“Some exam questions were written in a confusing manner and had to be removed. We had a lengthy feedback session with the faculty after the written exams to discuss our concerns. To ensure we made good use of our time, we communicated with the student cohort in advance to collate their feedback and also how we can summarise them effectively for the meeting. As a result, a set of clearer guidelines were provided to those examiners setting questions to ensure the exam would be more adequate at evaluating students for the second term.”
– A Brain Sciences Rep
“We suggested to move some of the essay deadlines past the second compulsory exam. As some lecturers were more flexible with the due date, it was possible to make this change happen”
– A Built Environment Rep
“Many students felt that one of our exams had been unfair, as we were set questions on topics we had not been taught and we did not have enough time to complete all the questions. We raised this issue with the module coordinator and negotiated that the marks for our cohort would be adjusted and the structure of the exam would be redesigned for the following years.”
– A Chemical Engineering rep
“After the UCU strike, students reported to me that they felt underprepared for their assessments. I worked with the department to provide a lecture session/private tutor for students to give them extra support.”
- A Cardiovascular Sciences Rep
"Following the outbreak of COVID-19 in March, a lot of international students felt the need to return to their home country, and this was causing many problems in regards to coursework deadlines. Upon reaching out to me, I contacted staff and requested them to re-consider coursework deadlines due to aforementioned circumstances. All following coursework deadlines were postponed and effectively discussed with the cohort."
- A Chemical Engineering Rep
"One of the key things which I was successful in doing was pushing the Union to lobby UCL to change its current extenuating circumstances policy."
- A History Rep
"I was able to raise the issues a lot of students were having with the exam format for some modules. After discussions in the SSCC meetings and with the module leads, the assessment format was changed to one that the students felt was more beneficial. Whilst this won't affect my cohort of students, the changes implemented will hopefully improve the experience of the next cohort of students."
- A Medical Sciences and Engineering Rep
"In Past years, we students have had issues with Excel exam invigilators, being too agressive towards stressed students, and overstepping their roles. We requested for the invigilators to wear identifiable name tags so that they could be reported for incorrect behaviour. This was bought up at college level and the compromise was found that invigilators would wear identifiable number codes to be recognised by students."
- A Physics and Astronomy Rep
"My cohort suggested to point out to the department that courseworks would have been a fairer solution for alternative assessments; a voice which was heard and, indeed, all exams were reformulated as courseworks."
- A Biochemical Engineering Rep
"We were quite successful in voicing change for one of our modules. For example, in our first exam in said module, we were not as clear with instructions (such as formulae sheets) and invigilation was not as secure (unapproved calculators were being used) - we raised these issues at the Engineering Faculty Rep meeting and separately via email to the module lead, which was taken into consideration and changes were effective in time for our second exam."
- A Biochemical Engineering Rep
"A big issue we have had for at least 2-3 years now is a very agressive exam invigilator in the Excel centre who has repeatedly bullied students before, during and after exams because of minor problems, such as a student putting the exam papers inside the envelope slightly after the allowed time. As I believe it is wrong for invigilators to not be identifiable, since this partially protects them from reports of their misbehaviours, I have asked the department to pressure the exam commission to make invigilators wear personal identifiers. Following the department protest, the exam commission said that they will assign numbers to the invigilators and they will have to wear them, so that they are identifiable and can be reported if they mistreat students. I believe this is a great success for us students and it will make it much easier to report the invigilators to the exam commission!"
- A Physics and Astronomy Rep
"I managed to get a core module reassessed due to deficiencies in marking and eliminate a component of the same module which was poorly executed."
- An Arts and Sciences Rep
"The issue students faced was that the coursework outline/guidelines was not sufficient/extended enough for us as students to produce a quality piece of coursework. Students omplained that they do not know how to get on with the coursework and that the material we covered and the way in which it was taught/communicated to them was very confusing and the majority of the class did not understand anything, as they were unable to follow the teaching. After communicating this issues to staff, an additional document was released on moodle and a class was held only focusing on the coursework and answering any potential questions which have arised to do with the coursework. I received a lot of positive feedback after this class, and the students were happy and felt comfortable proceeding with the coursework."
