The University of Newcastle, Australia

The University of Newcastle today congratulated the almost 80 per cent of students who attended exams last week after the massive long weekend storms, and announced the rescheduled exam week will commence 16 July.

Students who could not attend exams in the week 12 - 15 June due to the storms will be able to sit for their exam in the week commencing 16 July. The University will write to each student with further details.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), Professor Kevin McConkey, said the way that University staff and students pulled together during the last week had been impressive.

"Our focus has been to support our staff and students during this difficult time. Some have lost so much, and we put in place measures to ensure help was there for them," Professor McConkey said.

"The staff who weren't as affected by the storms have stepped up to the plate to help their colleagues and ensure all students had the information they needed regarding special arrangements.

"To minimise the impact of the extra workload on academic staff around the Special Consideration process, the online lodgement system was modified to protect them from a potential wave of applications from students in distress."

The system is up and running and has worked very well since Sunday 10 June giving our students quick, efficient access to the system if needed. It has not been shut down at anytime contrary to claims by the National Tertiary Education Union Newcastle branch.

Professor McConkey said he could not speak highly enough of the academics, support staff and students who had helped the University bounce back so quickly.