Confusion haunts exams in Great Hall
The summer exam season has started with confusion for students and some tutors as the location of hundreds of exams that were timetabled to take place in the Great Hall has been changed at the last minute.
All exams from 28th April are to be relocated following the revelation that the noise from building works in the Library penetrates into the hall causing unnecessary disruption to candidates. This action was decided on in preference to postponing construction work, which would cost the College several hundred thousand pounds in delays and wages.
After much discussion, College authorities have decided that the exams are going to be relocated to a "rigid-structured temporary marquee" in Prince’s Gardens, with no timing changes foreseen. Ian Caldwell, Director of the Estates Division, explained: "We felt it was better to relocate the exams rather than retimetable, because students, staff and examiners will be geared up to a specific time and date and whatever we do, we do try to minimise the disruption on the College community."
In a letter to all students, Soosan Oldroyd, Assistant registrar for Examinations, explained the reasons behind the relocation. She also urged students to "accept the College’s apologies for any inconvenience caused." However, apologies came too little and too late for some students. "I think that in one of the top four universities in the country, the fact students who are taking exams are being treated this way is absolutely disgusting," said one student from Linstead Hall, "it’s a joke. We deserve better."
Exams were relocated away from Civil Engineering earlier this year due to the noise from the BMS building, but the problem in the Great Hall was not noticed until the Easter vacation. This has meant that this weeks’ exams have not been repositioned, but the work has been allowed to "suffer" instead, according to Mr Caldwell.
He went on to explain how the work had been planned from the start to cause minimum disruption to exam candidates, with work in the northern section of the library being postponed until the holidays. However, Mr Caldwell noted that while it would be possible to "have a rave in the libraries and no-one could hear it in the Great Hall, the noise from certain simple activities such as drilling transmits right through the structure." Drilling has been kept to a minimum with adhesives used in the place of screws in many places, but it can not be avoided everywhere.
The changes are likely to cause confusion with candidates, with many departments still not having posted the changes up on examinations boards.
Making the contractors working around the exams was also examined, but found to be impracticable, especially as there are time restrictions on working hours set by local residents.
The possibility of taking the disturbance into account when grades are being considered has not yet been discussed by College authorities, but with students complaining at the short notice given to them for the change, and the new environment having its own problems, it may yet happen
