University
Express
Volume 24 | Issue 5 | Tuesday 24th November 2020
“At the time of writing, the UCC Movember team has raised over €20,000, long surpassing their original fundraising target of €5,000 on the first day of the month.” - pg 4 -
UCCExpress.ie
“In the beginning, people would look at you as if you had two heads when you were out painting an electrical box. Now, everybody knows the craic.” - p 18 -
“Once a niche pastime, mountaineering is now a multimillion-dollar industry, fuelled by wealthy Westerners with little climbing experience and money to burn” - pg 36 -
UCC REVERTS TO PRE-PANDEMIC EXAM MEASURES, DESPITE LITTLE RELIEF IN SIGHT Writes Maeve McTaggart, News Editor The sudden onset of Covid-19 in early March required a rapid re-think of how normal assessment processes would work from home. Temporary measures were put in place to address the added pressure of the pandemic to the summer exam season, but UCC has made the decision to rescind such measures for this academic year. In a break from the traditional semester one exams taking place in December, they will now take place remotely over an eight-day period starting on Friday January 8th 2021. The measures in place for the second semester exams of the 2019/20 academic year were intended to “ensure no student [was] academically disadvantaged due to the current disruption to usual activity,” an email from the former Deputy President and Registrar, now Interim President, John O’Halloran read. These measures allowed students whose personal circumstances had been adversely impacted by the pandemic to defer their examinations; students who were unhappy with their grade could re-sit the exam; students who failed were able to re-sit the exam without academic or financial penalty. No repeat fees would be incurred.
now been incorporated into the mitigation process.” This semester, if a student is unable to sit an exam or if their performance is affected by “circumstances outside of their control (e.g. illness including Covid-19-related circumstance)” they can apply for mitigation or submit an appeal with supporting medical documentation. Each submission will then be assessed on a case-by-case basis by the Examinations Appeals Committee.
In an email on November 9th, Interim Registrar Professor Stephen Byrne told students that “for this Academic Year these measures are being rescinded and we will revert back to our normal examination and assessment processes.” The Interim Registrar underlined that “the direct personal impact of Covid-19 has
When asked about the decision Eimear Curtin, the UCC Students’ Union Education Officer, said: “Even though we may not be in the emergency situation we were in last semester, the Covid pandemic is far from over and the effects of this second lockdown in particular are affecting students im- University Express asked a number of Cover Story Continued on Page 3...
mensely, often in intangible ways.” students how their experience last semester was affected by the temporary “I would urge students to contact measures. One second-year student their lecturers about any tech issues felt they “really soothed the anxiety I they are facing, and, if they feel com- had when taking my exams.” Another fortable doing so, to let them know if shared these sentiments, explaining that they are feeling overwhelmed - hav- “knowing I could re-sit an exam I may ing this paper trail will firstly help not have performed well in or postpone provide feedback to the lecturer and the exams until a later time really took also be useful if you need mitigation.” the pressure off during an extremely difficult and stressful time.” A third Last semester was the first for which year student of Computer Science told UCC and third-level institutions across University Express how the measures the country assessed students remotely benefitted them directly when appealing and online. This was under the circum- their exam result, “without a [grade] cap stances of what would now be known or free repeats, the prospect of a failed as ‘Level 5,’ without the exceptions appeal would’ve driven me up the walls.” currently in place since October 21st.