The university has refused to enable students to take their exams another time. The student association stated on Wednesday (1 June) that the academic council of ULB (Free University of Brussels) has rejected a proposal by the student body to allow students who were stranded by the strikes to attend exams later in June.
Joint initiatives have been implemented to mitigate the situation such as a call center to a car pool and the opening this week of places in student housing.
On 27 May, the Federation of Francophone Students (FEF) received a letter from ARES (Academy of Research and Higher Education), sent by email to all higher education institutions, asking them not to punish students if they had not been able to make it to the exams because of the strike. The student association called on ULB to solve the situation.
Nicolas Dassonville, spokesperson for ULB, explains that two emails were sent to teachers advising them to be flexible, including acceptance of latecomers and alternative exam dates for those absent. In most cases solutions were found in the first exam sessions.
Only a small minority will have to pass exams at another time because they missed the first exam. With the forthcoming general strike on June 24, exams have been postponed to Saturday 25 June and Monday 27 June.
The Brussels Times (Source: Belga)
