E:vision down

Students were left perplexed when e:Vision was taken down for maintenance the week before exams began, leaving them without their primary means of accessing the examination timetable. The shutdown also forced the application deadline for the ‘International Students Abroad’ scheme to be put back.

The downtime occurred between the 3rd and the 7th of January and was due to routine twice-yearly maintenance.
Some students felt that the dates were ill-chosen as it clashed with the start of the exam period, depriving them of their timetable informing them of when and where the exams were amongst other potentially crucial information. Former Langwith Chair Jack Baker tweeted about the issue: “Why @UoYitServices would plan to do a update to e:Vision up until the first day of exams I have no idea, I’ll guess where my exams are.”

Moreover, the downtime resulted in the deadline for the study abroad scheme being extended to the 11th, and meant that students were left with only 4 days to complete the application.

The University was keen to emphasise that the timetable was available elsewhere. Cathy Collness, Business and Development Manager for Student Systems stated that “There is never a good time for e:Vision to be taken down. We look for times that are out of term and try to find dates that minimise disruption for staff and students. Inevitably downtime does cause inconvenience and we apologise for that.”