UCL delays announcement of ‘no detriment’ package

The official set of mitigating measures, designed to support UCL students through the pandemic-stricken assessment period, is to be announced next Tuesday.

Source: UCL Imagestore

After nearly a month of development, UCL has delayed the announcement of its full “no detriment” package for students, promised tomorrow, until next Tuesday,  February 9.

UCL has not clarified the reason for the delay, stating on February 3 that “work with the Students’ Union yesterday helped us to refine our proposals, which are now being finalised.”

When asked for comment, Students’ Union expanded “From the beginning we’ve set out to try and make this year’s policy as close to last year’s as possible, and that’s proving difficult … We didn’t feel that the proposed package went far enough to support students, and instead proposed a number of changes which we presented at the EACP meeting on Tuesday … Unfortunately, this means there is now going to be a delay in the announcement of the final package.” 

This comes despite previous assurance that the university and Students’ Union would work collaboratively to form the “no detriment” policy, with student support a firm priority.

 Pi News also spoke to Education Officer Ayman Benmati about the delay. He said “'We've championed the student voice at every step of the way, and will do so right up until the Education Committee meeting on Friday. Now it's down to UCL to do the right thing.” 

According to a growing number of students, this delay is yet another example of UCL’s lack of urgency in addressing the detrimental, unequal impacts the pandemic is having on their learning, assessment, mental health and well-being, home life and financial welfare. After the “no detriment” policy was scrapped for this academic year, UCL only promised to review its position on January 6, under pressure from open letters, petitions and a Students’ Union statement, which highlighted insufficient support from the university.

Students’ frustration has been further fuelled by the fact that last year’s “no detriment” policy was announced within less than three weeks of the first lockdown, 2021 graduation ceremonies were cancelled as early as January 14, and a full “no detriment” policy for staff was published last month. 

Pi News spoke to Parminder Sidhu, a third-year Pharmacy student, who expressed concern that “the delay to the policy isn't the most reassuring thing to hear, especially when you consider the reasoning behind it.”

Dom Borghino, third-year Law, commented that “at this point, whether the Students’ Union are able to shift UCL’s position on the ‘no detriment’ policy has less to do with the Union’s commitment to the student body (which we’ve seen is resolute), and more to do with UCL’s weighing up of their duty of care to students against their already tanking reputation in the league tables, without them realising the former influences the latter.”

A Comparative Literature student added “Universities should value their students’ mental health above the supposed integrity of their degrees, because it’s the students that make an institution, not the name.”

While the full “no detriment” package remains to be finalised, announced and implemented, there is already speculation among students that it will not sufficiently mitigate the impacts of Covid-19 on their studies or provide adequate protection for their grades. Some feel that the initial announcement of one additional self-certified deadline extension (for use in Term 3 only) indicates that UCL is not willing to take the serious action that students desperately need.

So far the terminology of the policy in official UCL correspondence has varied, from a “no detriment policy”, to a “safety net”, an “assessment support package”, a “no detriment package”, and even simply “mitigation measures”. Hence, there is concern that the promised “package” suggests indecisiveness and divergence from the “policy” students are calling for. Although students are expressing these worries, UCL has not yet issued an official response. 

UCL has confirmed that it will officially announce the “no detriment” policy by Tuesday, February 9, first on the UCL Current Students website. In the meantime, Students’ Union UCL will share its thoughts on the final package, set to be agreed in this Friday’s Education Committee, on its “Group Chat” live broadcast that same Friday afternoon.

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