Office of the AMS VP Academic and University Affairs
Proposal for a Central Exam Database at UBC
Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 2
Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................................................................... 3
Defining An Exam Database ................................................................................................................................................................... 3
The UBC Process To Date ........................................................................................................................................................................ 3
Exam Databases: A Canadian Context Assessment .......................................................................................................................... 4
Survey of Comparable Canadian Universities ............................................................................................................................... 4
Lessons From the Canadian Experience .......................................................................................................................................... 5
Specific Cases From The 2011 AMS Proposal ................................................................................................................................ 5
The Argument for Institutional Provision of Past Exams .............................................................................................................. 7
Mitigating Incoming Student Stress ................................................................................................................................................... 7
Unfair Access: Levelling the Playing Field ....................................................................................................................................... 8
Providing An Academic Resource ....................................................................................................................................................... 9
Third Parties and Reputational Damage .......................................................................................................................................... 9
Policy Specifics: Proposed UBC Database........................................................................................................................................... 11
Proposal Summary................................................................................................................................................................................... 11
Policy Rationales....................................................................................................................................................................................... 11
Next Steps .................................................................................................................................................................................................... 12
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................................................................................ 13
Appendix ........................................................................................................................................................................................................... 14
Queen’s University Policies .................................................................................................................................................................. 14
Harvard University Policies ................................................................................................................................................................. 14
Contact Details
Please contact the AMS VP Academic and University Affairs at vpacademic@ams.ubc.ca for any issues related to this report.
2

Office of the AMS VP Academic and University Affairs
Proposal for a Central Exam Database at UBC
This report will present an argument for the provision of past examination materials to the students of the
University of British Columbia, accessible through an institutionally operated exam database. To do so, it will first provide a context overview of exam databases in Canadian higher education and the lessons learned from those experiences. Then, it will assess the serious need to provide access to past exams, both for students and for the University. Finally, it will propose suggested policy specifics that maximise student and
University benefits and minimise any negative consequences that could arise from the undertaking.
This report builds upon the discussion paper submitted by the AMS to the UBC Senate as a Topic of Broad
Academic Interest in March 2011.
Occasionally called an ‘exam bank’ or some variation, exam databases exist to provide access to past examination material to the student body of an institution. They may be provided either by an institution or by a third party. What may be stored, who is able to store it and who can access it varies depending on who is providing the database and the policies of the provider.
For the purposes of this report, ‘ exam database ’ refers to a digitally based repository of past exams that includes only the assessment questions and no additional materials. A ‘ central exam database ’ is a database explicitly provided by an institution and controlled by institutional policies. Where a database is not institutionally provided or controlled, such a database is referred to as a ‘ third party database ’.
In March 2011, the AMS submitted an exam database to the UBC Senate as a Topic of Broad Academic
Interest. This proposal was subsequently referred to the Senate Teaching and Learning Committee. Since then, the AMS has elicited feedback from faculty leadership, and the resulting feedback has been incorporated into this proposal. All of the concerns raised by faculty leadership and the Senate Teaching and Learning
Committee have been addressed in this document, especially in the suggested policy particulars.
In addition to incorporating feedback from faculty leadership, other parties consulted include undergraduate society VP Academics, the student Senate caucus, the Centre for Teaching and Learning Technology, and the office of the Provost.
3

Office of the AMS VP Academic and University Affairs
Proposal for a Central Exam Database at UBC
Institution
Carleton University
Concordia University
Central Database Third Party Database
No
No
Dalhousie University No
Harvard University ( Non-Canadian ) Yes
McGill University
McMaster University
Memorial University
Yes
Yes
No
Yes - Student Society
Yes - Student Society
No
No
No
No
No
Quality Access
Medium Public
Low Public
-
High
-
Restricted
High Restricted
Medium Print
- -
Queen's University
Simon Fraser University
University of Alberta
UBC
University of Calgary
University of Guelph
University of New Brunswick
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
No
Yes - Student Society
Yes- Student Society
Discontinued - AMS
Yes - Student Society
Yes
No
High
Low
Medium
Low
Restricted
Public
Public
-
Medium Public
Low
-
Public
-
University of Ottawa
University of Regina
University of Saskatchewan
University of Toronto
University of Victoria
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes - Student Society
Yes- Student Society
Yes
Yes - Student Society
Low
Low
Unsure
Various
Low
Public
Public
Public
Public
Public/Pay
University of Waterloo No Yes - Student Society Outdated Public
University of Western Ontario No Yes - Student Society Low Public
York University No Yes Low Public
Surveying large and medium sized universities across Canada (with the addition of Harvard and the exclusion of French language universities), certain themes emerge. Of twenty two universities, seven provide a central exam database. However, fourteen universities have databases operated by third parties. Eleven universities do not have central exam databases but do have third party operated databases.
Of the twenty two universities, only three did not have either an institutional or a third party database (New
Brunswick, Dalhousie, and Memorial). UBC had a third party database operated by the AMS that was discontinued due to sparse and outdated offerings.
Of the three universities where both an institutional and third party database co-exists, all three central exam databases only provide access to a limited number of exams. No university that provides a medium or high quality exam database has a significant database operated by a third party.
In terms of restricting access, only three (Harvard, McGill, and Queen’s) restrict access to users with a valid institutional login. One (McMaster) provides access only through print copies in the library, which may or may not require institutional library privileges. All third party databases are accessible to the general public.
4

