gair rhydd
FREE
CARDIFF'S STUDENT WEEKLY
freeword - EST. 1972
ISSUE 914 FEBRUARY 08 2010
Features
Student depression: What it is, how it feels, and what you can do about it if it affects you >> pages 16-17
Politics
! " # $ % &$ $ ! " # $ ! ! %! & ! " '(! ( %) * %& ! ! # ! ! $ # ! + ! • ! " # $ % % & ' ' " ( '& ' ) ' " # # * # & ( ' ' " # ' ) ') • Five students wrongly passed or failed final year Jamie Thunder News Editor
A report into the data errors that allowed five final-year students from the School of Medicine to be wrongly passed or failed last summer has strongly criticised the School’s handling of assessments. The investigation panel, led by Professor David Miers from Cardiff Law School, concluded that there had been ‘serious failings in the governance and management of data processing’ that required ‘urgent corrective action’ if similar mistakes are to be avoided this year. The School of Medicine has already announced a number of changes following the incidents last summer. Over a third – 137 – of the roughly 350 students who graduated last year
from the MBBCh course had errors in their assessment data relating to an exam on the Knowledge and Understanding module. As a result, four students were incorrectly told they had passed the year, while one was wrongly told they had failed. Three other students later had their degree classifications raised. This led to four students being allowed to start work in hospitals without having reached the required standard. They are now re-taking their final year. As well as these mistakes, 70 fourth-year students taking the child health OSCE exam were given the wrong results. One was initially told they had failed the year, but was later allowed to progress. The errors were all introduced in the administration stage when the assessment data was copied into spreadsheets, and are not in any way related to the quality of teaching in the
School. In the Knowledge and Understanding exam, a block of results in the wrong order were copied into the spreadsheet, meaning the results and candidate numbers did not match up. In the child health OSCE exam, the results from 2007/08's students were mistakenly copied and awarded to last year’s students. The 70-report highlighted the lack of checking of the data before results were given out as having contributed to the errors. Professor Paul Morgan, Dean of Medicine at the University, apologised to the students affected and said that the School of Medicine was doing all it could to prevent a repeat of the incident. Speaking to gair rhydd last week, he said: “The key thing for us is making sure the database for capturing assessments and where the errors occurred is sorted out. That’s something we’ve worked very hard on and we’re
very confident we can deliver. “Students can have confidence that their marks will be correctly handled. We now have as tight a ship as it is possible to have. “I’m very happy with the changes that have been made, and I think we’re in a much better place than we were a year ago.” However he admitted that the mistakes were likely to have an impact on the results of next year's National Student Survey, which asks final-years to rate various aspects of their course. Last year only 68% of Medicine students were satisfied with the course – the third-lowest in the UK – and just 46% felt their assessment arrangements and marking had been fair. “It’s bound to have an effect, but hopefully it won’t be as negative as it otherwise might be if we weren’t so clearly dealing with it,” he said. continued on page 2
A General Election preview special, including an interview with the head of poll company YouGov >> pages 20-21
Sport
Profile of miserable Murray and a look at his future chances >> page 34