Pauline. What about addressing the issue with the Law Society?. They are
also obliged to provide reasonable adjustments under SENDA and if they are
of the view that what you propose is reasonable, or that the department
should do more to accommodate the needs of the student, the Law dep's
argument would fall on its feet.Andy
----- Original Message -----
From: "Pauline McInnes" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, March 30, 2006 3:06 PM
Subject: Mitigation and LPC students
Dear All,
We've got a tricky case here and we are all a bit stuck on how to
proceed.
I have a student who is doing her Legal Practice Course here which is
validated by the Law Society. She has a mental health condition and
disclosed this quite late in her course to her Programme Leader. The
Programme Leader asked her for some medical evidence but didn't bother
to refer her to the Disability Team. At this time she was asking for
some extra time to do her assignments I believe which she got. She says
that when she disclosed her disability she said that she also had
difficulty in exams, but the Programme Leader says she has no
recollection of this.
So, the student has sat her exams twice without any reasonable
adjustments in place and failed both times. Under our course regs for
this course you get three attempts so she is on her final attempt now.
We have been trying to get the faculty to agree (through our mitigation
process) that should the student fail these exams as well that she
should be given two further attempts. This is because all students get
three attempts but she has only had one attempt with her reasonable
adjustments in place.
We're also asking that because in previous attempts she didn't have any
reasonable adjustments that her mark is not capped.
Part of the reason for doing this in advance of the student sitting the
exams was to provide a 'safety net' for her. She is already a very
anxious student and going into an exam knowing that it is your very last
chance is anxiety provoking for anyone. We hoped that if she could go
in knowing that she still had a further attempt this would allay her
anxiety in the exams.
Unfortunately, the faculty are refusing to even consider allowing her
any more attempts at her exams if she fails this time around. They just
keep telling us that these are law society validated exams and it can't
be done.
Has anyone had any experience of this?
If this student does fail her exams this time around and the University
maintains that she cannot have any further attempts, then I think we are
sitting targets under the DDA, for failing to make a reasonable
adjustment. The reasonable adjustment being to allow her further
attempts.
Does anyone have any thoughts on this or have I just confused you all
totally?
Regards
Pauline
Pauline McInnes
Disability Co-ordinator
Disability Team
Student Services
St Mary's Road
Ealing
London
W5 5RF
Tel: 0208 231 2058
|