We are writing this petition on behalf of many affected University of London students who are signing this petition. We are raising our concerns about the upcoming assessments in May and June 2022. Following are the reasons why we feel that the mode of assessments should remain online, the same as the previous two years, and that a shift back to face to face examinations isn’t the best or the safest option for many of us given the circumstances. 

Firstly, the University is said to only provide confirmation on how students will be assessed by 18 January 2022. This is barely three months to the examinations in May and June. Studying for online assessments and face-to-face assessment requires different study techniques. For example: Online assessments require more practice on questions and even additional time to read outside the study materials to gain a wider understanding. Face-to-Face assessments requires more memory work. It is because it is quite obvious that the past online assessment exam papers for the year 2020/2021 examinations were more difficult when compared to in-person pen and paper assessments held previously. Hence, any sudden change to the online mode of assessments will catch us off guard, since we have adjusted ourselves to the past 2 years online timed assessments, which wasn’t an easy endeavour in its self. 

Secondly, considering the University is only able to confirm the full details on how students will be assessed in January, this provides fairly little time for foreign students to make travel arrangements to return to their local examination centres. Furthermore, considering the differing travel restrictions imposed in different countries, this also makes things harder.

Thirdly, by holding assessments in examination centres on computers. This is a fairly new mode of assessment which not many of us are familiar with. This could hinder our performance when compared to the online exams on computers, which we barely got adjusted to in two years. In addition, holding this mode of assessment only for certain programmes is unjust and does not promote a fair approach for equal examinations standards across University of London programmes.

Finally, as we are sure the concerned authorities are aware, the whole Covid situation is ambiguous, times are very testing and students around the globe are going through various problems, both directly related to Covid as well as the impact all of this has had on their mental health. Lockdowns and restrictions are being imposed in different parts of the world and the SOPs are being revised based on Omicron, a variant that is not even fully understood. UK alone recorded the highest number of cases in the past week and we are still uncertain about the rise or decline of this new wave.

Exams need to be online this year as well. The whole point of shifting to an online way of conducting the assessments, was to work around the obstacles created by Covid in 2020. We students don’t see the logic in going back to pre covid mode of assessment, when obviously covid is still raging and only growing day by day. Some of us live in countries where there’s a strong anti-vaccine sentiment and as much as we might disagree with such people, the fact is that we’re at a higher risk of contraction and transmission. We, students, wouldn’t be comfortable going to centres, aware of the risks, with family members at increased risk of a deadlier infection. We would like to keep our health before anything else and expect the UOL, as it has done in the past, to do the same.