University being unreasonable?

[WithIcePlease]

NC as this could be indentified easily
V small university - maybe 120 in DD's year, only does 1 subject
She has been told that no deadlines will change which she is alright with and that no difference will be applied to marking schemes for her final degree.
She was in tears this morning. She would normally be spending 6 hours a day in a London library looking up and reading sources for her dissertation. She usually has a substantial bibliography for her essays etc which she will not have. All the libraries are closed and it's too late to change her topic for her dissertation.
As her subject is an older one not modern (think medieval or Victorian), there are not available sources online.
She has worked so hard and may have got a first under normal circs.
She has emailed and that is the response she got - no change.
I don't know what other universities doing? Is hers out of step?
It seems very unreasonable to me
Any ideas please?

Even my shitty uni has all of our book in an elibrary. Is she sure she can’t access them?

It’s varied. My own is cancelling some assessments to reduce burden. I’m sure all of them will look at performance at the exam board - if there’s a dip in these final assessments relative to earlier ones they could be discounted. I’m surprised the university haven't contacted her to reassure her about this.

What is her topic? In broad terms, not necessarily specific?

Is is that art based subject?
It is going to be difficult for your dc to source some material on online but increasingly large volumes of both library resources and art collections are online.
Most journals are online.

What are the sources?

Has she got online journal access? A few wise searches could get her an awful lot of useful information. Also she could see what the British library have online, might have more than a small uni. Finally the British library also have a thesis search option. If she can get hold of a few PhD theses in her area she could use their literature reviews and introductions for her work as they would provide a broad overview. Just remember to cite them properly according to her uni's conventions.

When you say no sources are online - there will still be electronic resources online with journal articles and access to books electronically, regardless of period. You don't mean the source texts surely, as she would have those already and I would also expect those to be available online? What sort of thing is she looking for that she can't find?

That said, I am very surprised at what her university have said. There is no standard way though that they have to follow as part of post-18 education, but most universities are making allowances and extending deadlines. It sounds like quite an unusual institution anyway. Is there a students' union? Has she spoken to them? Has she made an official request for an extension?

I would certainly look more closely at the sources issue though. It seems unlikely to me that there really is nothing available.

But how long an extension would she need? Six months maybe until libraries open....certainly at least 3. Then she needs to write stuff once she’s found her sources. So chances are she wouldn’t graduate this year.

She could take an interruption?

My local uni is doing a 2 week extension only for dissertations. The idea behind that is people might have kids at home (mature students) or be a bit stressed. But seeing as dissertations are due in in May they really should have gathered the vast majority of sources by now, dine the reading, etc.

What’s her dissertation topic?

Can you say the subject? Someone here may have some access to some of the resources.

Are you referring to archival sources OP?

The university is being very unreasonable. We are bending over backwards to understand and accommodate students.

Useful starting point perhaps:
www.british-history.ac.uk/

There really is a ton of material online (primary and secondary sources) - access might depend on her institutional subscriptions but more online repositories are opening their collections due to Covid-19.

Also wondering what the subject matter is.. maybe some MNers might have books etc on the topic?

She needs to speak to library subject specialist. They can make sources available online

is this an UG degree? It is rare that you need to find lots of offline resources for undergrad, so find what you can online.

look on JStore and Google Scholar - a lot of stuff is accessible somewhere.

National Archives and British Library may still have online resources available - most universities have an agreement with them so she should check that.

Also here: www.timeout.com/news/this-national-emergency-library-is-offering-free-online-access-to-1-4-million-books-032620?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&cid=%7Elondon%7Enatsoc%7Efacebook%7Eechobox&fbclid=IwAR3A3e524Wo-xjvh12t-CTjPlhlC_rECec14RTXmoR8YOXp9GLh6Knq0-Sg#Echobox=1585233612

That's got quite a lot of older sources that may help her out too.

Does she have a tutor she can speak to other than her dissertation supervisor?

Ask her university library for help. Many academic libraries are now offering access for free. Her library should be able to help her.

It's a degree in history of art

MaryHerbert
How a particular subject is portrayed in an art era
The sources she uses seem to be mainly books from Senate House library
I'm not sure if they are archives - I'll ask her
This is a far bigger response than I expected!!

Thank you all
I'll sit down with her and go through the suggestions individually
I'm truly grateful

I’m doing an MSc atm and my uni have the same attitude. Deadlines are the same.
I wouod advise her to contact her personal tutor to review how to get round the issue of accessing the information she needs.
We will also do all the exams online Incl oral exams.

I would also review how much extension she can get. I suspect we will be out by May-June. That might be enough for her to finish.

She won’t be the only person in that case and she needs to find a way around it. The best people to advise her in that are the ones at her Uni. She needs to get in touch with them first and foremost (I know my uni has been in touch with us regarding some work that needed physical access to our Uni. They found a way around it)

Ds3’s gf is graduating this year. They are doing their exams online, but have been told that the exam results won’t drop their grade below their predicted one - so if they are working at a 2:1 level up to now, but don’t do very well in the exam and the exam result should drop them to a 2:2, they will get the 2:1. If they do spectacularly well in the exam, and it takes them up to the First, they will get the First.

That seems pretty fair and reasonable to me.

Another piece of advice is to get her to write what she has now in draft at least - she may find she has enough - her tutor / supervisor should then be able to help find the additional resources for what she will need.

I have found that drafts of work already done always make lecturers more engaging in issues.

Has she messaged her dissertation supervisor directly to seek their advice around the completion of her dissertation, given issues about the sources, OP? That might be a more productive conversation than an general one with the university administration.

She can ask her supervisor to contact the library and see if there are e-book versions of her texts. If so, these can be put online.

Do put the word out on Facebook in case someone local has useful books they would lend. I would be happy to lend my texts (unfortunately about medieval childhood) under these circs.

As well as books she should also be using relevant journal articles, most of which will be online and likely available through her library. She will have a subject librarian. Their name will be on her course handbook, or she could just email the library and ask who it is. It is that librarian’s job to help them find resources and even if they’re not onsite they will be working from home and should be able to steer her in the right direction.

My uni has given extensions and quite frankly it’s a pain in the ass and not in the students best interests - all they’re doing is giving them the opportunity to take their foot off the pedal and drag it out for longer. It won’t make the slightest difference to their grade. The really good ones have more or less finished anyway, and the poor ones will just sit on their butts for an extra month before they start writing.