Office of the AMS VP Academic and University Affairs
Proposal for a Central Exam Database at UBC
5
Exam databases, whether institutional or run by a third party, are the rule within Canada. Only three of twenty two surveyed universities do not have a database. Additionally, these universities are relatively small
(New Brunswick, 11,400 students; Dalhousie, 18,200; Memorial, 15,400). UBC is by far the largest institution without a central or third party operated database.
McGill, Queen’s, and Harvard have well stocked central exam databases; Queen’s and Harvard also have institutional policies that automatically include exams in the database unless otherwise requested by the instructor. The University of Toronto, The University of Victoria, McMaster University, and Simon Fraser
University also operate central exam databases.
Only institutionally provided exam databases are of consistently high quality (Queen’s, McGill, Harvard).
Some student societies (Alberta, Calgary) do succeed in offering databases of medium quality, but are not comprehensive. Other universities succeed in offering only ad hoc access to exams, whether they are institutionally provided or third party operated. If a database desires to be comprehensive it should be operated by a university and subject to university polices.
If a university offers a mediocre quality exam database (one that provides very few or outdated exams) or does not offer one at all, it is at high risk of a third party offering access to past exams.
This is true whether or not the third party has authorisation to distribute past exams or has a legitimate source. A number of third party websites surveyed include a call for submission of past exams from students, not just from professors. This is concerning from both a university intellectual property perspective as well as a fairness perspective. With third party databases, faculty may not be aware that their previous examinations are available online to those who look. UBC must be aware of the incentives that it creates for third party operations by failing to offer a quality exam database.
If operated by a third party, materials are routinely available to the general public, and are therefore not restricted to the academic community from which they originated. If operated by a university, access to materials may or may not be restricted as the institution sees fit. Even in cases where access is restricted, third party databases have not emerged (as at Harvard, McGill, and Queen’s). Providing quality access from an institutional database reduces the risk of unmonitored third party operations arising to provide access to past exams.
The most robust way to ensure examinations are not being circulated to the general public or without the knowledge of instructors is for an institution to provide quality access itself via a secure institutional login.
The initial AMS proposal surveyed existing exam databases at other universities, including Queen’s, McGill,
University of Auckland, University of Toronto Engineering, and the University of Victoria. These surveyed exam databases are robust and have been in place for multiple years.
Brief overviews of some of the databases profiled in the initial proposal are included below for context. For further details on both these university databases and others, please refer to the initial March 2011 proposal.

Office of the AMS VP Academic and University Affairs
Proposal for a Central Exam Database at UBC
The Exam Bank is a comprehensive online database of all exams taken at Queen’s, and is hosted on the
Queen’s University Library website. It has been operational since 1991. Answers are not posted. Exams are maintained in PDF format, and are only accessible to those with a Queen’s University account login.
Queen’s University Faculty of Arts and Science explains the process and rationale for the ExamBank in its
Confidential Exam Guidelines for Instructors, noting that “ the goal was to ensure that all students had equal access to final exams administered in earlier versions of their courses … the release of exam question papers also encourages good practice in terms of academic integrity by encouraging instructors to construct new exam questions in subsequent offerings of the same course. While exams should normally be released to the
Exambank, exceptions to the Senate policy may be granted under rare and occasional circumstances. Exams designated as “confidential” will never be released to the Exambank.” 1
The Queen’s exam bank serves as an excellent Canadian model of institution-wide policy implementation of an exam database. The Queen’s Senate policy governing past examination release is attached to this report in the appendix .
6
Since 1999 McGill has provided access to the previous five years of final exams for the Faculties of Arts,
Science, Engineering, Agriculture & Environmental Sciences, and Education in PDF format on the Library website. A McGill account login is required to access the database. While professors are not obligated to release their exams, the database is still relatively comprehensive.
The online exam database was created in 2001 as an initiative of the University of Auckland Library to improve access to the exam collection. The University previously maintained a comprehensive physical collection. Each exam is provided to the Library in PDF format, and exams are only available for access to those with a University of Auckland account login. Exams are available online before the start of the following academic semester. Withholding of exams or sections of exams may occur at the request of the professor, but an argument must be submitted to the Exam Office in order to do so.
The University of Victoria Library includes links to a single PDF of exams for each exam session. These PDFs are publicly available, and limited to exams from April 2008 and earlier. However, the exams provided are haphazardly sourced and limited in coverage: the latest collection from April 2008 includes a total of 58 exams from 17 different departments. Physical exam packages are also available for purchase from the student society.
1 Queen’s University Faculty of Arts and Science. Confidential Exam Guidelines for Instructors . Sept. 8 2011.

