Part II Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (AMES) students will be offered a safety net policy, whereby their grades can be no lower than those achieved in Part IB.

AMES students undertake a year abroad as part of their course, meaning their Part IB exams were taken prior to the pandemic, in 2019. 

In an email from the Faculty seen by Varsity, students were informed today (25/01) that “the Faculty will apply a safety net for all AMES Part II students in the same way as last year,” adding that the decision had been taken with the “support” of the Pro-Vice Chancellor for Education, Professor Graham Virgo. 

This comes after it was announced that fourth-year students of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics or History and Modern Languages would be offered a safety net in recognition of the “disruption” they faced as a result of the pandemic.

Alongside this, coursework for Part IA, IB and II AMES students will be extended by one week, and by two weeks for dissertations. Students writing dissertations are also encouraged to note particular sources that could not be accessed due to lack of library access, if this has “impeded their dissertation writing.” 

The email also details that the Faculty will “adjust reading lists ... and if necessary will adjust examination questions to reflect the lack of access to in-person library facilities.”

A second email, which partially addressed second-year students, added that “hard work” was going into preparing for students to undertake their year abroad from Autumn 2021, and that the Faculty had “sent the 3rd years off to Taiwan” at the beginning of this academic year.

An open letter to the Faculty received 83 signatures from its students. It emphasised that “the pandemic has negatively impacted the mental health of many students to a severe degree.” 

The letter proceeded to list some of the logistical issues related to remote learning which were among “some of the greatest challenges to our work,” including WiFi networks being “overloaded” and limited access to library facilities

The letter continued to call for a “universal safety net,” citing that Part II students “did not do [their] exams in 2020” and subsequently “have no experience of the take-home, open-book exam format.”