Tuesday, Febuary 17th 2015 | uccexpress.ie | Volume 18 | Issue 10
Features Investigates Graduate Unemployment Pages 8/9
HARD SUMS: Dara Ó Briain visited UCC last week to view George Boole’s own copy of his seminal work, The Laws of Thought. Image by: Tomas Tyner.
AFIS results delay adds to semesterisation woes Barry Aldworth News Editor Following a disagreement between the Department of Accounting, Finance and Information Systems (AFIS) and the Exams Office in UCC, term one results for students taking modules offered by the AFIS Department were released on February 13th, one week after the results for all other UCC students were released. The delay in providing students with their grades is the latest in a line of teething problems related to the introduction of semesterisation. The AFIS difficulties stemmed from a dispute over the release of provisional results which would then not be reviewed by an exam board for five
months. Professor Ciaran Murphy, Head of the AFIS Department, argued that such a system was unfair to students and delayed the release of results to allow AFIS exams to be assessed by an external board. In an email to students impacted by the decision, Murphy stated: “This decision has been taken to avoid the possibility that students are placed in a stressful situation by receiving adverse marks in semester one, where these marks would end up being revised upward at the summer board. “Thus, the view was taken that full semesterisation, where performance is measured accurately and definitely in each semester, is the best route to take for the students of the Department.
This means that the marks returned by the AFIS department for your semester one exams will be final marks – not subject to any further change.”
today are still provisional. It’s another example of semesterisation not being communicated properly throughout the university.”
However, despite AFIS’s own external body approving the results, the marks will still be reviewed by a UCC Exams Board after the conclusion of the summer exams, meaning students’ grades could still change.
A request for comment from the Office of the Registrar and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs was not returned at the time of print.
UCCSU President Mark Stanton criticised those involved for failing to resolve the argument on time, stating that: “The university and the department both knew the problem was looming and the communication didn’t seem to happen until it was too late. “The results the students were given
The delay in AFIS results is the latest in a series of moves which have been criticised by students, with the English Department notably holding their exams in-class, prior to the December study week, which raised its own issues.
Contd. on Page 5
Mairia Cahill talks about covered-up abuse Page 16
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