Glasgow University students' anger over reintroduction of in-person exams

Students have criticised the University of Glasgow for reintroducing in-person exams for some courses at short notice.

Open-book, online exams were introduced in 2020 due to the pandemic.

A group of Life Sciences students say they have been given two months notice that exams will be reverting back to their traditional closed-book, handwritten format.

The university say the decision has been taken due to concerns about artificial intelligence.

It will affect Life Sciences exams for students in years three and four of their degrees.

A university spokesperson said they wanted to be able to assure students and future employers that their Life Sciences exams and grades were reliable.

However students say the university has not given them enough time to prepare, after being reassured that they would sit their end-of-year exams online with access to study materials.

Rosie McCrone, a fourth year microbiology student from Perth, said the change meant that she would be sitting in-person university exams for the first time for her final exam before graduation.

She said it had left her and her classmates feeling "very low" and "sad".

"It's all anyone can talk about. I've not felt this anxious since I was a teenager in school," she said.

"Up until now we've been tested on the way we format an argument, we've never been tested on our ability to recall information. That's something we are going to need to teach ourselves.

"It's a source of anxiety for a lot of people now that they'll have to do it after never doing in-person exams before."

"Everyone's really stressed because you can't re-sit the year if you're in third or fourth year unless you have a medical reason," she added.

"There was no real indication of when they would go back to in-person. It's not even the start of the semester."

She said there had been little support to ease the transition for students.

"I don't understand why they haven't included us in the conversation from the start if they had concerns," she said.

"Mainly because it's short notice, students are going to have to work so hard."

Stacey Harris, a third-year human biology student said she has concerns about the resources available to students.

"They are telling us to use past papers to study, but the past papers for the past four years have been for online exams and before that the course content was different," she said.

"If it's because of AI, why is it so sudden? AI was about in December during our last assessments."

Ms Harris is concerned the exam could affect her whole degree outcome.

"I have to get a C grade this year otherwise I'll graduate late.

"I'm 30, the last time I sat an in-person exam I was 15. Others haven't ever done it, it's a three-hour handwritten exam.

"It is insane that they think it is OK to spring this on us last minute and they are showing no remorse."

Xiwang Yu, a third-year anatomy student from China, said the news has caused her mental, physical and financial stress.

She told BBC Scotland News: "Since I've been studying here in Glasgow, everything has been online now we've got this news with little notice.

"I have social anxiety so it can be difficult to attend classes sometimes. Adding an exam in too has been really difficult."

She had been planning to visit her parents back in China and had told her letting agent her course would finish in March but this is now uncertain.

"They are now saying the exam could be at the start of April, the university haven't given us definite dates yet, they just keep saying wait and see," she continued.

The University of Glasgow said a range of measure have been put in place to support students in their preparations.

A spokesperson added: "The university has made the change to invigilated, in-person, hand-written exams in Life Sciences exams for year three and four in response to the rapidly changing capabilities of generative AI (artificial intelligence) tools, as a result of which online exams in many scientific disciplines are becoming more susceptible to misuse by these tools.

"The university is committed to adapting and re-designing our approaches to learning, teaching and assessment in ways that recognise the importance and huge potential of AI for the workplace.

"We are taking this step so that we can assure all students - together with the quality bodies that accredit degrees, as well as future employers - that the Life Sciences exams are reliable and the grades awarded are too."