By Christopher Dass

As the epidemic of coronavirus worsens in Scotland, with classes being suspended in universities the students of UWS are worried whether practical examinations will be conducted in the university and whether they will graduate in time.

Certain courses such as nursing require practical examinations to be conducted on site. There is no way around it, and this poses a huge question in a time of a global epidemic. Hence we took this worries to the professor Stewart Kerr one of the professors for nursing. On asking him about the practical examinations being conducted on site he said “ all practical examination for the term have been cancelled, and students will have to submit any theory papers they have for the assessments will be turned in online via the university moodle site, and if the university decides that a practical examination is necessary for the term, then we have a catch up period from June to September when all practical examinations will be conducted”.

He also added to say that this will be possible only if the current situation persists for a short period of time. On asking him whether this will effect the students work experience he said that “it is unlike as practice is going on as normal and if the situation persists and if needed the government will give the students who are currently on work placements letters saying they are qualified to practice and help out with the situation and so it’s unlikely to become a problem.”

We went on to ask the nursing students in the university on how they feel about coming to campus for their work experience and weather they feel safe with the university suspending classes they said ” we are not affected by it as we are on work placement and it’s our job to come in when needed so we’re not bothered, it just like any other day for us.”

We also posed a question to the universities student administration on whether students will graduate this year considering the situation, and they refused to comment as it was to early for them to say anything, and had no proper information from the higher ups of the university.