Policy plea after exam suicide
A CORONER has urged Cardiff University to change the way it confirms exam results after a student took her own life having been wrongly told she had failed.
Pharmacy student Mared Foulkes, 21, of Menai Bridge, Anglesey, fell to her death believing that she had not passed her university exams and would be unable to sit her third year.
An inquest into Ms Foulkes’ death last month was told she had actually passed her resit – but her results email in July 2020 did not include this mark, with her distraught family blaming “confusing” messages from the university for the tragedy.
Coroner Katie Sutherland has now issued a prevention of future deaths report, following the conclusion of the inquest in Caernarfon on October 28. The university has confirmed it has received the report and said it would formally respond to the coroner’s findings in January 2022.
In a letter to the university’s president and vice-chancellor, Mrs Sutherland said: “The sharing of examination results and how examinations are marked is complex, confusing and at times capable of appearing misleading.
“Mared had failed one professional skills assessment during the second year of her degree (2019-20) and undertaken a resit during the first semester for which she had received a ‘provisional pass.’
“This was not ratified in the June exam board. Instead it was to be ratified in the September exam board round in accordance with the university’s policy (though that was not obviously clear at the time). The indication therefore to Mared in July 2020 was that she had not successfully completed the year.
“The result was later ratified in September. Furthermore, marks of 39% and 1% (fails) for assessments are given in situations where marks could be ‘pending.’
“There is no system in place for personal tutors to contact students ahead of the release of failed examination results, especially vulnerable students. Students are not contacted directly by telephone by their personal tutors ahead of the release of the results in the event of failed modules or in the event of being informed that they had not successfully completed the year, despite the complex and confusing assessment and results process and potentially misleading process around the sharing of examination results.”
Ms Foulkes died on July 8, 2020 after falling from Britannia Bridge over the Menai Strait. Hours earlier, she had texted one of her housemates about the results saying: “I did crap.”
The inquest in October heard that one automated email stated she had failed with 39% when in fact she had passed the exam with 62%. The 39% related to an exam she had failed on March 26, not the resit exam she had taken, and passed, on April 24.
A conclusion of suicide was recorded at last month’s hearing. A post-mortem revealed Ms Foulkes sustained a head injury in the fall which would likely have caused lethal brain damage.
Speaking during the inquest, Ms Foulkes’ mother said she felt it was “plain and simple” that her daughter’s actions that day were a “direct result” of receiving the email from Cardiff University.
Iona Foulkes said: “She received an automatic email. There was nothing personal, no phone call, nothing. She believed she had failed and the email said she could not progress with her degree . ... She would have felt like all her dreams and aspirations had finished with that sentence. For a 21-year-old, it’s unbelievable.”
Professor Mark Gumbleton, head of the Cardiff University’s school of pharmacy, told the hearing that Ms Foulkes had failed a practical test as part of a module on March 26, then retook it on April 24 and passed – but her email in July did not take this into account.
Prof Gumbleton said this was standard practice, but added: “Lessons are always to be learned.
“We acted within the regulations, but we need to move towards a simpler system of ratifying grades.”