Students infected with coronavirus cannot take exams for an additional period

Students of the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade who became infected with coronavirus were denied the right to sit for exams in the so-called kovid exam period, which is contrary to the previous decision of the Council of that higher education institution, he said to the H1 portal the student vice-dean Mihailo Radivojša.

Interlocutor H1 recalls that at the beginning of July, the Ministry of Education sent a recommendation to the Conference of Serbian Universities (KONUS) to propose to the faculties to carry out an examination period for students who could not take the exams on a regular basis due to to coronavirus infection.

Based on the recommendation of the corresponding ministry, the Senate of the University of Belgrade, which is composed of the deans of all the faculties, approved a Conclusion on July 7, advising the faculties on the operational measures. Item 3 of that conclusion, which the drafting of H1 was aware of, recommends that the faculties carry out a period of covid examinations for students who were unable to take the exam within the current deadline, with the presentation of the appropriate medical documentation.

In accordance with this conclusion, the Parliament of Students of the Faculty of Philosophy reached an agreement with the Directorate of the Faculty to carry out the examination period in the period from 17 to 22 August. The decision in this regard was adopted on July 10 at the Faculty Council session, and the only problem could be the fact that it is the last week of the annual collective vacation. Fortunately, the Faculty of Philosophy does not have a large number of students infected with coronavirus, so I think that with the good will of the professor, that period of examinations could have been carried out, ”says Radivojša.

Students will be questioned “sometime between deadlines.”

Three days after the Council session, the vice-dean of teaching prof. Dr. Nebojsa Grubor issued a notice that in the period 17-21 August only medical documentation will be collected and that the students will be screened in the “next period”.

“After that, the sociology student representative and I spoke with Prof. Grubor and the dean of the faculty Prof. Dr. Miomir Despotovic, in an attempt to defend the Council’s decision. When we asked what exactly the phrase means” next period “and when the students will have the opportunity to respond, Prof. Grubor replied indefinitely” somewhere between the deadlines. “I note that there are already three exam periods established from the period of August 24 to October 1, with a duration of two weeks each ”, says the interlocutor from H1 and adds that these students will practically only have the right to take another exam, but not the exam.

Then the student representatives spoke with department heads, who, according to the student vice-dean, had “shown a willingness to get to know the students.”

However, after the first talks, the vice-dean of teaching sent his ‘interpretation’ to all the directors and the majority accepted it as a decision of the Council. Every subsequent conversation with them ended with the words ‘contact the Administration’, and it turned out to be useless, “says Radivojša, adding that they also informed the rector of the University of Belgrade, Ivanka Popović, about the whole situation.

The Vice Dean of Teaching does not answer the question N1

Interlocutor H1 concludes that the Council’s decision was reformulated and violated, which is why, he adds, students suffering from coronavirus were denied the right to an additional period of examinations.

We are trying to obtain an explanation of the decision not to take the exam period from the vice-dean of teaching of the Faculty of Philosophy, prof. Dr. Nebojsa Grubor, who even after five days did not respond to the H1 portal query.