The evolution of the health situation has prompted the rectorate of the University of Neuchâtel to take distance tests. Two days before the start of the session, the decision makes people cringe.
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Surprise, Tuesday morning, by picking up the mailbox. Two days before the start of the exam session, the students of the University of Neuchâtel (UNINE) learned that the tests initially planned in person would finally be done remotely from next Monday. The only exceptions are sports students, as well as those who are in their first year of medicine.
“In view of health developments, with some 30,000 new Covid cases per day, it is a case of force majeure, declares Nando Luginbühl, spokesperson for UNINE. We didn’t want students to have to give up exams because they were in quarantine or sick. ”
He recalls that this last minute decision was however taken by the rectorate after consulting the teaching and student body of all sectors.
Already seen
Last year, at the same time, the students had already had to spend their distance events, exposing itself to digital surveillance via Webex, an internal videoconferencing system. “The student’s screen will have to be turned on again this year, and random checks will be carried out,” the spokesperson continues. However, special attention will be paid to first-year pupils, ”adds Nando Luginbühl. The latter will be entitled, for example, to more detailed explanations or to more availability for any questions.
“The workload is not the same”
A few days ago, the Committee of the Federation of Neuchâtel Students (FEN) carried out a survey in which 1,200 students out of 4,000 took part. A large majority of them said they were in favor of taking exams at a distance, reports “ArcInfo».
If Hélène * does not dispute this change – she even sees it as a good point – this student in economics criticizes the rectorate for its late announcement.
Some of its teachers have already changed the terms. “We go from exams without documentation in the classroom to books opened remotely, so it’s frustrating, because we don’t prepare in the same way. The workload is not the same, “laments the young woman, whose writings scheduled for this week have been postponed to the end of the session.
She continues: “The Omicron wave was already present in December, when the dates were announced. There, two days before the exams, everyone was ready… ”
But students who no longer wish to take the exams because of this change must notify their faculty of their decision to withdraw from the session until midnight Friday. “Their withdrawal will be assimilated to a justified absence, and therefore not to a failure”, specifies Nando Luginbühl.
* Loan first name.