A group of pharmacy students who endured “freezing cold” room temperatures and disruptions during an exam this winter will not be given any special allowances by the external examination board.

Severe snow caused havoc with public transport on January 13 as 120 final year pharmacy students struggled to arrive for their exam at St John’s Hall.

On arriving they were given a cold reception thanks to the venue’s lack of heating. Many arrived 40 minutes into the exam, adding further disruption to students' concentration.

One of the students who wished to remain anonymous said: “We were told by the invigilators that there was nothing that could be done about the hall conditions and that we had to get on with it.

“It was so cold that we were advised to keep our jackets and gloves on. You could see the moisture from our breathing and we had to stop every ten minutes or so to rub our hands. It was definitely six or eight degrees in there.”

The exam invigilators made a note of the conditions on the day and students put in a formal complaint which was handled by academic registrar Dr David Ashton.

Dr Ashton said: “There was no irrefutable evidence, or other clear evidence, that the examinations venue had caused a dip in performance.”

He came to the conclusion after analysing the performance of this year’s students compared to last year’s cohort and found they were “consistent in standard with other patterns of results in the sampling exercise”.   

Dr Ashton added: “Had I felt differently, that there were compelling mitigating circumstances, a case for adjustment would have been made to the relevant external examiner.”

Students however did not agree with the method used to make this decision. The nameless pharmacy student said: “This is absurd and very unfair. 

"Twenty-five people failed this module which means they cannot do their preregistration as they have to resit their exam in September and the majority of students got D's and C's. 

“Because we are just 'students' and the university is getting money they think they can get away with behaviour like this.”

St John’s Hall near Penrhyn Road campus is regularly used by Kingston University for exams.

A KU spokesperson confirmed that students should expect “reasonable conditions” from their exam venues and “that the university would not be overspending on its examination venues”. No detail was provided however as to minimum room temperature.

The Health and Safety Executive has confirmed that legislation exists to prevent employees from having to work in rooms which temperature falls to 16 degrees Celsius or below.

Although this legislation does not extend specifically to students studying in educational institutions, a spokesman from the Executive said it was “a reasonable level of comfort to expect”.