UWI Global Campus students push back against return to in-person exams

The decision by the University of the West Indies Global Campus to return to face-to-face examinations has not gone over well with some students, who say the change does not reflect the way they are taught.

Their concerns were laid out in a letter published by Antigua News Room. Students argued that while they are now required to sit traditional in-person exams, their learning experience remains very different from that of students attending UWI’s physical campuses.

According to the letter, students at physical campuses benefit from full-time lecturers, regular tutorials, peer tutoring and easier access to academic support.

Global Campus students, however, said many courses have four or fewer live sessions per semester. In some cases, they said several units are covered in a single session, while other sessions focus mainly on assignments rather than teaching the wider course content.

The letter also raised concerns about limited tutorials, slow responses to questions and the amount of material students are expected to work through largely on their own.

Students say this disparity makes the return to face-to-face examinations difficult to accept. They argue that they are being asked to sit exams in the same way as students at physical campuses without necessarily receiving the same level of live teaching and exam preparation.

The letter also highlighted the practical difficulties the change creates for working adults, parents and other students who chose the Global Campus because of the flexibility it offered.

Similar concerns have been raised in Saint Lucia.

St Lucia Times spoke with a second-year Global Campus student based here, who said she enrolled believing that both classes and end-of-term examinations would remain online.

“Basically, we as Global Campus students applied for UWI under the impression that classes and end-of-term examinations are fully online like it was in year 1 for me,” she said.

She explained that during her first year, examinations were completed online through a proctored browser, with students given a broad window within which to sit their exams.

She said the arrangement allowed her to balance her studies with work.

However, she said the system changed during the 2024/2025 academic year, when students were advised that end-of-term examinations would instead be held at designated campus sites.

“We were given a timetable to visit the sites for examination days, and this interferes with our work productivity; some of us lose paid work hours as we’re out of hours due to commute time plus exam time and back. We may have to use sick days, and you cannot call out every time you have an exam. Imagine having to be out for four days, or in at work and then out and back because you have four exams on different days.”

The concerns echo those raised in the letter published by Antigua News Room, in which students argued that the return to in-person exams places additional pressure on people who built their work, family and study schedules around an online model.

Students have also questioned whether those who began their programmes under the online examination system should have been allowed to complete their degrees under the same arrangement.

The Saint Lucian student said a petition was created making that request.

“We created and signed a petition for UWI to allow us to finish our degree the way we started and allow the new students to follow the new course structure. I believe they acknowledged the petition as ‘concerns’ and continued the original course structure,” she said.