- A Planning and Real Estate Rep
"I successfully managed to lobby for a change in an exam date immediately after switching to online learning and exam system. After the students complained about the short notice in the change in exam format , I wrote an email to course directors but firstly forwarded it to the students to add or remove what did not represent what and why the wanted some time to prepare. I then sent it and received not so positive feedback from the directors and later saw the change coming. The dates were changed and every student was happy."
- Biosciences Rep
"I was able to resolve issues regarding clashes of deadlines by lobbying staff to postpone some of the deadlines."
- School of Management Rep
"The issue of the Huber of assessments for a module in my program was successfully changed after it was brought to the attention of the reps."
- Population Health Sciences Rep
"There have been some issues around assessments and feedback. Students feedback that some assignments were too hard given and that the taught material was insufficient to prepare students for the assignment. This feedback has been taken on board by our institute and amendments to assessments and the taught material will be made."
- Nursing Rep
"There was a week where we had 3 major deadlines and my co-rep and I noticed a change in the atmosphere, mood and attendance of the cohort. We then collected feedback in-person and took a poll-vote on the Facebook group to determine the number of students who needed deadline extensions. As a result, we were able to successfully negotiate the extension of 2/3 deadlines by showing evidence of the issue being both widespread and significant"
- School of Management Rep
"Got a review of our course assessment method for a course that was challenging to our students."
- Ear Institute Rep
"The guidelines for one of our assessments were very vague, and the feedback given after this assessment was listened to and taken on board by the department in a meeting requested by reps and held by course overseers. The second of these assessments was cancelled due to Covid-19 but the first years sitting the assessment next year will benefit from the changes agreed upon by those attending the meeting."
- Cardiovascular Science Rep
"One of the issues of this scholastic year was that the students felt that one of the assignments' word requirement was too low, thus I raised this issue to the Psychology cluster meeting, and the module leader wrote this down as a consideration for future years."
- Psychology and Human Development Rep
"We have worked to help change the way that revision is conducted in the department, promoting the use of exam questions, and providing further clarification on the amnesty programme for illegal materials used for cheating on exams, and the availability of those resources."
- Medical School Rep
"We had an online meeting with the director of the IOE knowledge lab, and successfully postponed the essay deadlines for a couple of weeks, since the students had trouble studying due to the 5-week strike and corona. We also suggested some changes in the course/module structure starting from next year."
- Culture, Communication and Media Rep
"Students have found it quite hard to write a 4,000 word essay, and they wanted the lecturer to shorten the word count. I have realised that this request was unlikely to be fulfilled. Therefore, I suggested the lecturer to upload some past paper as sample essays on Moodle to provide students with an insight on how to write this specific essay. At last, the lecturer agreed and students were quite happy with this support as well."
- Education, Practice and Society Rep
"Success for me basically was helping my cohort extend a coursework deadline. The deadline of the course was almost at the same time as our literature review. Most student devoted their time to the literature review , not surprisingly because the credit was higher. I was able to use my position to help get a 2week extension. My colleagues were really happy about it."
- Chemistry Rep
"Prior to the first term strike the department was unaware that our lab would be closing so I raised this in an SSCC session and the nature of our assignments was altered."
- Archeology Rep
"One of the biggest achievements was that a module with a preceding reputation of being harshly judged and inadequately taught has been flagged as being double weighted for the next year. I was also able to ensure that the questions set and the marking for them are fairer than what they used to be. The students were very pleased with my relentless efforts to make this happen."
- Physics and Astronomy Rep
"I managed to secure an extension on the dissertation of the fourth year students. I composed an email of all the students concerns and sent this to the head of year, alongside the course organisers. I also discussed it within the DSSCC (that had to be held online through Microsoft Teams chat board). After discussing this with the head of year separately as well, they kindly granted us the extension we asked for."
- Chemistry Rep
"I was able to effectively communicate with my peers and talk to the course organisers to extend the dissertation submission deadline by 2 weeks in light of the COVID19 situation."
- Infection and Immunity Rep
"Concerns were raised within our cohort regarding clashing deadlines, as a result of the UCU strikes and the onset of Covid-19. We communicated these concerns firmly, but respectfully, to our Department who agreed to amend the deadlines. This alleviated anxiety amongst the cohort, enabling them to successfully complete their assignments."
