A large group of students at the University of South Africa (UNISA) are expected to re-write their exams due to alleged non-compliance with proctoring protocols via the invigilator APP. Students claim the app had technical glitches and wouldn’t allow them to upload scripts in the allocated time. The system has reportedly affected hundreds of final year students who’ve now being scheduled to sit for the May/June supplementary exams next year.
The University of South Africa is the largest distance-learning institution in the country with over 400 000 students. 330 students sat for this year’s exams. But students using the institution’s invigilator APP claim it had technical issues which resulted in them being flagged. They say they didn’t violate UNISA’s exam guidelines, nor exited their invigilator APP for longer than the 10-minute threshold set by the university, yet their marks are being withheld.
Those who were set to complete their remaining modules at the end of the year and have job offers or further studies lined up for next, are concerned about lost opportunities. But the SRC says the matter is receiving attention.
“We aware of the situation and as a result, the affected students whose exams have been deferred have been afforded an opportunity to write supplementary next year for free,” says SRC President Nkosinathi Mabilane.
Mabilane says they’ll be meeting with management in about two weeks’ time to discuss solutions.
“The university had successful exams with very few glitches compared to last year’s, so it will investigate reports of technical glitches of the APP and check if there were other contributing factors to these challenges,”
While the university provides for an appeal process for aggrieved students, most of the students say they haven’t received any feedback.
Attempts to get a comment from the university were unsuccessful.
