How the death of Mared Foulkes could have been so easily avoided.
I was very upset to read Cardiff University student took own life after being wrongly told she’d failed exam (1) . I saw this coming but nobody ever listened to me. It appears that there was an administrative mistake. What should have happened was the USA system.
There University students are given their papers back once marked. My Uncle is a professor of history at the University of Princeton. There was one student who got 18/20. 17/20, 15/20. 18/20 and 17/20. The student got a letter pointing to failure and the marked up exam papers but the secretary hadn’t added up the marks. It was sorted out within minutes. If we had this system it would have prevented this death.
When I was a medical student at Sheffield University I wrote an article for the Student British Medical Journal on why I thought students should get their exam papers back once marked. To make matters more controversial they asked the dean of my medical school Professor Weetman to write an article on why students should not get their papers back once marked.
On finding out I was writing the proposing article Weetman demanded that he saw my article before he wrote his. Was it because he was afraid that I was going to tell the public about how Dr. Steve Peters (yes the guy who treated former Liverpool captain Steve Gerrard) falsified my exam results.
However, given the Mared Foulkes case, I have set up a governmental petition on this. Please sign it, we need 5 signatures to get it approved. If we get it approved and get 10,000 signatures we get a response from the government. If we get 100,000 signatures then they consider it for debate in parliament. As soon as it hits 21 it can’t take any more before approval.
I saw this happening in 1999 but nobody listened and wrote about it in my research dissertation.
Legislate to return marked-up examination scripts to candidates at all levels
Marked-up examination scripts must be returned to candidates at all levels. Face-to-face examinations such as vivas must be video recorded.
- It provides feedback on performance.
- It protects examiners against bias allegations
- It makes it easier to sort out mistakes (1.)
- It simplifies appeals,
- It makes failure easier to accept
- It can prevent needless suicides (2.)
- It protects against harassment. When I was a medical student at Sheffield University several hospital consultants threatened students with academic failure unless they had sex with them. Many would not complain for fear of academic repercussions. This reduces the scope for this. (1) https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/revealed-a-level-results-are-48-wrong-xsj33jvnh (2) https://www.itv.com/news/wales/2021-10-29/devoted-student-took-her-own-life-after-being-wrongly-told-shed-failed-exam
So please go to https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/600220/sponsors/new?token=JR76MqEpOWXGa-NYCa_L to sign it.
You can see the original BMJ debate on this link. Now if you see this document then you will see why Professor Weetman demanded to see my article before he wrote his.
