What Happened?
On 25th January 2022, second year law students had their online two-hour criminal law exam between 8:30am and 10:30am. At 10:30am, towards the end of the exam, students received a text message stating there was a mistake in one of the questions and that the students had been given an extra thirty minutes to finish the exam.
This led to confusion amongst the students, with some of them already having submitted their paper as they did not have their phone next to them the moment the text was sent. Other students ended up not submitting the paper on time due to confusion and panic. They are currently left in the dark. Faculty has not yet made it clear if the late submissions sent by email to the faculty will be accepted or not.
Students from Faculty of Law have spoken up, with one student stating the following:
The confusion arose from the ambiguity regarding the submission time. The text message only indicated an allocated extra thirty minutes with no clear instructions regarding what to do next.
Our Anonymous Sources Fear Retribution
The Third Eye received multiple complaints from Law Students speaking up and reaching out to express their disappointment with their faculty. They felt the faculty did not manage their own wrongdoing effectively in one of the most important exams within the whole course.
The majority of those who reached out asked to be quoted with anonymity. The fear from retribution exposed the extent of the authoritarian-like administration in the Faculty of Law. The irony of such a statement is mind boggling.
I want to be able to pass second year without a mark on my back.
The Frequency of These incidents
This is not the first time faculty outright didn’t care about us.
It seems such behaviour has been a norm in the Faculty of Law. Students are expected to adapt to faculty’s poor administrative decisions. From radical last-minute changes to lack of proper informative communication with students; the threshold of patience is reached.
Law Students Camping Outside the Faculty Office
In October of 2021, Indipendent.com published an article regarding Master of Advocacy Students camping outside their faculty office to secure their course choices after the faculty had added a cap to the elective study unit places. Faculty resolved the issue after the incident by removing the capping system.
Physical vs Online Exams?
Prior to the current January examination period, Law Students had reached out to the media to publish multiple reaction articles regarding faculty’s indecisiveness when it comes to either holding exams on site or online.
What Went Wrong?
There are certainly a few points to consider here:
1) The lack of appropriate and informative communication between faculty and its students,
2) The lack of action taken by faculty unless the media is involved,
3) Law students’ fear of retribution from faculty,
4) Recurrence of issues between faculty and the students creating a gap of communication.
As The Third Eye, we feel there is an obligation to report such incidents with the anonymous comments to keep up with our principles in giving students a voice and a safe platform to raise concerns. We do not accuse Faculty of Law of any incompetency; however, we feel the need to put forth Law Students’ concerns regarding their academic progression and Faculty’s shortcomings.
The Third Eye also encourages all students to practice their right of voicing their concerns and injustices by filing a complaint form with to the KSU here! This can be done anonymously too.
The Third Eye has attempted to contact the faculty of laws but so far received no comment.