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Home Canterbury News Article
Students at the University of Kent are asking for more leniency in the marking of their assessments.
Many students at the university – which has campuses in Medway and Canterbury – are taking lectures from home.
They have also been informed anyone taking a scheduled, timed written exam this summer will be doing them online.
However, more than 2,500 students have signed an e-petition addressed to the university's vice-chancellor Karen Cox, asking for a change in the way these exams are marked.
Universities including Exeter and Southampton have implemented a 'no detriment' policy where students cannot achieve lower than their current average grade.
They can, however, score higher than this mark.
Zara Fenlon, who set up the petition, described it as a "safety net" for students.
The petition page reads: "I have become increasingly concerned over the past few days of the extent to which the university is supporting us through the Covid-19 outbreak.
"Speaking from my own experience, and to friends from the university, students are finding it hard to work at home.
"Some have no workspace, no laptop and some even no internet.
"I do not think it is at all acceptable to assume that students can prepare effectively for online exams, nor can they perform to their normal ability.
"I think it is particularly necessary for UKC to consider the mental health of students at this time, and to consider how they can be made to feel secure in their final year grades."
Some universities, including Exeter, have made a provision where so long as students achieve a pass mark in their assessments, such as coursework and summer exams, their average will remain the same or higher than it was before social distancing measures came into force, on a date agreed by the university.
The University of Kent has been contacted for comment.
Meanwhile, the National Union of Students (NUS) has written to the providers of rented accommodation for students to make arrangements for them during the coronavirus outbreak.
Their list of demands are: Ensuring all tenants and landlords have access, and to implement, clear and holistic public health advice, ensuring every landlord offers students a no-penalty early release from tenancy contracts for the current and next academic year, ending all evictions for all renters for the duration of the crisis, waiving or subsiding rents for renters who are financially impacted by the outbreak and suspending all rent increases for the next 12 months.
Eva Crossan Jory, NUS vice president for welfare, said: “There is a crisis facing the millions of student renters in this country, as a result of coronavirus, and we hope that all these landlords will step up to protect students and implement our asks.
"They can act now and reassure their student tenants and send a message to future tenants about how they will be treated.
For the latest coronavirus news and advice, click here.
