Potentially discriminatory extra time exam rules?

[Aleiha]

Just really wanted to sense check this.

DD is at a top ranking University and is entitled to extra time in exams due to having a disability. This is not disputed by the University which has given her 25% extra time. This is also what she had during A levels and GCSEs.

She is studying an essay based subject (history) and has had her first exam today and discovered that the university have extended the four hour exam to five hours. This is fine but they have applied the extra time to all students sitting the exam. This includes those with a disability and those without. The rationale from the university is that those who don't need the extra time won't use it and those who do need it can then use it.

Its a online open book exam (two essays) and so clearly everyone will use the extra time.

Is this a correct application of the rules? My understanding was that the extra time is supposed to alleviate any disadvantage she suffers due to her disability.

Did she have enough tine to finish OP?

NRTFT but it sounds to me like they can’t be bothered to set specific timeframes within the submission portal for specific students (e,g all students except x,yz have until noon to submit and x,y, z have until 13:00 ) and so they’ve gone ‘sod it let’s just have the portal open until 13:00 for all’

Which as others have pointed out disadvantages those with additional time needs as in effect they’re actually getting less time than they need.

Not entirely sure what can be done unless you try on a safeguarding line that her needs are not being met, unfortunately. You need someone who both understands equality law and how it applies to HE for this one.

It sounds like they don't want anyone to be disadvantaged by time and would rather see what students can do if they are given as much time as they want. Your daughter isn't disadvantaged if the time pressure has effectively been removed for everyone.

No they’re getting less time than they want. Not than they need.

You would be wise to exhaust internal processes before paying for legal advice.

If a student's accommodation isn't meeting their needs, it is their responsibility to inform the university and discuss potential adjustments. If this applies to an exam already taken, there will be an appeals process. Her claim may well be affected if she hasn't already raised this concern and had previously sat comparable exams. I do think it's possible that this exam wasn't long enough to allow all students to finish comfortably, despite the design, and that this would be worth raising.

The portal systems I'm familiar with allow you to leave the submission inbox open, and then check time submitted against any accommodations. This is much easier and less risky than setting up individualised portals. So I doubt that's a motive here. Giving extra time where needed while being fair to all students is something my university, and I'm sure many others, gives a lot of thought, time, and resources to. I wouldn't assume a cynical motive.

Back in lock down I had to rather quickly rewrite an entire anatomy and physiology exam as it went from being sat under exam conditions to being taken at home. So Had to make it an open book exam. No point asking them to label a diagram of a heart and made it more essay/scenario questions instead.

in my mind it was still a two hour exam. Plan was to release the exam at 10am and it would need to be submitted by midday. The mature students with toddlers and kids rightly pointed out they would be caring for small children in this two hour period as the schools were shut. They couldn’t use family for childcare and some had partners still going to work.

So I said to them ok you have 24 hours to do the exam in. In my mind they still only needed 2 hours. I would have struggled to write for much more than two hours. I obviously had no way of policing how long they took. They told me afterwards that most of them had spent 18 hours doing the exam. While there were some good papers there were a lot which were average and some still failed. Which I think goes to show is that extra time, unless you need it for dyslexia, slow processing, etc is not the benefit people think it is.

They aren’t competing against each other.

You think it’s fair that a disabled student who qualifies for 25% extra time, to even out the playing field, making them not disadvantaged compared to their non disabled counterparts, then has that taken away? By taken away, I mean the non disabled get an extra hour that they’re not entitled to, have never needed, have been able to work within their time constraints, but suddenly, oh here you go, x needs this extra hour so you can all have it too 🤨 The non disabled got their time extended, the disabled didn’t. It’s that simple.

No. She gets 25%extra to anyone without the same dispensation. Otherwise where's the benefit?

@Stoicandhappyof course they are competing against each other. That's how exams work! Grading lines are set once all the marks are in to differentiate between the most able and least able and that's exactly why an even playing field matters so much!

That is not how grading worked in any of the universities I have worked in. I believe A-levels and GCSEs do work that way. But Universities are, intentionally, different. Universities set their own standards - that is what makes them universities - and candidates don't have to be graded to a curve.

When I did my history degree, some students left half way through the 3 hour paper. I don’t think you can assume everyone will stay for a 5 hour exam

Though my experience as an invigilator last year for a levels were so many kids had extra time it seemed like it was being used to chest the system, 69 / 112 kids got 25% extra. The head is very unhappy being most of those 69 have diagnosis from private providers and the school do not agree with the diagnosis, they believe parents are getting the diagnosis to get the extra time, the school have to apply for the extra time because the private ed psych has provided paperwork. He feels it’s down to whether parents can pay and not true need.

now both of my dc got extra time but both were diagnosed young, not aged 15/16 just in time for exams!

No. That’s not how it works at degree level.

I sat exams like this in Sweden. The exam length was around 3hrs but we all got 5hrs if we wanted. I left after 3 hours as I had nothing more to add. Students got as much time as they wanted.

I mean you could argue its "unfair" your dyslexic daughter gets the same amount of extra time as someone with much more severe difficulties

But as long as she gets the time she needs, it doesn't matter what someone else gets.

It makes sense to me to give everyone the additional hours and then those who need it can use it.

This rubbish explains why some courses give 40% firsts. There’s no rigour. Also explains lack of employment. Most students should be time constrained or you simply aren’t good enough. A few deserve extra time.

I'm not sure an extra two hours would make your answers better. Not at degree level. They are usually looking for original and well reasoned argument not an endless summary of the facts. I always finished in 2 hours 30/2 hours 45 in a three hour exam and always got a first. Another few paragraphs aren't what makes the difference.

@Whyarentyoureadyyet It’s not quantity but quality - of course. However looking up everything you need to in open book is time consuming and extra time helps you formulate your answer and how you research. Time you don’t have in the real world.

But time to accurately reference, cross reference and check could

This actually makes a lot of sense. I wish they would introduce a similar system at GCSE and A Level, and even lower

You are wrong. It doesn’t work like that at degree level.

I've observed no correlation between time spent on written exam and grade obtained - except at the extreme of leaving 20 minutes in.

I would usually test ability to respond on the spot in oral exams. If I wanted to design a written exam to test speed of response I could certainly do so, but I'm not terribly interested in measuring the relative speed of students' handwriting.

Given the abundant abuse of extra time (a third of my daughter's class was given extra time for A levels) I think this sounds like a sensible plan. Extra time isn't meant to give people a leg up but to make sure they are not disadvantaged by time limits. Five hours to do a four hour exam seems like a great solution.