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Exam conflicts and hardships

The Office of the Registrar and Enrolment Management prepares the exam schedule after the last day for adding courses has passed and students' course schedules are set.

When the finalized exam schedule is published, you may find that you have an exam conflict or hardship. If so, you can request alternate arrangements.

What is an exam conflict or hardship?

Exam conflicts and hardships apply to synchronous timed exams (face-to-face or online) that start and end on specific days and times.

  • Exam conflicts: you have two synchronous timed final exams scheduled at the same time.
  • Exam hardships: you have three or more synchronous timed final exams scheduled within a 24-hour period. If you have an exam hardship, you can choose to take your exams as scheduled or request alternate arrangements.

A final exam that interferes with a student's travel plans does not count as a conflict or a hardship.

For more information, refer to the Final Examination Conflict and Hardship regulation in the academic calendar.

What should I do?

Email the instructor of the course that caused the exam conflict or hardship within two weeks of receiving notice of your exam schedule. If they can't make alternate arrangements for your final exam, the chair/director or associate dean of their academic unit is responsible for resolving the issue.

Include the following information in your email:

  • your UVic student number
  • the courses and impacted exam dates/times.

If you don't know which course caused the exam conflict or hardship, email exams@uvic.ca as soon as possible (including your student number, courses and exam dates/times). The Office of the Registrar and Enrolment Management will provide guidance on which instructor you should contact.

Centre for Accessible Learning

Students registered with the Centre for Accessible Learning may need to follow a different process for changing the time of a final exam as part of an accommodation plan. Contact calexam@uvic.ca for advice.

Need help?

For more information, refer to the Exam conflict and hardship regulation in the academic calendar.

Contact Exams at Student Support Services for help.