A devastating series of blunders in the Economics Department has caused outrage among students and accusations of unprofessional behaviour.
Staff and students have blasted the department over their handling of summer exams, causing them to withdraw hundreds of exam results. Angry students have started signing petitions in outrage over the way they have been treated.
Last week the Head of Department Peter Simmons was forced to admit there was “doubt” over whether “students were given adequate advance guidance.”
OUTRAGE
Controversy had begun earlier this term after lecturers told students the questions that would be appearing on the paper, sparking complaints that the exam was too easy.
However, in what has been seen as an attempt to make up for this, the grades revealed last week were shockingly low.
Six people were told they had failed, whilst a further 49 received 3rds. Although last year’s top mark was 99%, this year’s average was just 56% with the highest mark at 77%.
One second-year student who chose to remain anonymous told Vision: “The department has acted very unfairly. My marks do not accurately reflect my work.”
YUSU’s Academic Officer Charlie Leyland has suggested that the department may be guilty of “poor organisation,” adding that it “must be a turbulent time for those affected.”
STRESS
The departmental chaos was topped by the decision to give students their unfair marks on the morning of another assessed exam.
Charlie Leyland has slammed the decision, telling Vision that it is “questionable whether it is in students’ interests to release marks immediately before examinations.
One irate student said: “I couldn’t concentrate on the exam I was sitting because all the time I was so stressed about the marks I’d just found out.”
The poor conduct of the Economics Department has already touched nerves with the University Teaching Committee. It has emerged that they will consider an appeal to implement a “standard and reasonable feedback time-line for all assessed work for all departments.”