Extension adds to student stress

Some students had been sharing concerns on social media about the workload build up caused by Massey’s across the board extension to all assignments due before the semester break to when the semester break ended September 6. 

One student on a Massey confessions page claimed that if all assignments due before and during the break were instead due on one day, it’d be “hundreds of times worse”. Another student said that the decision “whilst sure, it seemed like Massey was trying to be helpful, actually made my semester break stressful in a time where I needed more than anything to relax”.  

Massey’s spokesperson said that the course coordinators have adjusted assessment weightings, the numbers of assignments, and assessment deadlines “wherever possible” to prevent deadlines all stacking atop one another. 

“Because of the nature of some of our courses this isn’t always possible without changing the outcomes of the course, but we encourage any student who is struggling to complete their assessments to approach their course coordinators,” they said. 

The Massey spokesperson said that they have tried to coordinate communication on this within schools with cohort-based programmes.  

“However, because of the number of permutations of courses within programmes, it is not possible to do this for all students. Again, we encourage any student who finds that their assignments have ended up ‘stacked’ to approach their course coordinator.”