Students across a variety of courses are expected to attend in-person and online exams on Saturday’s. This is a campaign to stop weekend exams and keep them to weekdays only.

Here are some reasons as to why I think that there are grounds as to why exams on weekends should be stopped and kept to weekdays:

1. If anything goes wrong with a student’s exam for whatever reason, and they need emotional support, there is no one on campus to support them due to no Student Union or University Support staff being on hand as it is a weekend. it isn’t fair that support cannot be offered to every student due to timetabling. 
2. If this is an online exam taking place on the weekend, there is no IT support available to students as the IT helpdesk is only open Monday-Friday. Also, if technical difficulties occur during an exam, there is no support students can access which could add to their distress and subsequent effect on their grade.
3. As it is a weekend, mitigating circumstances will not be approved on the weekend due to it not being a working day. If a student cannot access the appropriate support on the weekend, why should they be expected to undertake the exam?
4. Weekend exams go against a number of religious beliefs. For example, the day of Sabbath for Jews is a Saturday, which would go against religious practices if weekend exams were required from students. This is the same for Christian student’s if exams were held on Sundays, as this is also their day of Sabbath. Also, Ramadan celebrations sometimes occur on the weekends, and it is unfair to expect students to have to miss those for exams that should and could be kept to weekdays.
5. A number of students live in Oadby and rely on the shuttle buses to travel to campus. However, the shuttle buses only run on weekdays, so these students do not have access to their transport service for weekend exams. Due to the cost of living and Oadby being the cheapest accommodation, it may not be feasible for students to fund another mode of transportation to campus.
6. Most students have their work commitments on the weekends so that they can engage with their University courses during the week. Again, having weekend exams will affect their working schedule which could be detrimental to their weekly budget, especially due to the cost of living. It is also not as simple as telling your workplace that you cannot attend, so there may be unnecessary conflict for the student, which could be resolved by holding exams just on weekdays.
7. Second to work commitments, people with caring responsibilities and also students with children may not have childcare for the weekend, meaning that they are at a disadvantage when undertaking the weekend exam. 
8. Lectures don’t happen during the weekend, and if this isn’t expected of staff, why should it be different for students? Everyone needs time to have a break.
9. It is also an inequality of service for only some courses to have weekend exams. This disadvantages those students, so again it needs banning university wide and keeping exam times to weekdays. 
    

Therefore, it is highly unfair for some students to be expected to take exams on the weekend, especially if they are in person due to these reasons.