LSE to provide an assessment support package to all students to ease pressure on the Summer Term assessment period
By Beth Robertson
In an email to students on 8th March, Dilly Fung (Pro-Director of Education) and Bali Birch-Lee (LSESU Education Officer) laid out the university’s plans to provide further support to students throughout upcoming assessment periods in the Summer Term, from 10th May to 18th June.
The support package encompasses 5 areas: new assessment policies, well-being support, study advice and guidance, financial assistance, and tech support.
But what does this actually mean for LSE students? Here are the key details:
The new assessment package relaxes extension and deferral requirements. No evidence is needed to defer an exam or assignment, and a new, enhanced exceptional circumstances policy is meant to mitigate the detrimental academic effects related to Covid-19.
For all students, there has been an expansion of the borderline classification, meaning that students with borderline final grades who can prove that they’ve previously performed better in other assessments and assignments will have their lower grades reassessed. For undergraduates, for example, the criteria has been changed so that a student is considered to have a borderline profile if they are within 15 marks of a classification aggregate. For example, a student who finishes with a very high 2:2 will have their grades reassessed to see whether they can finish with a 2:1.
Furthermore, for those who struggled with uploading assessments to moodle in the past, a safety net has been introduced for the Summer Term. An additional 30 or 60 minutes will be given for students to prepare and upload documents.
Well-being support has also been extended: a well-being checklist has been put together, and the support package re-emphasises the services on offer to students who are struggling with their mental health.
Financial support on offer to students has again been highlighted. LSE’s financial assistance and the LSESU hardship fund aim to help students facing difficulties relating to housing, immigration, medical care, and childcare. Equally, the Digital Support Fund aims to help students with the cost of purchasing a laptop or other IT supplies.
Fung and Birch-Lee write: “Assessments at LSE are designed to help you demonstrate your knowledge and understanding, but we recognise that this year you may be facing challenges as a result of the pandemic. To help support your assessment performance, the support package brings together the many different types of support available to you during this time, ensuring that you have the best and fairest opportunity to achieve your potential, despite the current circumstances.”
A year into this pandemic, creating high-quality academic work in often unsuitable environments has been a struggle for many students. With teaching and assessments remaining online for the rest of the academic year, the assessment support package aims to help ease some of this strain.
