There is to be no automatic deferral to be offered to students for semester one exams, in contrast to last year.
In an email to all students this afternoon, College outlined the updated regulations in place for semester one assessments.
Students will be permitted to defer “online or in person examinations for Covid-related or other medical reasons” only, and “no record of deferral will appear on your transcript” in this case.
Students who “contract Covid”, “display symptoms”, or “are a close contact”, “must not attend an in-person exam or sit an online exam on campus”, and should “contact either [their] Tutor or Course Director as soon as possible”.
It is also possible that “if you fall ill with something else, you may not be able to sit an online examination in a private setting”.
The deferral session for Michaelmas term exams is to take place from February 7 to February 19 for Covid-positive students and close contacts. Contingency dates of February 21 to February 26 have also been allocated for the deferral period.
Deferred exams will be scheduled for “ late afternoons, evenings or weekends” within the deferral period and “consideration will be given to other factors such as existing teaching or lecture requirements, to minimise the impact on students and staff whenever possible”.
Students availing of these deferrals must “provide a copy/screen shot of the text message confirming the positive PCR Covid result from the HSE ensuring that the date is displayed”.
“If it’s the case that there were no available slots for a PCR test within these three days, students must submit proof with a screenshot.”
Students who are living in a residence with a confirmed positive case “must restrict [their] movements until [they] have 3 negative antigen test results within 5 days”.
Students looking to defer from the February reassessment, or who fail during that period, may resit the exams in the autumn.
Failed examinations from December or January will also be retaken in the autumn reassessment session.
Students requiring in-person examination for professional accreditation reasons or because their exams are lab-based “will be informed by your module coordinator” if those exams need to be “deferred for all students to the deferral session”
“If students cannot submit continuous assessment assignments for Covid-related or other reasons, [they] should contact [their] Tutor or Course Director to agree a revised submission date”: the email stated.
