Examination Timetabling

Following concerns bought to us by a number of students about the timetabling of their exams, the exec worked with the SRC Advice Centre to investigate the extent of the problem.

We discovered three main areas that we felt the University could be doing more to alleviate the problems of examination timetabling.

  1. The examination timetable should be released earlier
  2. That exams should be evenly spaced throughout the examination period
  3. That there should be safeguards in place to ensure students don’t have a large number of exams in a short space of time

After writing the paper on the current situation we approached the University through the Student Support and Development Committee to raise our concerns. At that meeting it was decided to establish a working group, chaired by myself, to investigate the current problems with the examination timetable and devise some possible solutions. The working group has representatives from every college, the registry, estates and buildings and the equality and diversity unit.

We hope that some long lasting change can come from this project and improvements to the examination timetable will come about. A poor examination timetable can have profound effects on a student’s performance in exams, as well as creating practical problems for students in terms of travelling home following exams.