- Culture, Communication and Media Rep
"Back in March, students were unhappy about the lack of and/or slow response of the department/UCL as a whole in introducing mitigation responses for assignments disrupted by the pandemic, and by the initially vague promises. After discussion with the other reps in the cohort, and obtaining the agreement from our year group, we drafted a letter which highlighted the difficulties that we have faced over the course of March, and proposed several mitigation plans for the department's consideration. The outcome, though maybe also catalysed by UCL's school-wide response to mitigation, was that most assignments received two-week extensions, the department allowed self-certification on further extension requests, and a one-month extension on the final year dissertation project. The most important part was that the students were all relieved and satisfied with the mitigation on top of the UCL-wide safety net, and were able to work under less mental pressure."
- SELCS Rep
"During second term, we had a lot of important overlapping deadlines. Students were struggling to complete all assignments. The other reps and I created polls that we sent to our fellow students with suggestions of which deadlines to move in priority, and how much to move them. We understood that not all deadlines could be pushed back far because it would impact future deadlines of each module and also affect the professors' and TAs' structure. Once we gathered sufficient feedback from students, then contacted the professors and agreed on deadlines that gave students enough time and also did not interfere with the modules' structures. This helped students with time management and helped them produce higher quality work."
- School of Management Rep
"Throughout the year, on many occasions, students have contacted me to raise their concerns regarding not receiving adequate updates on module timetables/exam dates and that there were issues with lecturecast recordings/online resources as well as questions concerning COVID-19 and how it affected our end of year assessments and the next academic year. My role has been crucial in helping to answer these questions and concerns raised by students through emailing the course Teaching Administrator as well as individual module leads and tutors in order to obtain clarity and and up-to-date information on the issues raised by students (which were able to be clarified to all students after emailing the relevant staff members). I have also successfully relayed feedback from students to departmental staff in SSCC meetings, and also attended an additional meeting in term 2 in order to discuss the ASER process (helping the course lead and departmental staff to write the ACER) and additional concerns/feedback on course improvements raised by students, as well as ideas for the Changemakers project (which unfortunately due to COVID-19 could not be further elaborated). I also played a central role in encouraging students to vote for the Student Choice Awards."
- Cancer Institute Rep
"One area that I felt I was very successful in was keeping the communication between students and faculty during the corona pandemic. With all the changes that uni went through, some students were concerned about their work and deadlines. I managed to keep in contact with the students and be available for them to voice any concerns to and for me to relate said concerns to faculty in a professional manner. For example, for most of the module deadlines, an automatic 2-week extension was given, except when it came to our dissertation deadlines. When casually checking up on the people on my master's course via our group chats, the topic of dissertations came up and it was brought to our attention that an extension was not given for the dissertation presentation, thus not leaving the same amount of time as there would have been originally. After these concerns were raised, I put together an email expressing our concerns and sent it to our course coordinator (as well as sending a copy to the cohort to make sure they were happy with it). I received a response within 24 hours and the extension was granted, taking some of the pressure off the students in this area."
- Archaeology Rep
"Many students argued that the marking criteria for one of the CS department's courses is not really clear and felt unhappy about their final mark. I organised the claims from students with other reps in the Stats department and then sent the lists to the head of Stats department so that he can communicate with the head of the CS department. At the end, although the lecturer did not change students' marks, she gave us a more detailed explanation which helps students realise their potential problems better. Also, if the lecturer mentions that clearer at the start of term, this may help people study that course in the next year to understand that and make an improvement."
- Statistical Science Rep
"Throughout both the 2018/19 and 2019/20 academic years, the Management Science reps successfully negotiated changes in deadlines for my cohort. The need for deadline extensions was often due to students feeling overwhelmed and stressed because of tight deadlines for major assignments. For example, there was a week where we had 3 major deadlines and my co-rep and I noticed a change in the atmosphere, mood and attendance of the cohort. We then collected feedback in-person and took a poll-vote on the Facebook group to determine the number of students who needed deadline extensions. As a result, we were able to successfully negotiate the extension of 2/3 deadlines by showing evidence of the issue being both widespread and significant. Another issue brought to our attention by the cohort was the need for guidance/help on dissertation problem statements and overall structure. We approached the programme director (Stephen Todd) with this issue and the number of students who needed help based on another Facebook poll-vote. He successfully resolved this issue by hosting 1-1 sessions to improve individual problem statements and by giving us an understanding of past dissertation topics and structures."
