University of Winchester students are feeling let down and broken at the news of the new ‘no detriment policy’ implemented by the senior management team (SMT), which simply included a bunch of extensions to assignments. 

The University of Winchester is failing to support students properly. Assignment extensions will not help to reduce anxiety and stress due to lacking resources and fewer teaching hours. Students were promised these measures would be applied retrospectively to assignments already submitted this academic year, but you cannot get an extensions on an assignment you have already submitted ! This does nothing to ensure that the work students are submitting is their true potential, and taking a week long extension does not do this. 

Last years third year students received ‘a safety net’ where if their grades fell below their average prior to the pandemic, those grades would not count to their overall grade. Those students worked in a pandemic for 2/3 months. Final year students this year have been working for over a year in these conditions, yet no safety net. This is not right and needs to change.

We NEED a safety net to protect our grades, it is clear we are not able to produce the same quality of work throughout the pandemic, and the university has a duty of care to provide this support to its students! 

Students have been left feeling abandoned, wondering how they are going to get through the year or graduate with a degree that they worked hard and paid for! 

WE are URGING SMT to rethink these measures and implement policies that effectively supports students.