JODIE DEAN
Brisbane city tertiary students have expressed anger with the G20 Summit’s impact on their end of year studies.
The summit, running November 14-16 at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, has produced heightened security measures around South Bank which are leading to some tertiary institutions altering their academic calendars.
Queensland University of Technology student Alannah Quinn said that she was not adequately informed about the university’s decision to cancel their study week in favour of an immediate exam block.
“They didn’t really tell us what was actually going on and because it’s my first year of uni I kind of just thought that that’s how they did it,” Ms Quinn said.
Ms Quinn said that a lack of organization made her exam period more stressful than necessary.
“It was just really annoying, really stressful because we ended up having all of these exams and all these assignments due within the last two weeks,” she said.
Bachelor of Audio Engineering student at Brisbane’s SAE Institute, Hayden Moore said his college had to temporarily close making it impossible for students to work on their assessment tasks at the campus.
“All of the studios are shut down which has hindered me because I have my mix down due soon and I can’t do anything with that,” Mr Moore said.
SAE Marketing Officer Alice Ayling said that the institute did their best to reduce the impact of the G20 on their students.
“We usually have a one week study break each trimester. We moved this back one week this year to minimise any disruptions to the students during the event,” Ms Ayling said.
Students were pressured because their assessment due dates now fell during the study week instead of in the week following.
Mr Moore said that SAE had given all students adequate warning of the changes to the timetable but he believed that the deadlines for assessment were earlier than previous semesters resulting in less preparation time.
“Basically week one they told us straight away that they’re going to have to move the assessment and the exams,” Mr Moore said.
“They’ve given us our final mix down an extra week early…They’ve given us the assessment but we’re covering the stuff for that assessment now.”