Office of the AMS VP Academic and University Affairs
Proposal for a Central Exam Database at UBC
There are four core reasons that the University of British Columbia should provide equal access to past exams for its students. These are: the potential positive effects on student stress or anxiety; levelling existing inequalities in access to past materials; providing additional academic resources to students; and protecting the institution against the rise of third party provision of past exams. Each of these reasons will be addressed more fully in the sections that follow.
A 2012 AMS survey asked questions on three issues that had been raised in the Senate Teaching and Learning
Committee in 2011: potential effects on stress or anxiety; current unfair access to past exams by some students; and whether or not access would be a positive academic resource. Results have been included in full in the relevant sections. The survey contained 2454 respondents and a representative sample of UBC students by demographics.
2
According to the National College Health Association, academics are the primary cause of stress for UBC students.
3 While some courses do a good job in setting exam expectations for incoming students, some do not. As a result, incoming students may be left without a comfortable understanding of what to expect in terms of format and other aspects unique to formal examinations. For new students, anything that can help with setting realistic expectations for the first year experience is welcome.
Gaining access to past exams would aid in relieving student anxiety in an already high stress academic environment. Survey results vigorously support this conclusion, with every demographic reflecting very high support for this statement, and some demographics such as Commerce recording over 49% in strong support.
7
Students were asked to respond to the statement: “Access to old exams in my 1 st or 2 nd year would have decreased my stress or anxiety level surrounding exams.”
Response All Respondents First Year Respondents Second Year Respondents
Strongly Agree
(2445)
34.1%
Only (424)
36.1%
Only (452)
42.9%
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly Disagree
36.8%
20.8%
7.0%
1.3%
38.2%
21.7%
3.5%
0.5%
Strongly
Agree
Agree 36.5% 34.0% 32.6%
Neutral 16.5% 26.1% 14.7%
Disagree 4.8%
Strongly 0.4%
10.9%
1.1%
2.3%
1.4%
Disagree
Total
Applied
Science
41.8% 27.9% 49.1%
249
Arts
700
Commerce Education Graduate
Studies
218
13.8%
33.8%
40.0%
11.3%
1.3%
80
16.0%
34.7%
40.0%
5.3%
4.0%
75
35%
17.3%
4.6%
0.2%
Kinesiology LFS
32.3%
32.3%
21.0%
12.9%
1.6%
62
36.2%
7.4%
2.1%
94
Medicine Science
21.0%
41.5% 47.0%
12.8% 24.0%
6.0%
2.0%
100
40.9%
40.3%
13.8%
4.2%
0.8%
643
2 Cregten, Sean. Academic Experience Report 2012. Office of the VP Academic and University Affairs of the Alma Mater
Society of UBC Vancouver, 2012.
3 Dr. Patricia Mirwaldt and Dr. Cheryl Washburn [Presentation] Health of University of British Columbia Students .
Presentation given 30 Apr. 2012 to the UBC Mental Health Network.

