From three to two exam attempts

You were allowed three attempts for most modules before. According to a resolution from the final University Senate meeting of last year, you can only take two exams for each module at the University of Oslo(UiO). This applies to all faculties at UiO.

– Affecting the weak

Leader of the Student Parliament in Oslo, Maria Veie Sandvik, thinks that this resolution will hit those who are the worst off the hardest.

– We are not satisfied with this at all, and this may imply an excluding academic circle, Veie Sandvik says.

Veie Sandvik says that the Student Parliament has been working actively for years so that students can keep their right to three attempts.

– We lost this battle, which is regrettable. It is truly a pity that the University only thinks of what is cheapest rather than what is best for students in a challenged position.

Expensive

The reason behind the Senate resolution is that UiO does not receive any funding when a student resits an already passed exam.

– We would like to limit resits of already passed exams. This is what is expensive for the University, studies director at UiO Monica Bakken says.

Particularly Law and Psychology represent the most major losses for UiO. In 2004, 4000 exams were resat. 90 per cent of which were taken by students at the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Social Sciences.

– Law and Psychology have made a considerable impact on this debate. They regard this as a matter of utmost dispute, but it is also a topical issue at other faculties, Bakken says.

To be decided

It is now up to each faculty whether they want to reduce the number of allowed attempts or keep the old system with three attempts. Dean at the Faculty of Law, Jon T. Johnsen, says that it is not unlikely:

– We will take it into consideration, Johnsen says to Universitas.

Johnsen has stated in an earlier interview with Universitas that the Faculty of Law is undoubtedly interested in considering new regulations as to allowed number of exam attempts. Dean Asbjørn Rødseth at the Faculty of Social Sciences has stated earlier that the matter is a dilemma, and that the Faculty discussed several solutions in order to limit exam attempts during last semester. Rødseth was unavailable for comment.

Strictest in the country

If the new regulations will indeed lead to a reduction of attempts, UiO will consequently have one of the strictest set of regulations in the country. At the University of Tromsø, students are allowed three attempts for every module. At the University of Bergen, some faculties allow three attempts whereas others allow an unlimited number of attempts. The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim is still stricter than UiO. At NTNU, students can only resit one module each year, and any module can only be resat once.

Sanja Alendar (25) and Elisabeth Løland (23) are Law students at UiO, and they both figure that they will have to resit exams. They would rather prefer that the number of attempts was not to be reduced:

– That would be utterly unbelievable. Marks are very important to us Law students, Elisabeth says.

– That complies with the labour market, of course, Sanja says.

According to the girls, marks get more important further down the road:

– Third-year lectures are completely full whereas there is plenty of room during the fourth year. Many students have to do the third year all over again, Sanja says, and concludes:

– At the end of the day, we only study once, and we only get one diploma.