informed 13 students studying TSM or joint-honours courses that they would have to repeat exams, after complications arose over the marking of students’ grades this year …” (more)
[Cormac Watson, University Times, 24 July]
“Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reason some colleges are charging a repeat exam fee and most other colleges are not (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter …” (more)
[Dáil written answers, 21 July]
“Despite University College Dublin’s (UCD) and the Students’ Union’s (SU) claim that no students, particularly final year students, would be left disadvantaged by the implications of COVID-19, some students have exited college with below expected grades. One such student, who asked not to be named, spoke to The College Tribune to share his story as a final year law student …” (more)
[Adam O’Sullivan, College Tribune, 21 July]