- School of Management Rep
"Sometimes students would require deadline extensions, however I would only go ahead with a deadline extension if students had made a reasonable attempt, under these circumstances I would communicate the concern with the module lead. There was a situation with our COMP0010 module where we had a group section coursework and an individual section coursework, while people wanted an extension on both, I figured that an extension on just the indivudal report would allow for students to have a later cut off point to working on the group section and hence an implicit deadline extension on both without negatively impacting students. This was extremely successful."
- Computer Science Rep
"First of all, I improved assessment equality. The most concerning issue from students in our programme is the assessment equality. In the past, in order to meet the requirements of UCL's policy of anonymous marking, the tutor of our final essay is not the first marker of the essay, which could lead to the situation that the essay marker’s opinion is different from the essay tutor’s, and students’ efforts on writing essay by following the tutor’s suggestions might not be appreciated by the essay marker. To improve this, I mentioned this issue in the first SSCC meeting and suggested that the tutor could be the first essay marker and still follow the policy of anonymous marking by hiding students’ name when it comes to marking. This proposal gets supported by our module leaders and programme leader, and they found a solution that enables them to make this arrangement while still complying with UCL's policy of anonymous marking. By mentioning this issue, I indeed improved the assessment equality for every student involves in our programme by avoiding some potential disagreement between tutors and markers."
- Education, Practice and Society Rep
"I was successful in helping to change the marking scheme and weighting of the third year dissertation/literature review project BIOC0021. This was a continuing issue from last year. I gathered opinions and suggestions on this and shared these at SSCC meetings. Staff revised the mark scheme and I voiced opinions from a student perspective at teaching committee meetings on if these changes were suitable and what could be improved. This led to a more fair and clear marking scheme criteria for current and future third year students. I also aided discussions of improved feedback systems by voicing student opinion at the teaching committee meeting. Throughout the year on various matters I was able to gather student opinions by liaising with my peers and other reps at the SSCC meetings which I helped chair, to gather general student opinions on various issues including feedback systems and course/module content. I then shared these points of view at teaching committee meetings to promote changes to be made at a higher level - including those mentioned above."
- Molecular Biosciences Rep
"The cohort of STAT0003 students faced an unusually challenging ICA, which upset a number of students. Consequently, the student representatives (myself included) sent out a survey to the the STAT0003 students in order to gauge their opinions on the ICA and feed this back into the SSCC meeting. Findings show that students believed that the ICA to be more difficult than previous years and that there was not nearly enough time to complete the assessment to a high standard. We formatted a report and statistically analysed the significance of our findings, which were then presented to the lecturer (whom was kept in the loop at all times) and the SSCC. The lecturer for the STAT0003 course in the 2020-2021 season then agreed to keep this in mind when creating the next ICA to ensure students were not disadvantaged."
- Statistical Science Rep
"I was successful in managing to expedite the release for feedback on the reports from the first term PHAS0043 module. Students had been given no feedback for their initial reports, far surpassing the one-month turnaround policy that UCL has for marking. I persisted in asking for feedback to be given so students could have a reference from which to improve the standard of their work. Unfortunately, full feedback could not be provided due to the physical rate at which the reports could be marked (higher than average volume this year), but provisional feedback and verbal feedback were successfully given."
- Physics and Astronomy Rep
"I took it upon myself to make the voices of my coursemates heard and to encourage a discussion about one of their concerns. After one of our ICAs, I was approached by multiple students who noticed differences between past papers and this particular one, for which they felt unprepared or overwhelmed. I proposed a meeting with the other course reps to raise these concerns and to discuss how to approach them in a fair manner for both the students and the professor. We created a survey in order to understand better the issues encountered by the students and the possible solutions they would need. With the help of the Senior Teaching and Learning Administrator, we shared this survey and encouraged everyone taking that course to express their opinion. We were glad to receive 75 responses in a short time, thus being able to draft a plan of how we were going to present the results of our research and what solutions would be the most effective. Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, we were unable to conduct this further, but I am certain that the trust we built with the other students by taking actions regarding their difficulties and the teamwork we demonstrated built a strong relationship within our department."
