Aix-Marseille University President's newsletter for the university community
Special virus COVID-19 n°9 - For students
Dear students,
Dear everyone,
In addition to the numerous forms of support that Aix-Marseille University has put in place for its students, the commitment of its teaching teams to organising distance learning for 80,000 students has been intense, and the examination procedures introduced are unprecedented.
Placing the student at the heart of the system, these exceptional arrangements guarantee both legitimate recognition of the good work done by those students who are able to do so, and support for those students most in difficulty in the face of the health crisis. No automatic validation of the semester.
While inaccurate information on this subject has been circulating since yesterday, it is important for me to provide you officially with the clear and factual information that is fundamental to your future. We are at your side.
Take good care of yourself.
1. Examination procedures
These examination procedures for all AMU students are set out in an "Examination Guide", which was voted on - without a single dissenting vote - by the relevant AMU political bodies on Monday 13 April 2020. The guide was drawn up by AMU's political teams in consultation with the 18 heads of faculties and schools, student representatives from the various trade unions, the national network of education vice-presidents and the MESRI.
Three main principles, all shared by these players, guided the design of the guide:
Putting students at the heart of our thinking ;
value and recognise the work done during confinement when e-learning conditions were good;
Supporting students who are experiencing the greatest difficulties in the health crisis and making their career paths more secure.
This guide now sets the framework for the organisation of examinations, which each AMU faculty and school will adopt according to its own specificities. It is officially communicated to students by e-mail from the Dean or Director and posted on the faculty or school website. This guide can be consulted here
What about assessments this semester? To sum up:
The assessment will be based on the work done during the semester, before, during and after the lock-in. Only marks obtained before the confinement will count, as well as marks obtained during or after the confinement if they are higher than 10/20.
The work carried out during the confinement period will then be assessed using various media (reports, case analyses, etc.), mainly on a continuous basis.
Students who have not been assessed during the crisis or who have not achieved satisfactory results - provided that they have passed their first semester - will move on to the year above and will be able to follow support courses. During these courses, they will be carefully assessed so that they can receive a mark. With regard to the details of these courses, several systems are still being studied to enable all willing students to succeed: two intensive weeks at the start of the academic year, courses spread over the semester, tutoring, etc. The important thing is that students should have the solid foundations they need to follow the courses in the new semester in which they will be enrolled at the start of the academic year, without being swamped by the workload.
As a result, AMU is not neutralising the semester. An educational continuity plan has been put in place and the vast majority of AMU courses have been organised remotely (e-learning) since the start of the lockdown. Students can therefore continue to study and it is in their interest to do so. The knowledge and skills acquired during this semester will be necessary to succeed in the next semester, just as they will be in their future professional lives. In addition, the marks obtained may be used to compensate for those from the previous semester. Only certain very practical teaching units (UE) on technical installations which cannot take place and certain UEs with very high numbers of students and no continuous assessment in TDs, may not be assessed. In this case, alternative activities are being studied.
What about face-to-face exams?
The likelihood of being able to organise face-to-face examinations in the next few months seems slim. We would like to keep the second semester 1 exams on university premises, but the AMU teaching teams are already working on alternative solutions to deal with any further impediments.
2. How far have we got with solidarity aid?
Since the beginning of the lockdown on 17 March, we have been paying close attention to the situation of our students and how it is evolving. We have organised emergency food, social, medical and psychological support systems, repatriation assistance from abroad, we are trying to bridge the digital divide and enable e-learning, we are trying to make up for the cessation of paid internships...
Nearly 4,000 students at our Aix-Marseille sites have been left on their own or in cité U accommodation; some are in serious difficulty.
At the start of the crisis we sent you an e-mail survey to assess your medical, social and psychological needs. 60 % of you replied. Nearly 600 wanted to be contacted again by our Mission handicap, nearly 1,200 by our SIUMPPS staff and over 1,600 by the CROUS social services. In total, more than 3,600 AMU students have already benefited from medical, social or psychological follow-up or support.
We haven't forgotten the others. The lockdown is not over, face-to-face classes will not resume until September and exams are approaching. Our teams remain mobilised to provide you with answers and support if you need it. Of course, we're trying to contact students who have no access to their e-mail, and therefore no access to our survey. As you know, we have sent them text messages and contacted those who wanted to be contacted. We're continuing to monitor the situation, so please don't hesitate to pass on the information.
With regard to individual aid following the interruption of work placements, a letter was sent to the heads of training courses asking them to enquire of each student who was on a work placement about any financial problems they may have encountered. More than 260 applications were received. However, not all were eligible. To date, 95 applications eligible for the scheme have been forwarded by our teams to the CROUS social workers. Around sixty have already received financial aid of between €200 and €600 (flat-rate aid). During the crisis period, as the payment of funds does not have to be submitted to a body, the students concerned receive their financial aid more quickly.
In terms of food aid, solidarity is growing with more than 2,000 food parcels and hygiene kits distributed every week on university sites. This is made possible by the voluntary work of AMU staff and students.
I'd like to thank you most warmly for your generosity, and I'd also like to extend my sincere thanks to ALL the student associations that are getting involved, our local authority partners (the cities of Aix and Marseille, the AMPM metropolitan authority, the CD13 and Région PACA Sud, who are supporting us), the CROUS, the Restos du cœur, the Vendredi 13 association and our partners in the retail sector.
To reduce the digital divide and enable e-learning, we have distributed 200 SIM cards, around 100 USB sticks and almost 350 computers.
With regard to mobile students, 330 AMU students are eligible for repatriation assistance. This will be financed by the university, the Région Sud and ERASMUS.
I wish you all courage. We will emerge stronger from this crisis, which brings us together around values of solidarity.
Dear students, dear everyone, take good care of yourselves and of everyone else.
Éric Berton
Chairman of Aix-Marseille University