Concrete 336

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>> Thought about those PostGrad plans?

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>> Former Guardian Editor-inChief talks fake news

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>> How to travel on a student budget

28th February 2017 Issue 336

The official student newspaper of the University of East Anglia | concrete-online.co.uk

Marking not automatically anonymous Caitlin Doherty Deputy Editor The anonymous marking of student coursework is subject to uncertainty following the transition of online submission for some units from E:vision to Blackboard. Since the implementation of the new e-marking system, essays no longer appear anonymous to the marker through default. To ensure that students remain unidentified, staff must ‘self-amend’ the system settings by a several step process. Even when the issue has been rectified, it is possible that the student’s

name still appears on screen. Anonymity of summative assessment is ensured in the UEA student contract. In 2015, the Senate Guidance on Assessment and Feedback made clear that “all summative work is [marked] anonymously.” This was reiterated by the Institutional Review later that year which asserted that: “summatively assessed work is subject to anonymous submission in keeping with the University’s policy on Anonymised Submission. This ensures that markers’ judgments are objective, as well as those of moderators.” The new marking system was implemented following several tri-

als in the academic year 2015/2016. Commenting on the situation Postgraduate Education Officer

"Even when the issue has been rectified it is possible that the student's name still appears on the screen" Madeleine Colledge said: “It is very clear to us that the type of anonymi-

zation on offer through Blackboard [manually hiding a name after it appears] does not currently meet the basic requirements of UEA’s anonymous marking policy. "The feedback we’ve had from a number of academics is that the number of steps required to hide names means they’re just not bothering, and overall the situation gives students no confidence at all that their work is being fairly markedwith a clear and obvious danger of unintended discrimination. “Given the differential rates of achievement particularly amongst international and BME students this is a very serious issue. Students need

to see a clear timeline for the fixing of this issue and urgent consideration given to bringing forward the date for Blackboard changes to be implemented” A university spokesperson praised the new marking system, and assured students that any faults would be resolved over the summer: “This issue is well understood by the University. The new e-marking system and treatment of anonymous marking has been carefully considered and a manual fix on anonymisation has been put in place ahead of automation becoming available.

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'PREVENT stopped me studying the modules I wanted,' says student Malia Bouattia and Moazzam Begg speak at union event

Complaints of panel bias

L - R: Malia Bouattia, Muqaddam Malik, Jon Sharp, David Nowell Smith, Moazzam Begg Photo: Jo Swo Megan Baynes Editor-in-Chief A UEA student has spoken out about how government legislation PREVENT kept him from choosing to study modules that interest him. Muqaddam Malik made the comments at the SU’s event ‘Is it ethical to monitor students?’ last week. The PREVENT strategy is government legislation aimed at preventing the radicalisation of young people in the UK, through academic

monitoring. Featuring NUS President Malia Bouattia, CAGE Outreach Director Moazzam Begg, Model UN society President Muqaddam Malik and Lecturer David Nowell Smith, the panel discussed the rise in Islamophobic hate crimes in the UK. All the panellists condemned the racial profiling that they felt was a key part of the legislation. Mr Malik spoke about how a fear of PREVENT and racial stereotyping has kept him from picking a module he actively wanted to study. He

spoke about the third-year module ‘terrorism and counter terrorism’ and said: “When I came to UEA I was looking forward to studying that module because it is highly relevant and something really contentious, and being a Kenyan citizen where we struggle with terrorism quite a bit it’s really interesting. “After I found out about PREVENT I knew I was not going anywhere near that module, just because it does not seem like a safe thing for me to do. I am here on a tier-four visa. Why would you want

people to see you researching this kind of extremism? He added: “Obviously PREVENT has had an actual impact on me not being able to engage with certain topics that I want to for fear of what can come from that.” The panel continued, with comments from Moazzam Begg who said questioned the use of words such as ‘jihadist’ and ‘radical’. He said: "What is wrong with radicalisation, really? The term ‘radical’ has been used throughout history by movements and individuals who

want to change something that is taboo.” As the floor opened to discussions one UEA student questioned the Union’s decision to filter all questions through Postgraduate Officer Madeleine Colledge. Greg Walsh, who spoke to Concrete after the event, said: “At events in the past, with speakers such as UKIP, free questions were encouraged. 100 percent their views went unchallenged.

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