Office of the AMS VP Academic and University Affairs
Proposal for a Central Exam Database at UBC
70.9% of all respondents supported the statement, while only 8.3% rejected it. Support was intense, with
34.1% strongly agreeing with the statement. Amongst first year and second year students, support was even higher, at 74.3% and 77.9% respectively.
8
Responses varied by faculty, but were consistently very high in support, excluding Education and Graduate
Studies. Faculties with large undergraduate programs such as Applied Science, Commerce, Land and Food
Systems, and Science expressed particularly high support.
Current students in a course often can and do gain access to materials used in a previous version of a course.
When this goes beyond notes and includes past iterations of assessment, this becomes a major concern.
Those students unable to take advantage of their social capital to acquire past assessments are correspondingly disadvantaged when it comes to course grading.
This problem is significantly heightened when instructors are unaware that some students have access to past materials. This increases the value students place on gaining access to these materials, as instructors are less likely to adjust their questions. This has the potential to lead students to rely on social networks, the black-market, or illegitimate posting of materials online to gain access to past exams – access that instructors will not be aware of and will not have adjusted for in their current assessments. A quick internet search shows that third-party websites offering access to theoretically private past exams are common.
Unfair access to past exams is not simply a problem at other institutions – the survey results demonstrate that it is very much a problem at UBC. Students should not be prejudiced by whether or not they have the right social network to gain access to past exam materials. Providing a level academic playing field is critical, and any perception that this is not available carries a risk of reputational damage to the University. UBC must act to avoid this reputational damage, and one step towards this is by embracing openness and equal accessibility to past examination materials.
Students were asked to respond to the statement: “I feel that some students have special access to old exams which gives them an unfair advantage.”
Response All Respondents (2442)
Strongly Agree 24.6%
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly Disagree
Applied
Science
30.8% Strongly
Agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly
Disagree
Total
34.0%
22.0%
12.0%
1.2%
250
29.6%
30%
13.3%
2.4%
Arts
16.0% 36.9%
27.3% 28.6%
35.9% 22.1%
17.7% 9.7%
3.1%
700
Commerce Education Graduate
Studies
2.8%
217
11.4%
29.1%
44.3%
11.4%
3.8%
79
10.7%
33.3%
45.3%
9.3%
1.3%
75
Kinesiology LFS
19.7%
31.1%
24.6%
23.0%
1.6%
61
Medicine Science
29.0% 21.2% 32.0%
33.3% 34.3% 32.3%
28.0% 32.3% 23.8%
9.7% 10.1% 11.0%
0.0% 2.0% 0.8%
93 99 643

Office of the AMS VP Academic and University Affairs
Proposal for a Central Exam Database at UBC
54.2% of all respondents supported this statement. Variations by faculty indicate particularly high support amongst faculties with large undergraduate programs – Applied Science, Commerce, Land and Food Systems, and Science. These faculties not only have high total support, but also have very high levels of strong support
(ranging from 29% to 36%). These numbers would indicate a serious problem.
Whether instructors like it or not, students use all manner of materials to prepare for examinations.
Pretending that students only have access to the materials presented in a course in indefensible in the current digital world. The UBC math department has embraced the fact that there are a multitude of potential resources for students to turn to and has chosen to make all of its past exams publicly available. This resource is highly utilised by students as an additional learning tool.
In the AMS survey, respondents were overwhelming in their consideration of an old exam database as a positive academic resource. This was especially true of ‘right answer’ disciplines such as Science or Applied
Science. As no answer keys would be available in an institutionally provided database, past exams could at best serve as indicators of exam formats and expectations. This could only add to, not replace, classroom materials as learning tools.
9
Students were asked to respond to the statement: “I feel that an old / past exam database would be a positive academic resource.”
Response All Respondents (2443)
Strongly Agree
Agree
Neutral
43.0%
39.5%
13.1%
Disagree
Strongly Disagree
3.2%
1.2%
Applied
Science
52.4%
Arts Commerce Education Graduate
Studies
35.4% 57.1% 20.0% 17.3%
Kinesiology LFS Medicine Science
Strongly
Agree
Agree
45.2% 39.4% 27.0% 53.3%
Neutral
35.9%
9.7%
42.1% 32.3%
15.4% 9.2%
43.8%
27.5%
44.0%
25.3%
33.9%
17.7%
46.8% 42.0% 37.0%
9.6% 22.0% 8.1%
Disagree
Strongly
Disagree
Total
1.6%
0.4%
5.1%
1.9%
0.9%
0.5%
7.5%
1.3%
10.7%
2.7%
1.6%
1.6%
3.2%
1.1%
7.0%
2.0%
0.9%
0.8%
248 700 217 80 75 62 94 100 644
82.5% of all respondents supported this statement, while only 4.4% rejected it. Support was stronger in faculties with large undergraduate programs, such as Applied Science, Commerce, Kinesiology, Land and Food
Systems and Science.
The academic reputation of UBC is seriously threatened by questions of unfair access. With 54.2% of all respondents believing “ that some students have special access to old exams which gives them an unfair advantage ”, the integrity of UBC’s academic assessment may come into question.
If we consider the implications of other Canadian universities’ experience, this risk only increases. Without action by UBC, the experience of other institutions suggests a high likelihood that a third party database

