Safety net policy extension for MPharm students

"Unprecedented"
A word we have heard often during this crisis. In this unprecedented time, the UK government has made never seen before concessions in an effort to uphold the financial and mental stability of the nation. Yet Huddersfield University School of Pharmacy insists on treating 4th-year university students like this final year is business as usual.

It is no secret that the school of Pharmacy already has initiatives in place to support students such as the "best 100 credits" but these were in place before the COVID-19 pandemic. We petition for additional support warranted by our current worldwide circumstances, in the form of the no-detriment policy.

This no-detriment policy has already been rolled out university-wide, however, the school of pharmacy has decided to exclude pharmacy students. We believe this to be unfair and strongly ask the school to reconsider their decision and put additional systems in place to support final year students.

Pharmacy students are students just like everyone else and during these unprecedented times, we are also going through hard times while isolating at home.

Final year pharmacy students are being expected to achieve the same level of efficiency or grades as they would under "normal" conditions, however, the conditions in which we are sitting these exams are far from "normal":

Many students would usually utilize library services to study, which allows compartmentalization between home and study. But now many don't have a quiet place to revise.

Many students are in the vulnerable group as well as their families and some may experience COVID-19 symptoms during exam season, which may affect productivity.

There is extremely limited or unconventional support from lecturers with the absence of lectures or tutorial sessions. It is important to note that the University's attendance policies state that there is a positive correlation between contact time and student performance.

Taking exams online introduces many variables that must be considered. Exam conditions may be hard to achieve in some of our homes. Downloading resources and changing windows consumes time depending on device and internet speeds, the latter experiencing higher traffic due to the UK lockdown.

In conclusion, the BPSA has put out a statement supporting the no-detriment policy for Pharmacy students and Keele Unvistity has already put it in place for their pharmacy students.

As final year pharmacy students at Huddersfield University, we do not aim to make excuses of any kind but rather ask for support. We have worked hard the past 3 years to come to where we are today and plan to repeat the process, but amidst this current pandemic and the challenges, it brings we may not be able to do so. We hope that the Huddersfield school of pharmacy will consider the implementation of the no-detriment policy as we have already seen university-wide.