A block of examinations in the January assessment period was delayed by half an hour after English students were timetabled in the wrong location.
An unseen examination held on 8 January was shown online for students to be in Mandela Hall at 9:30. However, upon arrival there was no exam taking place and 30 minutes later students were redirected to the Sports Hall.
Sarah Bean, an English student affected by the timetable error, commented: “The confusion of exam halls on the day of my English exam was irritating to say the least. Not only did it interrupt my gathering of thoughts before the exam, (bearing in mind this is third year, so the assessments are vital), but it also caused the whole sports hall of students to be late starting their exam too.
“We were quickly ushered into the hall by the invigilators and told to put our belongings at the back, to then quickly find our seats.
“I would have preferred on the whole, the entirety of English students all taking the period of literature module to be present in the hall on the same day, at the same time to sit the exam, rather than disturbing the business and marketing students like we did.”
Another third year student added: “I came to the exam feeling prepared and calm but when we realised there was a mix up with the room, it made the whole situation much more stressful than it should have been.”
A University spokesperson said: “We’re really sorry about the mix-up on the day of this particular exam, which was caused by a small glitch in our new exam timetabling software.
“We do realise that the confusion was stressful for the students involved and we’ve already taken steps to prevent a situation like this happening again in the future.”
