Students' Union success: Assessment extensions for Staffordshire University students

A message from your Elected Officer team: "Our students have had a lot thrown at them this year and this two week extension will be a welcome relief to many who are struggling with the impact of the national lockdown and, of course, the changing nature of the pandemic throughout the rest of this academic year.

We're aware that there are a small number of courses where this wouldn't be possible, which is why we're working with the University to figure out a solution for these cases.

We hope to have more information for you around exceptional circumstances soon as we are presenting student perspectives to the University this Thursday, insisting that:

• Emergency Regulations should be put in place
• All students need to be appropriately supported to achieve as best they can
• Identifying and making alternative arrangements to assessments and exams is critical
• Giving additional time for assessments and exams should be considered
• When practical elements of assessments (e.g. presentations) are completed, they should be reviewed for some students; for example evenings and weekends
• Developing different processes should be considered in order to make sure learning and teaching is accessible to all should be considered
  
  Thank you for bearing with us this week whilst we've been working away in the background. The resilience we’ve seen from our students is amazing. Please continue to remain safe, and keep encouraging and looking after one another. We'll get through this."

The following applies to ALL pieces of assessed work e.g. exams and assignments. If you are unsure what this means for you, get in touch with your course tutor.

University announcement on assessments
The University is extending first-semester assessment deadlines by two weeks from their original dates. In the small number of cases where this is not possible, your course team will notify you directly.

Although this extension is available to you to support you in case of any disruption caused by the current lock-down we would encourage you as far as possible to meet the original deadline date. This will ensure that you have completed your work for semester 1 and are better able to focus on your semester 2 learning. It also provides more time for staff to complete their marking.

Where assessments are received after the initial due date there may be a delay in marking and feedback as staff will be marking alongside their teaching duties and may also be managing additional pressures due to lockdown. I hope you will bear with us.

Have something to say about how covid-19 is affecting your studies? Get in touch at studentvoice@staffs.ac.uk or have your say:

• By logging in and using the comments section below
• Tag or direct message us on social media (@staffsunion)