- Statistical Science Rep
"I was asked to extend the deadline of one of the reports by students from my course due to many deadline dates in the same time period. I have approached to the course organiser, explained the issue and asked for the extension. The deadline was moved by a week allowing students to take more time to accomplish the assessment."
- Pharmacology Rep
"Issues/how it was addressed: Second Year Research Seminar: one has more deadlines than others, different at Structures, different deadlines (more /less) understanding components, deadlines, understanding the course in better detail and thinking the different approaches and the personal touches are there but there needs to be more standardised. Have l a look at different approaches and practices ensure feedback. Outcome: regardless of different research seminar groups, every student has the same deadline and expectation on their work."
- History Rep
"We were able to make some progress in issues relating to reducing the burden on 2nd year students as some weeks in the year were notorious for excessive deadlines announced in short notice. Hence, we emphasised the importance of being given a clear coursework timetable at the beginning of each term detailing all deadlines expected. The dates could be provisional as we know now better than ever that things always change, but this provisional timetable would still prove useful to students and allow them to better organise their time. We saw a significant improvement in this for 2-3 of our modules which provided a detailed breakdown of the dates during the first 5 minutes of the introductory lecture. However, work can still be done and hopefully this information can later be found all in one table for the entirety of the department and I was told by our course administrator that he had already started drafting one during the second term but that was obviously cut short. I hope that my push for this has put things in the right direction for the years to come. We also raised many points relating to structuring of lab sessions as in Term 2, students carried out different experiments in different weeks and hence those who had to do it later had a chance to more thoroughly cover the material. We were told that this would change for the coming cohorts, so I am glad we have accomplished things for students beyond my year group as well. We also conducted an emergency meeting during the COVID-19 crisis to provide ideas to our professors on how to tailor the exam session to student’s needs and voiced all concerns which in turn made the exam period a lot less stressful."
- Electronic and Electrical Engineering Rep
"I relayed feedback students had about lack of support with writing a dissertation and so staff were able to provide links to join a writing workshop that ran for other BSc students. I kept students regularly updated about changes to teaching and assessments during the COVID19 pandemic, with information staff would send me. Throughout the year, I asked staff to provide further resources and clarification for revision, mark schemes or practice questions, where students felt they needed it and these were provided. In one case this lead to a virtual meeting to consolidate learning and exam expectations. I was also able to postpone exam dates and assessments on students’ behalf, as many felt it would be difficult to be ready for their set exam dates given the stress of the pandemic. I proposed alternative plans, which were initially voted on by all students, before approaching staff with the suggestion, that was later adjusted and agreed upon."
- GOS ICH Rep
"During the strikes which took place in term 1 and 2, student felt as if they missed a lot of teaching, and that they were at a detriment to previous cohorts. In term 2, coronavirus was an even bigger disruption to learning, so I asked the students for their thoughts, opinions and feedback. I created a Google form where students voted on whether or not they would like extended deadlines and/or mitigating actions to take place, as well as comments they would like to be relayed to staff. I gathered this data, outlined our requests in an email, and sent it to not only our course leaders, but the department head and all of the lecturers and teaching staff in the department to make sure they were all aware of the situation faced by us. This led to many deadline extensions (primarily for dissertations) and the eventual no-detriment policy being implemented across the board."
- Social Science Rep
"One issue that was faced in our department was the level of difficulty for an early-January exam. A new module lead had taken over the course, and set too many tasks to complete within the given time limit. A petition was started on our rep Moodle page to raise a fair view of student's concerns regarding this issue. This was put to the director of teaching who reviewed the paper, and provisionally amended marks accordingly (though this will most likely be discussed in more detail during the summer exam board meeting). In addition, due to complaints about an invigilator last year at the Excel Center who could not be identified due to a lack of identification/name tag, our department successfully lobbied to have all invigilators wear name tags in future. However, due to COVID, the effects of this implementation will sadly have to wait a year or two!"
