University enrolment

[kezzah69]

So, my daughter did a Foundation Law course last year to start her off on a Law degree this year. She has messed about all summer and only now has found out that the reason she hasn't received her enrolment email is because she is down as not returning! Cue panic mode!
Apparently one module was failed, she would have been given chance to resit/resubmit the module in August but she missed that because she lost her phone, couldn't access email account and had to start a new email. We thought she had informed everyone but apparently MMU were mused!
I have been advised that she needs to appeal, the board sits next week so we are doing the appeal form now.
I just wish I knew how likely they were to let her return.
She also wants to ask if maybe she could change courses now? Sometimes kids are such a worry. She should have been moving on Thursday, back to Manchester!
Does anyone have any advice?

[Couchpotato3]

She's not a kid, she's an adult, and frankly, if she can't organise this for herself, she probably isn't cut out to tackle a law degree. Sorry if this sounds harsh, but she has messed up big style, and needs to start taking some responsibility. Obviously help her fill out the form, but I'd also be discussing plan B, i.e. get a job?

[Decorhate]

Don't universities issue all student with a university email & this is the one they use to communicate with them? Seems a bit odd that they would send exam results to a personal email. Also, did she not think to check that she had passed her exams?

[Coconutspongexo]

Surely she had access to a laptop/computer to check her results? They're placed online and sent to a university email she would not have lost access to the university email.
Does your daughter take university seriously?
It's too late for her to change course for this September, she may get on one for next September but would have to go through UCAS again

[GiantSteps]

she would have been given chance to resit/resubmit the module in August but she missed that because she lost her phone, couldn't access email account

It's a student's duty to be responsible for checking emails. She'll have been given a university email address accessible via any kind of web browser. She could have gone to the local library to check emails regularly over the summer.

A lost phone isn't an excuse.

She can try appealing, but you'd better make a stronger case than "I lost my phone, so couldn't get access to my emails."

[GiantSteps]

And BTW, we say to students from the very beginning, verbally and in writing in our student handbooks, that
a) we only write to their official university email address
b) they should check their official university email address regularly - at least weekly, but preferably daily.

[2014newme]

What grounds of app does she have? Can't see any. Law degree is very academic and good personal organisation is needed. Do you think she is up to it? "
She sounds very frustrating I'm sympathetic to you as the parent

[onadifferentplanet]

Hate to be harsh but have to agree she really doesn't sound cut out for a Law degree, her timetables, reading lists etc would have been on her Uni computer account for weeks and that's where her results would have been too. Presumably she could have checked on the Uni website when results were due too.
Has she got accommodation for the new semester and student finance in place? If she has it seems odd she has ignored the most important thing which is checking her place is confirmed, are you sure she actually want s to go back?

[TooDamnSarky]

An appeal of this sort would not be successful at my uni.

[chemenger]

Does she honestly want to do this degree? This type of behaviour is symptomatic of a student who is either demotivated or possibly suffering from depression or anxiety. Time to sit down and explore what is really going on, I think.

The university would have communicated only by her university email address, which could be accessed from anywhere. If I didn't work in a university I would find it surprising that she had not made any effort to find out her exam results (phoning the university, speaking to her tutor, asking friends how they found out, logging in to her university account from a library...) but actually this is not that uncommon.

I would expect that it was clearly stated at the outset of her course that it was her responsibility to maintain contact with the university by reading her university emails regularly. She does not, in my opinion, have grounds for appeal that have any chance of success. Presumably the failed exam is a requirement to progress, so she may be able to take a year out to redo the exam.

[ShapelyBingoWing]

Why appeal it? She wants to change courses...so she doesn't want to do this.

I agree with the other posters too. I'm a student. We're told to check our emails daily, or weekly as a minimum. She'll have had access to her email from any device with internet access. It really sounds like she just isn't arsed. She wouldn't win an appeal.

[FurryGiraffe]

As chemenger says, the failed module is presumably a requirement to progress- ie, she won't be required to proceed to the first year of the degree without resitting it and passing it. If she's missed the resit, she won't be able to start the degree this year. It doesn't matter how good her excuse for missing the exam is (and hers is laughable).

It's possible that she can persuade them to allow her to retake the failed module next year with a view to starting the degree in 2018, but you'd need to talk to the University about that. My institution's rules wouldn't generally allow you a further resit opportunity if you'd missed the exam with no good reason (it would be different if you were ill).

As PP have said, it's ridiculous to suggest she couldn't access her email because she lost her phone and the University will take a very dim view of this as an excuse. In all honesty, from her behaviour and attitude she doesn't sound sufficiently mature to do a degree- and she certainly doesn't sound very motivated. It might be a very good thing for her to take a period out of education, mature a bit and work out what she really wants, so if/when she does go to university she can get the most out of it and achieve her full potential. Sit her down and have a conversation.

[FurryGiraffe]

Sorry- first sentence should say 'she won't be allowed to proceed'

[kezzah69]

Thanks all, she wishes so frustrating to deal with. She swears she submitted the module but obviously she didn't! I have asked her to be honest with me, my problem is she left it till the end of August to ask Me to call for her! Now she doesn't understand! She says she is serious, worked really hard all year and submitted everything she had to. So I am confused by this. As for access to University email, she elost her phone with email access, her laptop hasn't even been charged since she got home, so maybe your all correct and she isn't really into it. She does however live the living away from home and all the parties. We had a few periods of being worried about her. She is adamant that she is going back this year. I just want to be realistic, I also don't want enable her when tough talk is required instead.
Her and my husband do not get on, he has rapid cycling bipolar affective disorder and she Evan be very self centred most of the time. This summer has been very tense, they only need a small period of time together to start arguing. I am going round to her boyfriends shortly, with her now charged laptop so she can try an delimit the damage.
I personally think a year out would do her good, she always wanted to go to uni but I don't think she thought about it properly at all.
Again thanks all for the advice, tough talk etc. I needed the push to be tough with her I think!