Office of the AMS VP Academic and University Affairs
Proposal for a Central Exam Database at UBC arises to ‘fill the gap’. This is not to say that UBC students do not already have ad-hoc access to past exams – the results of the AMS survey strongly suggest that some UBC students do have this access. The current lack of a large third party operated exam database suggests this access is peer to peer, be that due to social networks or financial transactions.
A future risk is that a UBC instructor chooses to reuse a significant portion of an exam, unaware that students have access to the past exam. In a world where a third party database has arisen, there is potential for a very large number of students to gain exposure to what is theoretically a secret well in advance. The potential for reputational damage for both the instructor and the University is obvious.
University students are not living in the paper based environment of previous years. The University must be proactive if it hopes to avoid the possibility of social groups gaining unfair advantages by digitally sharing past exams without the awareness of the instructor. One way to negate this possibility is to provide fair access to all students.
10

Office of the AMS VP Academic and University Affairs
Proposal for a Central Exam Database at UBC
Drawing from the survey results and the initial feedback from the Senate Teaching and Learning Committee, it is suggested that the proposal be revised to contain the following key policy points. Detailed reasoning for each policy point follows in the subsequent section.
11
Opt In / Opt Out:
•
The database should operate on an opt-out basis for courses at the 100 and 200 level.
•
The database should operate on an opt-in policy for courses at the 300 and 400 levels.
Included Faculties:
•
Faculties with undergraduate programming should be included.
•
Graduate and professional programs should not be included.
Hosted Materials:
•
The database should include only past exams.
•
The database should not include model answers or exam answer keys.
•
Materials should be hosted for up to three or five years after the use of an exam.
Access:
•
The database should be accessible only to UBC students, through a CWL login.
•
The database should be hosted through a central server at UBC.
Potential Hosting Options:
•
Many universities provide access through the Library.
•
Opportunities may exist to provide access through the new Learning Management System, Connect, with the added benefit that this automatically requires a CWL login to access.
The database should operate on an opt-out basis for 100 and 200 level courses, and operate on an opt-in basis for 300 and 400 level courses. An opt-out policy is likely to secure more past exams than an opt-in policy, as it requires less active work on the part of the submitter to participate.
It is highly desirable to include 100 and 200 level courses on an opt-in basis as students new to university and experiencing university-level exams for the first time are the most likely to benefit from clarity around exam expectations. Mitigating this early-degree stress or anxiety appropriately is a key goal of this proposal. 100 and 200 level courses have the added benefit of more generalised scope than 300 and 400 level courses, and are therefore more likely to have consistent academic expectations over time.
Recognising that instructors at the 100 and 200 levels may also have very good reasons to not have their exams included in the database, opting-out should be a simple process. Similarly, recognising that instructors at the 300 and 400 level may want to make available past exams for pedagogical purposes, the database must include the ability for instructors to opt-in or to submit individual exams.
To avoid students taking past exams as a certain indicator for future exams, the database should carry a clear warning that past exam formats cannot be relied upon to dictate future exam formats.

Office of the AMS VP Academic and University Affairs
Proposal for a Central Exam Database at UBC
The database should be limited to undergraduate programs only. No graduate or professional programs
(including but not limited to Dentistry, Medicine, and Pharmaceutical Sciences) should be included within the database.
These faculties and programs have expressed reservations about providing access to past exams, for a variety of reasons including a high proportion of repeatable exam questions and program specific idiosyncrasies.
Recognising that providing access to old graduate or professional exams is unlikely to have the same stress mitigating effect that it does for first and second year students unfamiliar with university level exam expectations, there is no reason to include graduate or professional programs in the database.
12
The database should include past exams only. It should not include model answers, answer keys, or additional materials.
The database is not meant to act as a replacement for practice questions provided in class by the instructor, and providing answer keys or model answers could encourage students to use past exams as a reliable study tool. The database is meant to reduce anxiety about potential formats and general exam expectations by demonstrating past iterations of exams, not as a study replacement. If instructors do choose to use past exams as a study tool for their students, they are able to provide model answers or answer keys in class.
Past exams should be hosted for up to either three or five years after the examination date has passed, and no longer. This limitation is important to mitigate completely outdated assessment styles or dramatically changed courses, and to provide instructors confidence that their assessment tool will not remain available indefinitely.
Access to past exams should be limited to UBC students. There is no value is widening access to members outside the UBC community. Making exams accessible via a CWL login ensures this, and allows discussion of hosting options to include the new Learning Management System or UBC library databases, both of which require CWL logins to access.
Past exams should be hosted on a UBC server, and opportunities to integrate the database into the new
Learning Management System may be possible. Many other universities provide access to exam databases via the library, but what the specific form of hosting or access should be and where opportunities for integration exist is best addressed by the Centre for Teaching and Learning Technology.
After consideration of this report, it is requested that the UBC Senate Teaching and Learning Committee approve the proposal for a central exam database at UBC in accordance with the policy guidelines in this report.

