The Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics Faculty (MMLL) announced this afternoon it will be following in the footsteps of faculties last year in granting fourth year undergraduate students a ‘safety net’ in their final exams.

The plans, which apply only to MMLL and HML (History and Modern Languages) students classed in second year, were approved by the department in recognition of the “disruption” students saw to their Year Abroad last year and studies this year.

The faculty is the first at Cambridge to announce a 'no detriment' policy after the University announced earlier this month that it would not implement such a policy university-wide. Cambridge argued the decision, jointly agreed with Russell Group universities, was made as many final year undergraduates did not sit summative exams last summer.

“There’s been a great reaction to this amongst myself and my MML peers,” one anonymous MMLL finalist told Varsity.

“Without wishing to sound dismissive of the challenges all of us are facing thanks to this pandemic, there’s definitely suggestions we’ve been hard done by, having our Year Abroad curtailed and our last few months in Cambridge effectively wiped out by the pandemic.”

The email emphasises that “the Safety Net will operate in exactly the same way as it operated for finalists last year.” If students achieve a class lower than that awarded in their second year, their class - but not the overall average - will be adjusted to match their second-year class.

The faculty highlights their policy will apply only to students taking MMLL exams, clarifying that AMES/MMLL students will need to seek further guidance on exam procedure with the AMES faculty.

Varsity has reached out to the AMES Faculty for further comment.