As we move into March, many University students are still waiting anxiously for the rest of their mid-year or January session exam results. Why is it that, despite the supposedly reliable electronic system of sending results, delays in the process are still common?

As opposed to being informed in class or by post, examiners and faculty staff make use of the University website and the E-Sims software to give students their grades, along with other details such as the class average and resit options. Nevertheless, thousands of University students are left to wait until the very last minute to be informed of whether they can continue their studies or undertake the exam again, especially in summer, when final exams are over.

One of the contributing factors to the late release of results are the systematic online surveys conducted on the University website, in which students are asked to give feedback on some of the study units on which they have been examined. Unfortunately, not all students decide to reply to these questionnaires, which inadvertently determines when the results are published. The longer students take to reply to them, and the lower the number of participants, the longer the delay in sending out the results.

Paul Caruana Turner, a student representative at the law faculty, which has also been affected by this issue, explains: “The results for those subjects which have a feedback form are not published until the end of the feedback period, so that the replies received are fully objective. Due to the low response rate, various faculties (if not all) have decided to extend the period, therefore withholding the results for such subjects.”

Rightly so, Turner feels this is unfair, and that the low response rate is feedback in itself. “It will only serve to make students fill in the forms in haste and without reflection just to receive their results, thus skewing the outcome of these surveys,” he added.

The fact that the latter will not actually affect one’s marks or assessment makes the situation even more irritating, especially since students would have already gone through great stress during exam time.

The University administration should provide the best possible service to the students. But the University’s current system of correcting exam papers and issuing is making students feel apprehensive. Surely these delays are completely incompatible with E-Sims’ aim of expediting such matters.

Johann Agius is a second year law student and a writer at Insite Malta.