- Physics and Astronomy Rep
"Distance learning students and international students felt that the structure of the exams were not conducive to evaluating the range of knowledge they had and may disproportionately disadvantage students studying in a second language. I was able to feed back to the course leads and this has led to a restructuring of exams to everybody’s benefit."
- Surgery and Interventional Science Rep
"When the Covid-19 crisis first emerged, several international students on my course were heading back to their home domicile, where they had restricted internet access which was going to hinder them from their research. When these people emailed me, I gave them the option of seeking out an extension via the extenuating circumstances system, while in the meantime I sought a solution that would benefit everyone while the situation was being alleviated. I got in touch with the lead departmental rep and my course coordinator as well as the teaching administrator for physics to let them know of this situation that people were facing, and the result was that the deadline for the research essay was extended for everyone. (I don't take sole credit for this, my other course rep also received and responded to such emails). After I'd made it known to the people above me (before the change was announced), I also set out an announcement on my course facebook group to update everyone on the situation and outline their options if they were facing this situation and were worried."
- Physics and Astronomy Rep
"Some attempts of trying to improve the submission timetable were successful between T1/2 – particularly for the Mechanics of Buildings module – tutors were understanding of other scheduled deadlines and the submission date for some courseworks were adjusted for this after raising the issue. This however was not always the case, T3 was especially challenging and raising the issue with the department actually caused undesired effects (this was the case for the Sense, Sensing & Controls CW1 & CW2 submissions). Other successes also include requests for additional support and guidance for courseworks and exam preparation. This was received from the engineering modules. Additional tutorial sessions were organised for SSC, whilst for MoB revision sessions were organised. Tutors were also prompted to release provisional marking quickly to students along with feedback (although not all did provide this)."
- Built Environment Rep
"I was especially successful in working with the departments in order to make the transition from face-to-face contact hours and assessments to online much easier. Based on the information provided by students from several other departments, I was able to successfully request a deadline extension for the Chemistry MSci project reports, as the students widely requested it due to the pandemic situation which brought on an additional stress factor. Thanks to the constant communication I've had with the Chemistry Department, I am also happy that they adopted a new teaching and assessment form for the 4th year modules from next year onwards."
- Natural Sciences Rep
"I successfully managed to lobby for a change in an exam date immediately after switching to online learning and exam system. After the students complained about the short notice in the change in exam format , I wrote an email to course directors but firstly forwarded it to the students to add or remove what did not represent what and why the wanted some time to prepare. I then sent it and received not so positive feedback from the directors and later saw the change coming. The dates were changed and every student was happy."
- Neurology Rep
"I have helped to extend coursework deadlines for MEDC0009 to account for difficulties in teaching and curriculum"
- Biomedicine Rep
"An issue that arose was regarding a final Moodle quiz, where many were panicking about the high number of questions to be solved in a little timeframe. After laying out our concerns, the professor agreed to lower the number of questions."
- Biosciences Rep
"Lobbied along with the other Lead Reps for MAPS to get clarification on various exam issues and the usage of an emergency upload portal."
- Science and Technology Sciences Rep
"I was able to communicate with the department to push very important deadlines (presentations, reports, project deadline) and even change their teaching style in labs."
- Medical Sciences and Engineering Rep
"There numerous complaints in my year for courseworks that were deemed too difficult, and by talking to the correct people we were able to get a better channel of communication between the module lead and the students. Some students' Final Year Project supervisors were also ignoring their emails, and we were able to rectify these issues by assigning new supervisors to these students."
- Computer Science Rep
"Removing negative marking has been the most successful for me."
- Economics Rep
"Studying online was difficult for us as a year, so we were finding it difficult when we were told our Maths exam would be 3 hours long, whereas our other exams were 24 hours. We obtained student feedback using forms and surveys, presented this information on Unitu as well as to staff, and we were able to get our 24 hours for our exam."
- Mechanical Engineering Rep
"We had so many complaints about the work load (which we suggest to make it smaller) and since it was kind of late there were not many actions that could be taken but when we mentioned this during one of the meetings, an extra meeting with us was arranged to decide what could be done with the deadlines and upcoming coursework. In the end, some of the coursework was made shorter and some of the quizzes became voluntary which I believe helped a bit."
