The structure of Trinity’s Foundation Scholarship exams (Schols) – in which students face multiple, notoriously tough exams – could be radically changed under proposals brought to University Council earlier this year, which would see the exams scrapped and replaced by one general paper and a students’ previous grades.
Being elected a Scholar is a coveted and prestigious prize: they are entitled to free accommodation, as well as free fees and dining rights in Commons. The proposed changes would change the face of one of Trinity’s oldest traditions.
Minutes from a meeting of University Council from February of this year show that Senior Lecturer Kevin Mitchell brought forward a proposal – discussed previously at the Undergraduate Studies Committee (USC) – recommending a new structure in which students’ results from the first semester in their second year would also be included in their Schols results.
Instead of sitting multiple exams, Schols candidates would do one general paper in their chosen subject in “the week immediately following the current first semester assessment week”, instead of in January which is currently the case.
According to the minutes, Senior Lecturer Kevin Mitchell told Council that these changes would make Schols “more accessible to students, condensing the period required for the examinations by having one general paper per subject/programme”. They would also incorporate “more diverse modes of assessment in line with TEP [the Trinity Education Programme]”.
However, while the Central Scholarship Committee (CSC) was “generally in support of it”, Secretary of the Scholars Felix Frank had “expressed reservations” at the USC meeting where the proposal had originally been discussed.
Frank “highlighted the need for the process to be carefully considered and not rushed”.
Frank also told the USC that “Scholars have expressed reservations with the proposed changes, especially on the proposal to take course work into account, which will put students under more pressure”.
“He emphasised the need for consultation with relevant parties such as the Scholars, past Scholars and Fellows.” In response the Provost said that there would be opportunities for consultation with them.
The minutes also state that the USC had “expressed some concerns and reservations relating to the calibration of criteria, and on altering the nature of Senior Fresh assessments making them more competitive”, but that the committee was “broadly supportive of reviewing the examinations in the context of TEP”.
In an email statement to The University Times regarding the proposal, Frank and assistant secretary Ryan Alberto Ó Giobúin said that the Scholars had “many reservations concerning the proposal brought to council, some of which I raised at council”.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, exams in Trinity have shifted mainly online, with exams that would take up to three hours in-person now spanning multiple days online, so as to avoid students congregating in exam halls.
Frank and Alberto Ó Giobúin told this newspaper that “we were assured that the proposal was being shelved, so we did not write a response to this proposal”.
“Unfortunately, [we] have not been able to get replies from college officers in recent months, so [we] don’t know whether a new version of this proposal is currently on the way”, they said.
In an email statement to The University Times about his proposed changes, Senior Lecturer Kevin Mitchell said that “College is actively exploring how Scholarship examinations will run this year under the challenging conditions imposed by the pandemic”.
Provost Patrick Prendergast this year announced the newly elected Scholars and Fellows outside the Exam Hall as usual, in a Front Square that was nearly empty as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and the closure of the College. Some 57 Scholars were elected this year.
Scholars became embroiled in controversy earlier this year when those with a Dublin address were told they would not be given College accommodation for the upcoming academic year, as a result of the “continuing public health situation” around the coronavirus.
After backlash from Scholars, who claimed that this contravened the College’s statutes, Provost Patrick Prendergast said that accommodation in College would “not be denied to any Scholar” who wanted it, but said that Trinity was asking them to forfeit their right to free accommodation “in the interest of the overall community”.
