Dear Josh,

 

I refer to your request of 13 October 2021. The Faculty of Medical and
Health Sciences has provided a response to the matters raised – see
attached.

 

Your request appears to be more in the nature of a request for a dialogue
with the Medical Programme directorate about your concerns rather than a
request for official information under the OIA. If you are a current
student in the MBChB programme, you can raise concerns about your studies
in the MBChB with the Head of the Medical Programme, Dr Andy Wearn.

 

Yours sincerely,

Rebecca Ewert

General Counsel
University of Auckland

 

From: Josh McCormack <[1][FOI #17169 email]>
Sent: Wednesday, 13 October 2021 12:18 pm
To: legal <[2][email address]>
Subject: Official Information request - Equity Concerns over MBChB
Progress Test 27

 

Dear University of Auckland,

I am writing to clarify expectations placed on students by the Faculty of
Medical and Health Sciences [FMHS] for Progress Test 27 [PT27] for the
University of Auckland Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery programme [MBChB],
scheduled to take place on Tuesday October 26, 2021.

According to a statement issued by FMHS staff on 30 September 2021 at
13:00, the announcement stated that “[FMHS staff] have been informed that
permission to run PT27 on site, in person at Covid-19 alert level 2 has
been withdrawn, due to the highly transmissible nature of the Delta
variant. Progress Tests are very important for [medical student] learning
and progression so we do not wish to cancel the test. Therefore, this
change has necessitated a sudden switch from paper to online delivery”.

Students have expressed significant concern over the sudden change in
operations of this test. Despite this, students feel as though there has
been insufficient clarity provided to address these concerns.

Firstly, the initial update informed students that the Inspera
invigilation software will work on “macOS: OS X 10.12 or later”. However,
according to an updated webpage on the University of Auckland website
entitled “Invigilated (supervised) examinations”, the Inspera invigilation
software will only work on “macOS: OS X 10.14 or later”. While this might
seem negligible, it has become apparent to many of us that this software
capacity correlates to macOS products that were released around the time
our undergraduate Year 4 MBChB students started our University education.
Considering most of us purchased new laptops around this time, there are
plenty of students who are experiencing the problem of not being able to
update to the macOS 10.14 software. From reading the initial announcement,
we thought we would have been fine with macOS 10.12 software.

With this new understanding that the Inspera invigiliation software only
works for macOS 10.14, one of our Year 4 MBChB students contacted an FMHS
staff member asking for support for this matter. In response to their
email, an FMHS staff member replied saying “Students were notified 4weeks
[sic] ago to check their devices and organise for alternative
arrangements”.

Question 1: Can you please provide the statement in question that was
issued by the FMHS four weeks ago, which details the steps that students
needed to take if they do not own a device that operates macOS 10.14 or
later?

With continued instability and uncertainty of living conditions due to the
ongoing lockdown, students are finding this period incredibly stressful.
Receiving a response like “Students were notified 4weeks [sic] ago to
check their devices and organise for alternative arrangements” is not only
unhelpful, but also harmful for perpetuating and strengthening the
embarrassment and guilt faced by students who cannot afford new devices.

Considering many students have already lost four weeks of summer work time
due to compulsory clinical placement compensation time, the inability of
our students to complete summer work to save money is already causing an
immense, unforeseen stress. For students who cannot work over summer, it
is particularly frustrating for our inability to afford brand new devices
to be reflected back on us as ‘professional integrity’ accountability.

Moreover, many students have ongoing uncertainty around their examination
conditions for PT27. For example, one of the students in our Tauranga
Cohort does not have a suitable set-up to sit their PT27 examination in
their living place in Tauranga. This student has made plans to drive home
to Taranaki for labour weekend so that they have a stable setting to sit
their PT27 exam with a proper desk and a quiet environment. However, this
student will not know for certain whether these test conditions will
remain available to them until 1:00pm on Monday 25 October when Jacinda
Ardern makes her 1:00pm announcement.

Question 2: For students who do not have an appropriate location to sit
PT27, could you please provide the most updated statement from the FMHS
around what steps should be taken by these students?

Considering our PT27 grades are determined by our standing in the class
relative to our peers, many students are stressed at the prospect that
their differential time on clinical placement compared to other members of
their cohort could affect their grades.

Question 3: What policies does the FMHS have in place to ensure students
who have lost significant placement time, particularly in Auckland
cohorts, have a clinically-equivalent experience to students in Tauranga,
Rotorua or Waikato cohorts before sitting PT27?

Considering our PT27 grades are determined by our standing in the class
relative to our peers, students are concerned there will be great
incentive for people to cheat as all of our students know that the PT27
scoring is currently planned to be competitive against our classmates, as
per protocol for previous progress tests. Students are nervous about the
prospect of being graded as borderline or fail for approaching the test
honestly, knowing that a dedicated percentage of students will be offered
fail or borderline grades.

Question 4: What policies does the FMHS have in place to ensure bathroom
breaks will be standardised and invigilated consistently across our entire
medical student body?

Considering this a brand new assessment method that is new for all of our
students, many students have approached our class representatives asking
if assessment can be formative. Many of us do indeed want to complete the
test so we can track our own progress, but we feel it is unfair for our
students to be graded against each other when there are glaringly obvious
equity issues with the sudden change in test set-up.

Question 5: Could the FMHS please provide its most updated statement
detailing the reasons why formative assessment, or some other form of
grade relief, has been deemed inappropriate for this assessment?

We look forward to hearing your equity-minded response to these concerns.

Thank you for taking the time to read.

Yours faithfully,

Josh McCormack

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