To our present knowledge, 2nd year economics students in NUI Galway are still due to sit some in-person exams scheduled to take place over the next 2-3 weeks. For example, 2nd year exams, Comparative Economic Thought (100% of the grade) and Intermediate Microeconomics (60% of the grade).

With the growing number of COVID-19 cases and the new Omicron variant proving to be unpredictable at the current time, students feel unsafe being placed in crowded exam settings when there is a much safer alternative of having them online. This concern is reinforced by recent news of an event reported by the Daily Mail wherein 60 people were infected with the Omicron variant at a 120-person event in Norway.

After the exams for psychology, politics and sociology and most recently, law being moved online in light of the head of the law school advocating for online exams and having this approved by the Kings Inn, we don’t understand why the economics faculty and NUI Galway haven't taken the executive decision to follow suit.

It has been made abundantly clear the faculty of the disciplines mentioned above are of the consensus that in-person exams aren’t safe and we demand to know why the economics department seem to protest those claims asserted by their refusal to switch the exam format to online?

Furthermore, pictures of the exam hall set-up in centres such as the Kingfisher have surfaced online. These pictures do not display a scenario wherein tables are adequately spaced apart and the capacity of exam centres are 40-60% of their capacity, a promise NUI Galway insisted they would commit to delivering on numerous occasions in defence of in-person exams. 

Finally, some lecturers may ignorantly argue that college students had no regard for their Covid over the past few months in college, however some have returned home for Christmas after learning concluded in week 12 and now their responsibility has extended to family members, not just themselves. With approximately 18,000 students in NUI Galway, in-person exams are inevitably going to subject a large portion of the Irish population to COVID-19 which is extraordinarily irresponsible.

We plead with NUI Galway to show some compassion for the well-being of students and cancel any exams that remain to be sat in-person!