‘Collusion’ leads to resit for medical students

Final-year medical students at one of Britain’s oldest universities have been told to resit an exam after bosses uncovered evidence of “collusion” among a small number of learners.

Around 270 undergraduate students at the University of Glasgow’s medical school were given the news yesterday morning.

The university said the clinical examination they sat earlier this year has now been declared “void” after it emerged a handful of students had shared information about the test using social media.

The students responsible are now facing a disciplinary and fitness to practise process and the fresh exam has been timetabled for early May.

The test is known as the objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) in which students are faced with a number of clinical challenges at different points on a ward.

Professor Matthew Walters, head of the university’s school of medicine, dentistry and nursing, said it was “disappointing” to have discovered the data breach – an “unprecedented” experience for the department.

“In an abundance of caution, and with the interests of the public as our primary concern, we didn’t feel we could use that examination as the assessment to ensure our students are fit and ready to graduate and work on the wards.

“Although we didn’t have any evidence that the results of the exam have been compromised, we felt that... the safest course of action was to scrap the exam and put on a whole fresh assessment.”

It is not expected to affect the overall timetable, which would see students graduate in summer and begin work on the wards in August.

He said there was a “shared sense of disappointment” among students and staff when told the news, but also a joint understanding of the importance of having a trusted assessment.

“The class essentially recognise and understand the need for a robust and thorough assessment prior to their graduation and are accepting of the decision to rerun the whole exam,” he said.

Prof Walters described the threat posed by social media as a “big deal” for universities generally.

“All medical universities who run OSCE exams have this potential threat and have to take security very seriously.”

0 Glasgow University senate and examiners support resit move