- Mechanical Engineering Rep
"We managed to extend 3rd year dissertation deadline for our year which many students had asked about, and helped to ease the burden of lockdowns/online teaching etc."
- Archaeology Rep
"People were getting overwhelmed by the workload in the first reading week. We came up with a suggestion to transfer some of the assignments from summative to formative."
- Mechanical Engineering Rep
"We provided the department with feedback over the take-home exams, which proved popular with many students, as it was deemed, with students being able to enjoy their learning rather than being overwhelmed by the prospect of exams. This will result in the change of assessment beyond the pandemic and all courses will be assessed by take-home exams and coursework rather than timed in-person exams."
- History Rep
"As the 3rd couse rep of the chemical engineering department, I recieved many complaints about the two test of PDC (of 40% weighting). In these tests (slack format and negative multi-question-choice), people felt that they were not graded on their work but only on their final results. In the last test, a wrongly posed question caused confusion in the cohort. This caused a important part of the student body to be wrongly penalised. At the end, I was happy because the department realised that 40% test (mid term test of small duration on slack or quiz) was not the best way to assess students. Furthermore, they also offered a third test (the best grade of the last two will be taken)."
- Chemical Enginnering Rep
"Within SELCS I was pleased to have been able to lobby for and successfully achieve a move to standardised essay lengths for modules with 15 credits (previously they ranged from 3,000 words to 6,000 words which discouraged their selection or caused an unfair higher workload on students selecting these). I was also able to effect the re-introduction of cover sheets in SELCS submissions so students could highlight unaccessible reading materials during the second wave of the 2020/21 Covid crisis and was able to highlight and have re-introduced missing materials from SELCS dissertation guidance on Moodle."
- SELCS Rep
"Delaying the 3rd year project report was successful for me. A poll was sent to the student asking how they felt about the deadline and what they propose to be. With so many votes, we were able to suggest a new date and it was approved."
- Electronic and Electrical Engineering Rep
"One of my biggest achievements was to get 3 weeks extension for everyone in their final year in my department to submit their dissertations. The official deadline moved from May 5th to May 26th. Students felt the need for more time in order to accommodate their dissertations to the new lockdown restrictions in January as well as time to not feel as anxious/stressed about it."
- Archaeology Rep
"As 3rd Year Course Reps we got feedback from various students telling us they were concerned about an upcoming online quiz for a module which they did not feel prepared for and were concerned about (particularly due to a tight time limit). We polled the cohort regarding the issue using an online form to figure out how common this sentiment was and what students wanted. After this, we decided to contact the module coordinator via email and organised a virtual meeting to discuss the issue. The module coordinator understood our concerns and we managed to come to an agreement whereby the time limit for the quiz was extended."
- Built Environment Rep
"Students in my course faced overlapping deadlines from three courseworks with tremendous stress. I made an online anonymous survey, asking students about how strong they feel the needs to postpone any of the deadlines. With the concrete feedback obtained from the majority of students in my course, I raised this issue on the following SSCC meeting. The outcomes we saw were that the deadlines were postponed to the end of the Easter vacation"
- Electronic and Electrical Engineering Rep
"There was a piece of coursework within one of our modules that seemed difficult to understand despite an available brief. I asked my fellow students if they felt the same and we all agreed that despite understanding the task, we did not know how to complete it in a way that we felt confident. I then suggested setting up a Q&A session with the module leaders to which the students agreed to. I contacted a member of our faculty and explained the situation. This prompted the module leaders to set up a Q&A session on the coursework in which the student could ask any and all questions. Upon feedback, the students were very grateful for the session and felt a lot more confident in completing the coursework."
- Information Studies Rep
"I have been successful in effectively communicating with the programme staff about the deadline congestion; when it was brought up to the programme staff in a constructive manner, they agreed with our points (supported by student surveys) and agreed to extend the time period between each assignment. This resulted in decreased stress for the students and feeling like they were being heard."
