All assessments in semester two will be held online, apart from some clinical and practical exams that must take place face-to-face, College has said.
College will allow third and fourth years to resit semester-two assessments that count towards their degree, even if they pass them the first time. Senior Lecturer Kevin Mitchell had previously said that there Trinity currently does not plan to re-introduce mitigation measures that were implemented for last semester’s exam period. However, he later clarified this mistake in a follow up email..
In an email to students, senior lecturer Kevin Mitchell wrote: “Having considered the possible trajectories of the public health situation and the recent experience of its volatility, the University Council has approved (10th Feb 2021) a proposal that all undergraduate Semester Two assessments will be held online. (with the exception of some clinical or practical assessments that must take place in person).”
“The current academic year calendar designates two weeks for Semester Two assessments, from Monday 10th May to Saturday 22nd May”, Mitchell wrote. “As for Semester One this year and Semester Two last year, real-time and take-home examinations will be scheduled within those two weeks and a third week (starting Monday 24th of May) will be used for submission of final assignments (i.e., essays or other work that replaces a final examination).”
Students who opted to defer assessments from semester one will sit them during the third week of the semester-two exam period, May 24th to 29th.
If a student fails this attempt, they can sit it again in the reassessment session at the end of the summer.
On mitigation measures, Mitchell said: “The measures put in place for Semester One assessments were in response to the extreme and sudden deterioration in public health conditions over the Christmas period. Given the restrictions now in place and the roll-out of the vaccination campaign, we do not envisage that similar emergency measures will be needed for the Second Semester assessment session.”
Earlier this year, College announced that students would be allowed to defer their exams or essays due as part of the assessment period without providing a reason. Third and fourth years will still be allowed to resit assessments that count towards their degree, even if they pass them the first time.
“However, we will monitor the situation closely and make a final decision on this matter closer to the date of the assessment period.”
Last month, Trinity’s branch of the Irish Federation of University Teachers said that mitigation measures for assessment should only be introduced in “exceptional” circumstances and should not continue past the coronavirus crisis.
Update: 12:52, February 16th, 2021
A previous version of this article stated that there would be no mitigating measures introduced for second-semester exams. This was, however, clarified the day after publication by Senior Lecturer Kevin Mitchell, who said that third and fourth years would still be allowed to resit assessments that count towards their degree, even if they pass them the first time.