[2014newme]

Well she isn't enrolled at uni and she didn't pass the foundation rendering last year an expensive waste of time, she has nothing to show for it. Time for her to get a job and stop relying on you to solve her problems. A bit of adulting needed from her.

[ShapelyBingoWing]

You don't sound blinkered OP, which will do her very well. Realistically, asking you to ring uni and fix it for her doesn't present the image of someone who's tried her hardest academically.

With everything that's going on with the dynamic at home, perhaps the best way you can support her is to help her find somewhere cheap to live and have a frank conversation about what she wants to do going forward. I wouldn't bother appealing. She's failed her foundation year and missed the resit for no good reason.

If living away from home and partying is the bit she likes about uni though, this rethink won't be a small one.

[GiantSteps]

And legally, the University can't deal with you as a parent @kezzah69 as under the Data Protection Act, and information about her studies etc is protected as confidential, if she's 18 or over.

You need to be firm about this - she needs to contact the university, and also maybe a tutor from her foundation year, and explain what happened to see if there's any damage limitation possible at this late stage.

At my place, if I got an email from a returning student saying that the reason they'd not done a resit was because they didn't know, I'm afraid I'd give it pretty short shrift, and suggest they needed to contact the central University registry/Student Services to see if anything is possible.

But if she didn't progress, she didn't progress. (ie pass the required credit points/modules to progress to the next level of study)

Maybe a year out working & earning her own living, while studying part-time to redo the module she failed - a second re-sit - is what is needed to help her grow up?

[onadifferentplanet]

If she now has access to her Uni account, it should answer all your questions as for one thing it will show if she actually did submit her module on time. If she thinks she's going back this week , what has she got arranged for accommodation? If she hasn't got her place but has committed to a house share she or you if you are guarantor could be faced with a big bill.

[kezzah69]

Thanks all, it has helped to gain a bit of reality. I was thinking of suggesting not going back, last year does seem to have been a very large expense for no good reason. She was so adamant about uni but it does seem that the want for partying far outweighed the need to work.
So I agree, I think it's time for some tough love, I think her biggest problem will be the perception that she isn't good enough to go to uni, for some reason what others think plays a very large part in her mind set, she hates being "poor" as she calls it. That means that when all her uni long was gone, mum stepped in to top up her funds leaving me massively out of pocket! I have trundled on in the belief that she is my child, I should help. Maybe your all right and it's time to properly cut those strings.
Very conflicted right now.

[GiantSteps]

Well, I suppose that it is a parent's responsibility to ensure their child isn't starving or homeless while at university!

But I despair sometimes at what some students think is "acceptable" in a student lifestyle nowadays. When I was an undergrad, we were meant to be poor. That was half the fun of it - learning how to cook cheap but nice meals, shopping in charity shops for unusual clothes, getting student discounts on stuff, walking everywhere.

It's great to live that way for a few years, as you learn how to manage & cope with very little money, in a relatively secure way. It helps with those times later in your life when you don't have parents as a back up.

[Bluntness100]

I'm sorry op it's hugely unlikely they will give her a place for a law degree. She's failed the entrance requirements and has not even known she'd failed.

Losing stuff is no reason, she should have phoned the uni, got access codes and then logged on from another computer, phone, iPad.

I'd also say part of the reason I say this is law is hugely academic and suitability and desire is really a large part of it. She's shown huge unwilling and lack of motivation, the administrators won't buy that she was unable to look for several weeks.

It's horrid when they fuck up but she needs to now take responsibility.

[kezzah69]

Bluntness100, I completely agree, in March she actually said she thought law was not for her. In July she decided she would make it work and then when I told that the uni had told me yesterday that she was not returning, she was confused and did not understand what was going on. This all happened over the phone, so today is my face to face time with her. Butt kicking is about to commence! I have made excuses, enabled and mollycoddled her for too long. She doesn't appreciate the value of money at all. I think I just needed to find out how this worked, what could be done or if it was time to tell home truths. Home truths it is.

Thank you all for your words. Just need to sit her down now. She can be the most narcissistic person at times, I feel this will not go well.

[Coconutspongexo]

I'm completely surprised you was allowed to speak to the uni about her results?

My dad wasn't even allowed to ring and tell my uni I would miss an exam because I was in labour they had to hear it from the student they wouldn't be able to access my student portfolio without speaking to me! I had to ring up whilst in labour and they still wanted a letter

[2014newme]

You paid for her. She didn't keep her part if the bargain. She was disorganised and failed the academics. So now she needs to fund something else to do that doesn't rely on you subsiding her financially while she parties and doesn't bother with uni.

[Bluntness100]

To be honest, I'm surprised the uni spoke to you as well. Usually it's an email and that's it, they don't phone the parents. And I thought they were not allowed to disclose personal information like exam results.

[kezzah69]

To be honest, I completely lied and said I was her. So all ways you look at it, it seems it was me that was more bothered about this. I have been looking back over the year and everything seems to have been someone else's fault. Never hers. I can't even get hold of now at her boyfriends so that we can discuss her options, which are limited. She had a pub job at home for the summer but she seems to have managed to annoy her boss so even he hasn't given her any work shifts so she can earn for the last 2 weeks! Her brother says I should tell her to sort herself out and leave her to it. Maybe that is what's best