Third chance for students who are unable to sit FSE exam
‘Aletta Jacobs hall is safe’
Third chance for students unable to sit FSE exam
Door Christien Boomsma
By Christien Boomsma
Christien Boomsma
Christien is sinds 2016 achtergrondcoördinator bij UKrant. Ze plant de achtergrondverhalen en begeleidt de auteurs. Bij haar eigen verhalen ligt de focus op wetenschap en academisch leven. Daarnaast schrijft ze veel over onderwerpen als sociale veiligheid en maakt ze graag persoonlijke interviews. In haar vrije tijd schrijft ze jeugdboeken en geeft schrijftrainingen.Students at the science faculty have been worried. Some of them have said that they wouldn’t feel safe sitting exams in the Aletta Jacobs hall with three hundred others. Others were unhappy that they wouldn’t be able to sit the exams since they weren’t in Groningen.
‘We’ve asked the programme directors and the exam committee to schedule as few on-campus exams as possible’, said FSE portfolio manager of education Rob Timmermans during a faculty council meeting on Wednesday. But some exams require materials and others would be so easy to cheat on that they simply have to be administered on campus.
Strict protocols
Timmermans emphasises that the Aletta Jacobs hall is safe and that there are strict protocols in place. Students have to wear face masks, there are separate routes laid on the floor, there are rules for how many people can go to the bathroom at once, and all students will be seated two metres apart. ‘But any student who doesn’t feel safe is guaranteed a third opportunity at sitting the exam’, he said.
The timing of this third opportunity still poses a problem. ‘What about students who studied for two weeks who get ill the day before the exam, or what if they suddenly have to go into quarantine? Their third chance will probably be scheduled for the second block. You’d have to have intense moral fortitude to forgo sitting the exam’, said faculty council member and student Joost Mulder.
Difficult to implement
Timmermans emphasised how important it is to stay home. But he did admit that it would be difficult to pick the right time. ‘It will certainly be difficult to implement’, he conceded. ‘We’re working out these details right now.’
The faculty board will also start a sounding board of students from all over the faculty, so they will be able to take students’ feelings into account. ‘That should probably have happened earlier’, admitted Timmermans.
The faculty worries about what would happen if the current restrictions are tightened even further. Until now, exams in the Aletta Jacobs hall have been allowed, but any changes to that policy would pose a problem. ‘If that happens, we’d have to postpone the exams’, said Timmermans.