School of Mathematics and Statistics

The School's policy on what to do in case an evacuation emergency interrupts a class in which test is to be sat or is being sat is as follows

Basic rules

If a test can go ahead, it will.
All students will be treated equally and fairly as far as possible -- those whose test are disrupted and those whose test are not.
A test once started will never be resumed after an evacuation.
Rooms must be evacuated if an alert sounds, and as quickly as possible.

Note that in all cases, a student who fails to show (or return) for the test will be marked absent, so do not leave without checking with your tutor what will happen

What may happen

The Course Authority will make a decision on exactly what action will be taken if your test is disrupted by an emergency. What the Course Authority decides is up them, and is not limited to the possibilities suggested below. However, you will be told what will happen once that decision is taken, either by email or by an announcement on the University's eLearning system.

If the emergency happens before the test papers are handed out and there is time to fit in the test before the end of the class, it will usually go ahead. We allow 5 minutes to return to the classroom after the all-clear. Do not leave the evacuation assembly point before checking with your tutor. Even if there is not enough time to complete the test, your tutorial or lab will be continued after the all-clear.

The Course Authority may decide to shorten the test to fit the remaining time, but it will always be given the same weight in your final mark as was announced at the start of the session.

If there is not enough time to complete the test, it may be rescheduled to the following class. If rescheduling is not practical for some reason, the Course Authority may decide that the test is to be scrapped, and all students who attended the test will be given an M as if they were absent sick. Marks in other tests will then be scaled up to compensate.

Alternatively, if enough time (typically 50%) has passed for us to make an assessment on what you have done, the Course Authority may instruct tutors to mark the work that was done and, to compensate for the lost time, scale up the mark in that test to a maximum of whatever the original maximum mark was.

If there are only a few minutes left in the test, then the Course Authority may decide to ignore the interruption and the test will be marked as if the emergency had not happened.