- Psychological Sciences Rep
"First year Biological Sciences students had an issue with the date of one of the exams. It was scheduled for the end of term 2, when the students had way more workload than in term 3. Me and the other reps discussed the problem and in an SSCC meeting, we suggested to move the exam to term 3. At first, the module organiser didn't wish to move the exam, but after a poll was held via Moodle, the exam had been moved to June."
- Biological Sciences Rep
"Me and the other academic rep have been continuously in touch with our colleagues via a common group chat. We responded quickly to their concerns, giving feedback directly to the tutors, lecturers and course organisers. Following students' concerns, we were able to move the deadline of an essay by one week and we were successfully given sample essays and dissertations when requested."
- Cardiovascular Science Rep
"We had an issue with one of the courseworks where guidance was not issued on the use of a particular software. This was raised in meetings which led to tutorials being planned for following terms on the use of particular software."
- Space and Climate Physics Rep
"For example, in term 2 we had the issue that we had way too many deadlines within 2 weeks and with the assignments coming online very late the students couldn't start until very close to those deadlines. That caused trouble with most of the students because it was too much work that even with the best time management and understanding of the modules would still be very difficult to meet the deadlines. So the other student reps and I got together and puzzled with all modules, core and optional, and figured out better deadlines would the students could actually meet and deliver some good work. We sent those deadlines to our programme director and the admin people and they agreed with most of these new deadlines."
- School of Management Rep
"In the second half of the first semester, which was leading up to Christmas, my course had two large assignments due within 3 working days. With it being the end of the semester students were struggling to keep motivated and approached me and the other course rep via the WhatsApp group that we had for our course to ask if we would speak to the course coordinator and ask for an extension for one of our core module assignments. After email communication with the lecturer who said that extension would be granted if the majority of the course agreed to the proposed extension of the assignment by submitting an email agreeing to the proposal, the essay was postponed until after Christmas."
- Archaeology Rep
"The most successful activity for me was being about to reschedule some exam dates as they were on the same day as Eid-Ul-Fitr ( a religious festival for 3 of us)... I pointed this out to the rest of my group and asked if they were ok with the exam dates. They all wanted to reschedule the dates, so I raised the issue with our programme leader and he was able to reschedule the events."
- Medicine Rep
"I have successfully changed the deadline for some of the coursework we had in Term 2. First, I raised the issue at the SSCC meeting. Then, I had the chance to discuss it further with one of the leading teachers in our department who helped me overcome the issue and subsequently spread out the workload."
- CLIE Rep
"We found that students were struggling to submit the work they were given to do over the holidays, given how disruptive the holidays were in terms of travel restrictions, quarantines and covid scares. We wrote a letter and asked all students who felt they had been affected to sign it and sent it to the Institute. The staff were understanding and gave a blanket week extension on all assignments."
- Institute of the Americas Rep
"One specific issue that we faced was the lack of exam practice for the practical OSCEs. I suggested to the medical school to make sample OSCE videos with examples of 'good' performances in an OSCE. This has gone through and some kind junior doctors and medical students have made one. This is now available to students."
- Medical School Rep
"Having had MANY deadlines this year, term 2 was especially a challenging time, due to increased difficulty in subjects taught, but also deadlines which were very close to each other. As many of our students were also aiming to start applying for jobs, and were also stressed with scoring their dissertation projects for term 3, the deadlines for assignments were an added point of stress. In order to alleviate this, we communicated constantly with students, and enquired their opinions, as well as communicated with staff with regards to the options of extending / moving deadlines. We sometimes emailed staff directly, but when it came to shuffling multiple deadlines at the same time, we needed to involve the programme director. He, in partnership with the Admin team managed to help us move the deadlines for 4 assignments, based on a newly proposed deadline schedule (created and unanimously approved by the Academic reps). This was highly appreciated in the cohort, and really helped with managing stress in these difficult times."
- School of Management Rep
"The best example where i have felt i've made a significant positive impact to my course was getting a piece of coursework cancelled. There was a lack of communication from this module leader and as a result, a piece of coursework was set in term 3 with 2 weeks notice. I called an immediate SSCC meeting, liaised with the Dean and the chair of the board of examiners and eventually got this coursework cancelled as it was causing each student on my course unnecessary stress and anxiety. Successfully making this change was very rewarding as the lead rep."
- Biomedical Sciences Rep