YUSU Disabled Students officer, Thomas Ron, has pledged a “comprehensive review” of the University’s exams policy for disabled students in the wake of last term’s controversy regarding third year Physics student Sophie Bissell.
Bissell, who suffers from Nystagmus, a visual impairment which makes it difficult to read small text, believed she was unfairly penalised after reporting that there was a question missing from her specially enlarged exam paper.
Although Bissell was denied a grade rescaling, she was later issued with an apology from the Department of Physics and offered the option to retake the exam “at first attempt.”
However, Thomas Ron believes that Bissell’s problem is far from an isolated incident, stating that both he and his two predecessors have a large backlog of emails detailing various complaints from disabled students about the exams procedure at the University.
The newly elected officer has used as an example another testimony from masters student Michelie Young during January of last year, who speaks of a cacophony of errors in which she was, amongst other things, sent to the wrong room, not initially given an answer booklet, told her time was up early, and was given less than a weeks’ notice for her eventual resit.
She says an invigilator also loudly announced in front of a silent exam room; “We have a student here who thinks she should have extra time,” which Young considered tactless. In her email, she speaks of exam invigilators who “clearly didn’t have enough training or information about the exams they were running.”
Young also felt many of the issues she faced were easily avoidable, stating: “Resitting the exam turned out to consist of going to a room in my department and filling in the same question paper. There is no real reason I couldn’t have done that at any other point if I was left to arrange it myself with my lecturer. The bureaucracy and hassle the University put me through to resit was completely unnecessary.”
The exams office later apologised and claimed it was a one-off error, but Ron sees Bissell and Young’s stories as endemic of a wider problem, and has promised action.
Ron is currently working with the Exams Office and YUSU Academic Officer Graeme Osborn to find out the true extent of the problem, but feels some solutions have already been found.
Speaking to Vision, Ron said that he plans to “provide an anonymous survey for students with special arrangements in order to discover potential problems with exam provision and help us address any problems.
“The Exams Office has also agreed to ensure that signs stating there is an exam in progress in PC rooms also state the times of the exam and issue a ‘No Entry’ sign to minimise the chances of any disruption.”
He also spoke of potential changes to other general exams procedures to aid non-disabled students such as the earlier opening of catering establishments during the exam period so students with a catering card “don’t have to go to their exam on an empty stomach”.
Ron hopes these moves will have a positive impact for students in the upcoming summer exam season.