University announces plans to bring all exams forward a week in light of floods

“No stop off at the Wetherspoons for a hot chocolate” – YUSU President Ben Leatham biked around York taking pictures of the flooding.

David Duncan, Registrar and Secretary at the University of York and occasional novelist, has today announced the University’s plan to deal with the floods impacting upon exams and assessments: all deadlines are to be brought forward a week, to equalize the lack of preparation among students.

This news has come after the extreme flooding across York, resulting from heavy rainfall during ‘Storm Frank’ and the opening of the Foss barrier.

Students on the YUSU-created support group expressed concern over the impact the floods may have on their exams, with one student – John Bognor, 23, Astronomy – saying that he will be unable to attend his exam, as he is “caught in the current [of the River Foss]” and “rly need help [sic]”. The University’s announcement today comes as no surprise, then.

David Duncan explained in an email that was sent out to all University students:

Dear student,

Further to previous emails from myself and Dr King, we are today announcing that to ensure complete fairness in this term’s exams, all scheduled assessments and hand-in deadlines are to be brought forward, with the University operating extra hours over the weekend.  Additionally, to reduce the stress that many of you must be feeling, we’ve reduced the time between exams – hopefully this will make sure that no students are panicking over their work for days on end during this stressful period.

In addition, we’ve decided to temporarily disallow mitigating circumstances forms to be submitted – we hope that this will further alleviate stress from affected students.

As ever, please check your timetables and the VLE for up-to-date information on your assessments.

Regards,

Dr David Duncan

Registrar and Secretary

To support the drastic measure of bringing all dates forward, the University will be operating emergency exam and essay hand-in sessions 24/7 over the weekend, with some STEM subject students noting that they’re expected to attend up to as many as fifteen hours of assessments a day. You can find our your new exam timetable on the timetabling website, and information on your hand-ins on the VLE.