UCT's year-end exams completed successfully

Year-end exams at UCT ended on 27 November with the vast majority of students able to complete their exams without disruption.

However, a total of 3 332 undergraduate students out of 15 747 have deferred their entire exam set to January next year. The deadline for further deferments has now passed.

The exam session went off with minimal disruptions aside from an incident on 16 November when a group of approximately twenty to thirty protesters tried to disrupt an evening session at the Sport Centre on upper campus.

During the incident, UCT Campus Protection Services intervened and two protesters were arrested. Students were given additional time complete to make up for the time lost during the disruption, and some took up the option of rewriting that exam on Saturday, 21 November.

Year-end exams were delayed by a fortnight due to protest action against fee increases for 2016. As a result of the protest action, the government announced a 0% increase at all universities for 2016, and UCT agreed to insource services.

Happy it's over

For Jade Buckton, a third year BComm student, the relief she felt after writing her final finance paper was tempered by anxiety about the outcome of the exam. “These exams were a lot more draining as a result of the delay, but I am happy that they are over.”

Steffanie Musingarabwi, who is studying towards a master's in Climate Change and Sustainable Development, felt the delay in the start of the exam actually gave her more time to study. “I was preparing for the exams at home and appreciated the regular updates from the university.”

“The conditions at the residences were not ideal for studying,” said Kushal Cuppoor, a first year Computer Science student. “Overall, I feel I didn't do too badly. Deferring this exam was never an option for me. I'm looking forward to going home to Mauritius.”

Story by Abigail Calata. Photo by Michael Hammond.