UQ students to resit exam after tech bungle compromised results
Hundreds of students are being forced to resit an exam after a worrying bungle that has left the UQ Union questioning the university’s transparency and calling for a reversal of the decision to repeat the test.
Education
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Students at the state’s top university are being forced to resit an end of semester exam after the uni claimed a software bungle left results compromised.
About 450 students enrolled in an introduction to finance course at The University of Queensland (UQ) will be required to retake the exam in a move that’s angered student representatives and left the university’s union calling for transparency.
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An email sent to affected students cited that the original examination paper, completed last week, “was accessed without authorisation and has therefore compromised the integrity of this assessment.”
The email said UQ can “assure no other information or systems were accessed.”
Although the university claims there is no suggestion the incident is a result of a cyber attack, UQ Union said the lack of transparency raises concerns.
“At this stage it is not clear that purported integrity breach was a result of the actions of a single rogue student or the failure of university staff to properly secure exam materials,” a statement from UQ Union president Ethan Ven Roo Douglas said.
“The University has referred to the matter as a ‘technical issue’ in its statement, but has not provided students with any information on the nature of the issue or how their exams have been compromised.
“ … The lack of transparency around the nature of the breach poses serious questions for exam integrity across the university.”
Only one exam was required to be retaken by students due to a technical issue with the university’s internal intranet.
A statement from UQ said affected students “have been provided additional time to submit the new exam or have been granted deferrals on request.”
The Union said they will be raising the matter to the Academic Board and is calling on UQ to reverse their decision to make students repeat the exam.
“We intend to escalate the matter as far as we need to go to resolve the issue and ensure students are treated fairly,” Mr Ven Roo Douglas said.
“I am not aware of any protocol governing the repeat of exams in this way, and the University has failed to communicate to affected students the procedure for repeating exams, or their rights in these scenarios.”
The Union is providing free support to affected students through their Student Advocacy Service.