In medicine, another controversy over massive virtual classes

In March, a rally that actively demanded / file face to face

Alarm began to rush among the committees that gather between 7 and 8 thousand participants and spread to the student center. Once again, virtual classes are back in the UNU School of Medicine Complaint Center, and now with students reporting that they were excluded from testing due to alleged failures of the attendance accreditation system on the web platform through which they are made in the first year. With that said, a few weeks after entering, they are left out of a major topic of progression in the race.

Since 2016, medicine no longer has a qualifying entrance examination. You go straight to the first year courses, which went from about 300 or 400 students, in that exam period, to about 7,000 students in this course. In histology, for example, they meet with students from last year. You have to pass that yearly to be able to go through the second stage, with physiology. According to suggestions received by this newspaper, progress was cut short as soon as it began: “We started with histology in March and had three classes recorded. We were all left outside as we found out. We want to judge us by our knowledge,” one student told this newspaper.

The obvious problem, as explained and subsequently agreed upon by the Student Center, would be of a technical or administrative nature, in principle. “After having a look at the list of chair students, with their respective committees, I have been notified that I am not eligible to perform the mid-term exam as a result of three absentees,” the following is indicated in a note: It is run among students for a standard presentation before the Deanship and it is added that “ The stated situation is incorrect due to the fact that I was present in all the given classes, and this can be demonstrated using the computer system Webex used, in which I have correctly registered by name, surname and file “.

This newspaper consulted the dean about the proposal. As of press time, there has been no response.

From the student center, they agreed with the position of the arrivals who went out to protest. The Vice-President, Maria Agustina Perrotta, criticized the process of the topic in question: “During the pandemic, business has been poor, seeking to exclude students for administrative reasons. In the past year at nearly all of our Board meetings, we have given presentations on the problems this chair faces. For example, to sign up, you have to fill out an eternal form and if you don’t do it right, they leave you,” he said, adding, “Now, the present is taken by Webex, a platform like Zoom, with more tools. Ask for file number, name, and surname. If it is not placed in the specified order, it leaves you outside.” He concluded that “these are not absences, but violations of the chair system.”

Among the students, there is talk of hundreds or thousands of people affected. In the center they treat the data with caution, but do not exclude the presence of several hundred different commissions. Yesterday, the Dean was informed of the new steps for revising the schedule.

In the meantime, some students came out to call for a demonstration at the college premises and in front of the university’s principal’s office.