More students with special exam needs lose access to private rooms in new exam facility in Lisbjerg

As a student with Asperger’s, Liv Kejser Vassard has previously been granted either a private room or a smaller room with fewer students when sitting written exams at Aarhus University. This was made possible by an exemption granting her special exam conditions.

But now that AU has moved its exams to the brand new exam hall in Lisbjerg in northern Aarhus, Liv Kejser Vassard, a 3rd semester medical student, no longer has to sit alone at exams. The board of studies for Medicine has reassessed all cases of special exam conditions where a single room has been granted for written exams. In Liv Kejser Vassard's case, the board of studies has concluded that the alternative to a private room – a screened-off space among the other students – is sufficient to reduce disturbances from “external stimuli”. She will still be entitled to extra time during exams.

The reason for the reassessments is, among other things, that the new exam hall has a "different physical environment than before," as stated in a letter from 27 March from the board of studies for Medicine to Liv Kejser Vassard.

“There has also been a rise in applications for private exam rooms, which poses capacity challenges, while efforts are made to ensure the highest possible degree of equal treatment. On this background, a reassessment has been made of all cases of special exam conditions where a single room has been granted for written supervised exams," the letter states.

"It's been a bit unsettling"

According to Liv Kejser Vassard, it appears as if she will lose her exemption simply because AU has moved the exams to new premises, and this puzzles her.

"It's strange to build a new exam centre, without taking into account the exemptions you've given to some students. My case has been through the board of studies before, where they decided that I was entitled to a private room to minimise the disturbance that can occur when you're in a room with so many people and when you're extra sensitive to your senses," says Liv Kejser Vassard, who was notified of her reassessed conditions two months before the exam, and this has caused anxiety leading up to the exams:

"It's been a bit unsettling, because I've been promised one way to take exams throughout my bachelor's degree, and then suddenly, two months before the exam, I get a message that it's being changed. The sense of calm I had was turned completely upside down," she says.

Liv Kejser Vassard emphasises that she doesn't want to be seen as a victim, and that her exam with a shielded seat seemed to go well this time. The cover took care of the visual disturbances, but there were still many situations that contributed to a different and tougher experience.

"I was stood there with 100 other people who could all see I was going to this screen enclosure. I chose it myself and those are the terms, but it was a different experience. There was a little more focus on me. When we entered the room, a student asked me very loudly why I needed screening. You're welcome to ask me, but 40 other people heard that too – it wasn't that great," she says.

Liv Kejser Vassard had until 10 April to complain or comment on the  board’s reassessment. She did so and explained her need, but the board of studies for Medicine held their ground. For example, Liv Kejser Vassard suggested that students who needed extra time could all sit together in one room, or that she could take a single room if one was available on exam day.

"I'm not going to judge whether the decision to change the exemptions is reasonable or not, but it’s undeniable that the measures that were previously considered reasonable and taken for students with special needs are no longer taken because of exams moving to the exam hall, and that this puts us at a disadvantage in exam situations," she says.

Health has reviewed all cases

The board of studies have the authority to decide on special exam conditions. Omnibus has asked the five faculties at Aarhus University whether their boards of studies – as is the case for the medicine programme – have reassessed all cases of special exam conditions where single rooms have been granted for written exams.

All boards of studies within Health have reviewed every case involving special exam conditions where private rooms were granted for written exams.

Ten students alone in Medicine have so far been entitled to private rooms, according to the minutes from the Medicine board of studies meeting on 25 March. It also appears that Health Studies proposed that two of the ten medical students should continue to have access to a private room, while the board of studies believed that a total of four students should retain their access.

Aarhus BSS has not reassessed the cases as such, as the faculty already had screening as an option and made their call accordingly. Students with disabilities who have been granted a single room will keep it in Lisbjerg. The exception is students who were granted a single room because they need to dictate, for example due to dyslexia. As a result of an AU decision, these students will sit behind a screening in Lisbjerg, according to Aarhus BSS.

No single room allocation cases have been reassessed at Arts. This is because only a very small amount of the exams at Arts are written on-site exams, and no current students have been granted special conditions for these exams.

Nat and Tech did not get back to us before the deadline for this article.

Student: "It makes you question whether you are the one who needs it the most"

After her exam, Liv Kejser Vassard spoke to her fellow student, who retained her exemption for a private room after the reassessment, and she observed that eight out of ten private rooms were unoccupied during that exam.

"It feels absurd if so many rooms are left empty," Liv Kejser Vassard says.

The fellow student mentioned is Katrine Yde Knudsen, who has been granted access to a single room due to chronic hip pain. She needs to be able to stand up during a written exam. She also has ADHD.

"There were eight single rooms available on the day – I occupied one and a student sitting an economics exam sat in the other, the exam supervisor told me. It was strange, knowing that Liv hadn't been allowed to have one. I was a little sad to see it when I knew she needed it. It makes you question whether you're the one who needs it the most when you're the only one sitting there. It's probably an administrative issue, but I find it strange," Katrine Yde Knudsen says.

Unlike Liv Kejser Vassard, Katrine Yde Knudsen didn’t receive a reassessment notice from the study board. She was therefore unaware that all exemptions had been reassessed until Liv Kejser Vassard told her. She has a feeling that a physical disability carries more weight in the assessment, but stresses that she, of course, doesn’t know for sure.

"I believe it’s my physical disability that has allowed me to be exempt. I find that it's taken much more seriously when you've had surgery and you have a doctor's opinion. But it could also be because my desk has to be raised and lowered several times during an exam that it would disturb too much," Katrine Yde Knudsen says.

The thought has also crossed Liv Kejser Vassard's mind.

"It would be interesting to know what the criteria were for the new reassessment of the cases," she says.  

Omnibus is aware of another student whose exemption has been reassessed. The student is studying business administration and commercial law on the 6th semester and criticises AU's approach of providing fewer private rooms and placing students in the same exam hall as everyone else. The student believes that this is contrary to "AU's responsibility to ensure equal conditions for all students."

AU Student Administration and Services: Partitions are not a downgrade

Deputy Director of AU Student Administration and Services, Anna Bak Maigaard, explains that according to AU, screening during exams is not considered a downgrade compared to having a private room. The new exam hall offers better screening and the use of noise-cancelling headsets will now also be allowed, and according to AU, these should be seen as alternatives to private rooms – not a downgrade.

 "With the exam centre, AU has gained a wider range of compensation options – including better screening and the use of headphones," Anna Bak Maigaard says.

In connection with the move to Lisbjerg, the university has sought to "standardise its practices" for exams, including guidelines for exemptions that the boards of studies can use as a guide, Anna Bak Maigaard explains. The deputy director emphasises that the individual boards of studies at AU are responsible for the specific work with exemptions.

"The purpose of exam dispensations is to ensure that students with disabilities are on equal terms with other students, not to give them a better position. It's a difficult balance. Students may therefore experience going from having an exemption for a private room to an exemption for screened seats, because the board of studies considers this a more appropriate level of accommodation – given the new facilities available in the AU Exam Hall,” she says.

In a response to a debate article in Omnibus, Anna Bak Maigaard mentions that "the number of single rooms is determined on the basis of statistics on dispensation and exams from previous years." It may seem odd when it is clear that until recently, ten students in Medicine alone had exemptions for private rooms, while the Medicine board of studies also states in its decision that there has been an "increase in the number of applications for private rooms."

Anna Bak Maigaard explains what the process has been like:

"The number of single rooms in the Exam Hall has been determined based on an assessment of our future needs. Here, we have taken into account both data regarding past needs and the expected future demand, especially now that we have more compensation options available.”

This text is machine translated and post-edited by Cecillia Jensen