Student news round-up: Which universities' exam questions were the worst, and what's 'Ms University's' bodybuilding secret?
Durham's exam season got off to a confusing start when a group of law students were given the wrong paper
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Your support makes all the difference.Incorrect exams blight students across the country
Most students around the country are in the midst of their exams, but it seems to be the universities who need to be sure to check their work. At Lancaster University, the Engineering department has launched an inquiry after a slew of mistakes during a second-year exam. The errors included a table that didn't contain numbers, and some students being given an outdated formula booklet. The department said it was "treating this exceptional matter very seriously".
In Durham, meanwhile, the exam season got off to a confusing start when a group of law students were given the wrong paper entirely, receiving a version based on content from the previous academic year. Although the mistake was quickly corrected, several of the students have raised concerns that their performance in the exam - worth 100 per cent of the module - was affected.
And then there was the English exam in Cambridge where one of the poems didn't contain any words...
Exeter exposed in attempts to offer unpaid internships
The University of Exeter has been criticised for attempting to introduce a module that would circumvent national guidelines on unpaid internships.
The plans by the Biosciences department, leaked to student newspaper Exeposé by a whistleblowing academic, would create a module to give students work experience during the summer. Students taking the module would not be paid and would not receive credit towards their degree mark.
A member of the university's careers department claimed that the students would be "exempt from legislation as the student is engaging in the activity for educational benefit and professional development purposes".
The head of the Biosciences department said there was no funding to pay interns and that "the only people being disadvantaged [by the legislation] are the students".
Oxford VC 'lobbying' shadow minister on variable tuition fees
A second leaked document this week appears to show that the University of Oxford's vice-chancellor intended to use a meeting with Liam Byrne, the shadow education minister, to push for variable tuition fees.
Andrew Hamilton has previously expressed interest in a variable fee regime, under which universities would be able to choose how much to charge students on an individual basis. The agenda for his meeting with Mr Byrne stated that "government should invest in education at all levels... Variable fees, with guaranteed needs-blind admission, would be an effective way of doing this."
The idea has been heavily criticised by the president of OUSU, the Oxford students' union, who called the idea "a raid on the futures of young people" and said that "unilateral lobbying behind closed doors" was "unacceptable".
The university denied lobbying on behalf of any system of tuition fees.
"You have to be strict", says student bodybuilding champion
The "strongest female student in Britain" is a physical education student at Sheffield Hallam University.
In an interview with Impact Holly Welch, who was crowned Ms University 2014, said she originally just wanted to get in shape for a holiday. But after being invited to the gym by her brother, she became interested in bodybuilding and now trains for at least two hours a day.
The toughest part is the diet, she says: "You have to be so strict with yourself. Going to the gym isn't a problem because I enjoy it, but I hate it when I’m in the library and everyone around me is eating nice snacks and I know I can’t have one."
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