The High Court has rejected a UCD medical student’s Freedom of Information appeal seeking copies of papers and computer scripts from two multiple-choice examinations.
Michael Kruse, who was a fourth-year medical student when the case was heard, challenged a December 2007 decision of the Information Commissioner upholding University College Dublin’s refusal to provide copies of the documents. Mr Justice Garrett Sheehan dismissed his appeal on June 23, 2009.
The dispute began after Kruse sat Cell Biology and Molecular Basics examinations in October and November 2006 and believed he had performed better than his awarded marks indicated. His solicitors subsequently sought examination records under the Freedom of Information Act.
UCD allowed Kruse to inspect relevant material but refused to provide copies. The university said its multiple-choice questions came from a finite pool of about 250 validated questions and were reused. It argued that allowing students to accumulate copies could enable likely questions and answers to circulate before future examinations, undermining the assessment system.
During a review of one examination, UCD accepted that one answer had been incorrectly assigned and another question was ambiguous. Kruse’s mark increased by 1.25%, although his grade did not change.
The Information Commissioner later accepted UCD’s position that releasing copies could reasonably be expected to prejudice the effectiveness of its examinations. The Commissioner also concluded that public-interest considerations including examination fairness and maintaining academic standards outweighed arguments favouring disclosure.
The High Court held that there was sufficient evidence for those conclusions and that Kruse could pursue examination appeals without possessing copies of the papers. It also rejected his argument that, because UCD had permitted inspection, it could not restrict the form of access by refusing copies.
The ruling settles only the Freedom of Information appeal. It does not determine whether Kruse’s original examination answers were otherwise correctly marked beyond the matters UCD had already reviewed.