University of Iowa officials are hoping new policies and a computerized scheduling system will benefit students during finals week. U-of-I associate provost for undergraduate education Beth Ingram says there are two motivating factors behind the changes.
“One was that our courses had grown enough that we were having trouble using our old system to schedule finals and it also gave us a chance to revisit some of the policies that govern finals,” Ingram said. “We had been having discussions with student government on campus about making the finals week a little less stressful for students.” One of the policy changes will allow students to arrange a make-up exam when they’re scheduled to take more than two exams in one day.
The old policy permitted up to three exams per day. An additional change mandates 30 minutes between exam periods, an increase from 15 minutes. Ingram said the changes have been in the works for two years and student government leaders helped shape the changes. The last exam during finals week will now begin at 5 p.m. on Friday.
“We used to have our final exam at 7 p.m. on Friday and that was a problem for graduating seniors because they graduated at 9 a.m. the next morning and it prevented them from having dinner with their families or going out with relatives who were in town for graduation,” Ingram said.
The university previously scheduled final exam periods manually. U-of-I students are expected to receive final exam schedules this week. Ingram said that will allow students who need to book make-up exams plenty of time to make arrangements.