All Student Vote (Spring 2019)

Earlier Exam Timetable

This motion asks your SU to lobby the University to release exam timetables earlier and run a survey on how it affects you.

This Union Notes:

1. That the publication of exam timetables for the academic year 2018/19 is as follows:[1]

2. That exams are incredibly stressful for students with 54% citing this as one of the many causes of stress whilst at university.[2]
3. That as many as 1 in 4 university students suffer from mental health problems which only make exams more stressful.[3]
4. For example, in the academic year 2015/2016 there were only 2872 Library Study Spaces for approximately 24000 students.[4]
5. That 19.7% of undergraduate students and 54.9% of postgraduate students are international, making up a total of 36% of students at the University of Warwick.[5]

This Union Believes:

1. That the exams timetable should be released earlier to allow students to plan ahead, especially those international students who need to book flights home.
2. That this would especially help students with parental or caring responsibilities to plan around their already busy lives.
3. That this allows students with both mental and physical health problems or differences to prepare as much as possible for both the content and stress of exams.
4. That students often need to organise other professional and personal activities around their exam timetables, such as internships or employment, social activities and events, and therefore having earlier information on their exam timetable makes such activities easier to plan.
5. That the lack of study space on campus means students must plan revision carefully. The early release of exam timetables would help to ensure that exams do not clash with religious observations.
6. That policy 112 “Warwick SU Supports Trans Students in Accessing Healthcare” which advocates for (trans) students to be able to move exams if they clash with GIC appointments, and further notice of exam timetables would help enable this.

This Union Resolves:

1. To mandate the SU President and Education Officer to lobby the university to release the exams timetable earlier.
2. To mandate the Education Exec to carry out a survey as to the effect of the late exam timetable on students.
3. To mandate the SU President, Education Officer and Postgraduate Officer to lobby for departments to be as transparent as possible in communicating likely exam periods and dates to students.