As if Christmas exams weren’t stressful enough
University of Law LPC-ers have been left reeling after an IT blip saw them struggle to complete their latest practical exam.
In the run-up to the Christmas break, Legal Practice Course students were given 24 hours to complete their practical legal research assessment paper. This ended up snowballing into 96 hours, after an online glitch saw students unable to access key legal databases. Concerned students were given generic logins for Westlaw and Practical Law, though problems with LexisNexis persisted.
The deadline for hand-in is now Monday midday, giving students a whopping 72 hours extra time on top of the original allotted slot of 24 hours.
Clearly there is an upside to this mishap — students have extra time to work on their paper. But the new submission date of Monday, three days after the end of term, has thrown some unlucky students’ Christmas plans into jeopardy. Those students unable to comply with the new hand-in date were asked to submit a concessions form and do the assessment another time.
A ULaw spokesperson told Legal Cheek:
We were made aware that our students had experienced issues accessing online databases. This is not acceptable and we are working closely with the third party suppliers involved to ensure that full support is reinstated as quickly as possible. We are also in close communication with affected students and have assured them that they will not be penalised as a result of this system failure.
Though legal database glitches are hardly novel, given the hefty £15,000 fee forked out by students to secure a place on the course, we understand the frustration.