Medical students in Lyon were definitely not spared this week.

After the cancellation of the first national EDN exam on Monday, a new incident erupted on Thursday, October 23rd at the Lyon Est faculty, causing panic among the candidates still in the room.

“At the end of the exam, a completely surreal incident occurred while I was composing,” said Marie*, a sixth-year medical student. “While there were still several of us in the part-time program, someone took the microphone in the main lecture hall and broadcast shouts, insults, and religious prayers for about five minutes.”

The microphone in the main lecture hall—normally empty and closed at that time since no break was being organized there—was connected to all the other rooms in the university, thus broadcasting the speeches to all the lecture halls.

Marie told LyonMag: “I didn’t understand what they were saying; it wasn’t in French. A friend who understands Arabic told us they were prayers. I only understood Allah Akbar repeated several times. Let’s be honest, it created misunderstanding and fear; no one understood what was happening. Many thought it was an attack.”

According to this same witness, “the faculty explained to us that people had entered the site,” before taking control of the microphone in the main lecture hall.

No Compensation
The students claim that despite the confusion, no concrete measures were taken. “In the other room, the invigilators said, ‘Don’t worry, it lasted five minutes, you’ll get five extra minutes at the end.’ But that wasn’t true: there was never any extra time, because the tests are timed, so we are automatically disconnected at the end of the allotted time.”

The students concerned claim to have lost between “four and six questions out of thirty,” a difference that could have a significant impact on their national ranking. “We immediately went to the dean to say that this wasn’t normal. On Monday, the test had been canceled due to a fairness issue, and now we’re told there’s no problem,” Marie laments.

According to witnesses, a discussion lasting approximately an hour took place between the faculty and the National Management Center (CNG), which is responsible for the exam. “They came back to us saying that the incident hadn’t lasted long enough to significantly impact the results, and that there would therefore be no compensation or cancellation.”

Beyond the loss of points, the students also denounced a lack of security. “Ultimately, we saw that anyone could enter the faculty and do whatever they wanted. No specific security plan was put in place after that,” one of them emphasized.

Several students reported writing collective reports and sending them to the faculty to report the incident. “The reports were initially rejected because they were written well after the exam, then finally accepted for sending to the CNG. But since then, we haven’t heard anything,” Marie added.

For these future doctors, the week left a bitter taste: “For an exam that’s supposed to be fair and serene, security, concentration, and fairness were clearly not respected.”

Contacted, Lyon 1 University has not yet responded to our requests.