Pharmaceutical student assessment issues – GPhC Responds

Pharmaceutical student assessment issues – GPhC Responds
Five test centres in England experienced delays in starting either Paper 1 or Paper 2 due to IT or other technical issues. The General Pharmaceutical Council said on its website that the majority of candidates were able to complete the assessment on 29 June 2022 with no issues. However, five test centres in England experienced delays in starting either Paper 1 or Paper 2 due to IT or other technical issues. The most significant issue affected candidates at a test centre in Nottingham where the delay was severe and candidates were only able to start Paper 1 in the late afternoon.  The GPhC has contacted the candidates affected via email to apologise for the disruption and the extra worry this will have caused. We will also be issuing our usual survey for all candidates so we can hear directly from them about their experiences and have also asked candidates to get in touch if they would like individual advice. Duncan Rudkin, Chief Executive of the GPhC, said:
“We are extremely sorry for the severe delays experienced by candidates in Nottingham today. This is completely unacceptable, and we fully appreciate the significant stress and disruption this must have caused for them in such a high-stakes assessment. “We are advising the candidates in Nottingham that we will accept the severe delay as grounds for appeal if they do not pass. This means that if they do not pass the assessment, this sitting would not count as one of their attempts to pass. We are considering what else we can do to support the affected candidates. “The GPhC and BTL will also work together as a priority to review what caused these delays and make sure lessons are learnt to help avoid these issues happening again in the future.”
Sonya Whitworth, Managing Director of BTL said:
“We know how important these assessments are to the GPhC candidates, and wish to offer an apology for the disruption caused to the candidates sitting the assessment in the five centres that experienced delays. “We have been working hard with our test centre providers throughout the day to resolve the issues, and although all centres were able to start the assessment, we appreciate the unacceptable delays would have caused stress and anxiety.  We will be carrying out a full investigation with our test centre providers and will ensure that mitigations are put in place to prevent this happening again.”
The GPhC Council decided that all candidates in Great Britain who experienced problems when sitting the registration assessment which amount to procedural error will be eligible for provisional registration, if they meet the other eligibility criteria set out in the policy. This includes candidates who experienced delays of 30 minutes or more, and other candidates who successfully appeal their result after experiencing other procedural issues such as significant technical problems or other major disruption during the sitting. These candidates will also be able to receive a full refund, and for this sitting not to count as one of their three attempts.
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