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Strike Mitigations for Examination Papers

24 March 2023

What to do if an exam is impacted

Please find below the regulations and operational guidance on handling examination papers where the content has been impacted by industrial action. 


Adjusting Exam Papers and Assessment Tasks  

The Material Irregularities procedure permits the adjustment of an existing exam paper or assessment as mitigation. This may involve adjusting a question, removing certain questions, removing entire sections, or adjusting the rubric. Where it is agreed that the most appropriate mitigation for missed teaching is to adjust questions or tasks in an examination, this should be applied consistently to the whole cohort of students to ensure that there is parity between students.  

Adjustments to examination papers must be made in line with the operational guidance, detailed below.  


Changing the Method of Assessment  

It is anticipated that the vast majority of cases, where not already mitigated by the actions above, can be handled by an adjustment to the module assessment pattern that enables the students to evidence achievement of the majority of the module learning outcomes.   

Adjustments to the assessment pattern could include changes within the existing break down of components, but it could also include rebalancing across the components by removing those deemed unworkable in favour of a new, adjusted assessment task.   

Adjustments to assessment MUST NOT result in the introduction of new centrally managed examinations.  


Operational Guidance for Exam Board Chairs & ELOs  

Changes to examination papers following industrial action. 

The deadline for the submission of soft copies of exam papers has now passed:  Therefore the following needs to happen if a revised paper needs to be used: - 

Papers for In-person Exams: must now be printed by the department and hand delivered to the Exam Ops room.  If the paper being submitted is a revised paper then please ensure that the cover sheet clearly states REVISED PAPER. Please ensure that there are enough copies for each candidate plus some spares. 

Papers for online Exams: departments are able to upload these themselves directly onto the AssessmentUCL platform.  Ensuring that the cover sheet clearly states that the paper is a revised paper.   

  • If a replacement paper is required, this must be submitted to the Central Assessment Team or uploaded onto AssessmentUCL no later than three weeks before the start of the Central Assessment Period. If a replacement paper is not submitted by this date the original paper that has been submitted will be used.  
  • The deadline for the submission and upload of any revised papers is 3rd April
  • Any assessment papers delivered after this date risk being cancelled, and not run during the Central Assessment Period. Any assessments that are cancelled will need to be run in the department.  
  • Exam sittings that are removed from the central assessment timetable may be converted to an alternative method of assessment if this method will enable a measure of the same module learning outcomes.   
  • Please note that corrections on the day of assessment are not permitted.  
  • The Central Assessment Team can only accept a replacement paper where it is a consequence of industrial action.  

The deadline for receipt of any revised examination papers by the Central Assessment Team will be 3 April


Contact details for further information: examinations@ucl.ac.uk