UCL students petition to extend the grade safety net for 2021

Over 3,000 students have signed a petition to the Provost, asking him to reinstate a ‘no detriment’ policy for the year 2021.

Photo by little_mue on Flickr

A petition concerning the extension of the grade safety net at University College London (UCL) has amassed over 3,000 supporters. In the academic year 2019/20, the university decided to adopt the ‘no detriment’ policy to ensure that no students were academically disadvantaged because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The general no detriment rule is to calculate students’ final grades by using the marks of only the best 50 per cent of any assessments taken in the academic session. More details about this approach can be found on UCL’s official website.

Given the fact that the pandemic is still ongoing, the authors of the petition demand that the same grade safety net needs to be put in place for this academic year. Reasons cited in favour of the extension include the mental health toll that the pandemic has taken on young people, and the fact that UCL was not entirely ‘open’ this year, with only a few classes offering face-to-face lectures and library services being “very limited”.  As UCL is not able to guarantee optimal studying conditions for students who, out of necessity, remained home, signatories believe the policy regarding the grade safety net should reflect that.

On January 2, a message from the Provost, Professor Michael Arthur, and incoming Provost, Dr Michael Spence, announced that UCL will move entirely to remote learning until February 22 at the earliest. They “strongly advise” that students do not return to campus before the February Reading Week, in order to curb the spread of Covid-19. This means that students will have to spend at least half of Term 2 at home, in conditions that might be unsuitable for rigorous studying, putting them at a huge disadvantage. There are, however, exceptions from this rule, such as students who remained in UCL halls during the winter break and students on exempt or practice-based courses. This decision to move all teaching online is the same as the one taken last March.

In motivating the decision to discontinue their no detriment policy, UCL said "Rather than apply mass adjustments which some students might not need, we are focusing our support on those students who need help.” The statement was criticised in the petition, in which it was explained that every student’s academic performance has been affected to a certain degree in this “time of great personal stress”. The letter stated that “most of us have been conducting our studies in isolation” without the social “support network” usually found on campus. Justice For Students, the initiators of the petition, also stated on their website that “no matter how much UCL has tried to adapt, this is not a normal year.”
An email about the petition was sent to both the current and incoming provosts of UCL, and the content of the email can be found here. The petition can be accessed via this link.