Student parties at the law faculty are worried about the transition to digital exams. They fear this may lead to worse exam results.
Previously, students took exams digitally but received the questions on paper. However, on November 10, the examination board announced that from the upcoming academic block onward, exams will be entirely digital.
Incident
This decision follows an incident concerning the electronic contract law exam. The exam questions, printed elsewhere by Canon, ended up in the mailbox of a student association by mistake.
The examination board says that because of this, it can’t ensure the quality of assessments anymore. Moreover, the digitisation of exams might also result in cost savings.
Marking text
Concerns about the transition are evident from surveys that student parties PR (Progressief Rechten) and TBR (Ten Behoeve van Rechtenstudenten) conducted among law students. A majority prefers having exam questions on paper.
‘In law studies, exams involve a lot of reading comprehension’, says Zahra Farshchi with PR. ‘You encounter case studies of 300 to 500 words, and you have to comment on them. With paper exams, you can easily mark words and add notes, but you can’t do that in a digital environment.’
Covid
Farshchi doesn’t believe that comparing this situation to the period during Covid, when exams were also digital, is appropriate. ‘Back then, exams were taken at home, and you had many more resources available, like the textbook. Those resources are not available now.’
Measures
In response to students’ objections, PR and TBR advocate for several measures. They propose allowing text highlighting in digital exams and including an option for easy switching between questions and answers. Additionally, they call for extra time for the first digital exam week and the provision of a digital practice exam.
Dean of law Wilbert Kolkman and education director Jaap Dijkstra promised in the faculty council meeting to consider the parties’ demands.