Office of the AMS VP Academic and University Affairs
Proposal for a Central Exam Database at UBC
Exam databases are the rule, not the exception. If a university does not provide access to past exams, third party providers will do it anyway. This is evident across Canada, with fourteen of twenty two universities subjected to large third party databases, and evident within UBC, with over 50% of students believing that students have special access to past exams that gives them an unfair advantage. The question isn’t whether or not some UBC students will get access to past exams: it is whether or not all UBC students will get access to past exams in a fair and transparent manner.
And why shouldn’t the University provide this access? Evidence suggests that this access has the potential to reduce anxiety for incoming students and those in first and second year. Perhaps more importantly, students themselves overwhelmingly see such access as providing a positive academic resource. Academics shouldn’t be about assessment, but if it is possible to give students clear expectations, additional appreciated resources, and mitigate stress at a time of significant transition in their lives, that is an opportunity that should be taken by any institution.
In addition, providing access via a controlled institutional mechanism is a proven way that the University can limit the rise of uncontrolled, publicly available third party databases. If it is a question of protecting institutional intellectual property, providing limited access to the local student community is the only way to do so systematically. Neither McGill, nor Queen’s, nor Harvard has problems with illegitimate third party databases. Because of institutional provision, students simply have no incentive to stock or use such sites.
The University must be proactive if unsought public availability and possible reputational damage arising from unfair access are concerns.
Not only would a centrally provided exam database be a helpful, stress mitigating resource for UBC students, it would protect the University in the long run. UBC is behind the likes of Queen’s, Harvard, and McGill in providing access. This needs to change, and this proposal suggests a policy framework to allow that.
13

Office of the AMS VP Academic and University Affairs
Proposal for a Central Exam Database at UBC
14
4
Confidential Exams
“ Final examination question papers will normally be made available by the end of October to students for reference purposes. Exemptions from the policy for particular examination question papers may be granted by the relevant Faculty or School.
Final examination question papers administered through the Examinations Office which are not exempted from the policy will be released to the Library.
Procedures for releasing final examination question papers administered by the instructor or by the department which are not exempted from the policy will be determined by the relevant Faculty or
School.
The procedures for releasing and for exempting from release examination question papers will be published in the relevant university calendars.”
5
8.3.1 – Publication of Previous Years’ Examination Question Papers
“ For reference purposes, final examination question papers will normally be made available by the end of
September (for the previous academic year) to students through their publication in the Exambank, which is available online. Exemptions from the policy for particular examination question papers may be granted by the Associate Dean (Studies) only in exceptional circumstances and only on an annual basis, on the written request of the instructor, with the signed approval of the Head of Department.”
6
Faculty Policies: Release of Examination Papers
“ Final examination question papers will be made available to students by the end of September (for the previous academic year) through publication in the Exambank. In exceptional circumstance the
Associate Dean (Academic) may grant an exemption from this policy. Exemptions, granted only on an annual basis, require written justification from the instructor and a supporting letter from the Head of the Department. There should be no expectation of renewal of an exemption decision.”
7
Publication of Past Final and Mid-Year Examinations
“Final and Midyear Examinations have traditionally been collected and made available electronically on a website accessible only to Harvard account holders atwww.fas.harvard.edu/~exams. However, the head of a course may request at the time of the exam that the final examination not be included in the electronic library collection.”
4 Queen’s University Secretariat, Senate and Board of Trustees Policies: Confidential Exams , May 2008.
5 Queen’s University, 2012-2013 Arts and Science Calendar , 2012.
6 Queen’s University, 2012-2013 Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science Calendar , 2012.
7
Harvard University FAS Registrar’s Office, Information for Faculty Offering Instruction in Arts and Sciences , 2012.