Otago University has not yet released their semester one exam timetable. A commerce student went straight to the Vice-Chancellor with his complaint and received a response.
On May 5, Tim Lamb wrote an email to Vice-Chancellor Harlene Hayne outlining his “total dissatisfaction and dismay at the lack of responsibility and communication from Otago University”.
Normally, the semester one exam timetable is released in mid-April or late-April. That timeframe is confirmed on the University’s website.
Students have not yet received the timetable as of Wednesday May 6. Exams are scheduled to begin on June 3. There has been no communication from the University to suggest that those exams will be pushed back.
The subject line of Tim’s email read: “Examination timetable, Where is it?” His email stated that “this failing is not just of those who head the university, but is a management failure at every level”.
“I speak not only for myself, but for all students who are still waiting for their exam timetables which are now weeks overdue,” Tim wrote. He said as he is “already struggling with distance learning, I’m now having to deal with the added stress of not being able to adequately prepare myself for my exams which I fear will impact on my academic performance.”
“Although the exam timetable is typically published by now, I think you will agree that nothing about this year is typical,” the Vice-Chancellor responded. She said that the University is waiting for information on Alert Level Two before releasing details on exams.
The “University is working through a complex exercise of establishing the time-table for approximately 1000 papers against a backdrop of uncertainty regarding the conditions that will prevail under Level 2,” the Vice-Chancellor said.
“At that stage we will have a much better idea of what will be possible and I guarantee that we will get the information to students as soon as it is available,” she wrote. “The key for all of us to remain patient, respectful, and resilient,” the Vice-Chancellor said in the final line of her response.
“I'm by no means satisfied with the ‘Response’ or lack of from the Vice-Chancellor,” Tim told Critic. “I quite frankly feel she has skirted around the questions I have asked, and am tailoring my response to her previous email.” He said he was “beyond frustrated” with the response and the late exam timetable.
The “university appears to have forgotten that we students are paying customers, and as such we get the right to complain when the university doesn't fulfil their obligations.”
Tim highlighted in his comment to Critic that the University of Canterbury released their semester one exam timetable to students on Monday 4 May. Massey University have also released their exam timetable to students.
Tim plans to send a follow-up email to the Vice-Chancellor outlining his disappointment in her reply, he told Critic.
Update:
OUSA Academic Representative, Emily Coyle, said that Tim is not the first student to approach OUSA with their concerns about the late exam timetable. "[The OUSA executive] share these concerns and frustrations," she said. "We recognise that this delayed release of the timetable has an impact on the mental health and wellbeing of students at an already difficult time. Furthermore, we also recognise that this is causing added uncertainty and stress for students who need to be able to plan their study preparation ...".