to ask DH to give up this (voluntary) role?

[ScramVonChubby]

I am really ranting on here becuase there's nothing I can do in real life and it's pissing me off.

DH is a FT student (and works too), he studies ahrd and gets good grades.

His last essay was peer amrked: they agve him 80%. Dh was told by a fellow student he had been marked down becuase lecturer thought he needed to know his place (DH is student rep and has been lumbered with being middle man for a lot of complaints about thsi Lecturer); DH ahd been marked down, when he asked why he had heard via a grapevine rather than from the tutors the Lecturer started crying and got really shaky.

DH is now ill; he has a GP note and an assignment three days late but cannot get an extension from said Lecturer becuase 'it's just an illness'; extension given to a fellow colleague who had to 'go on a booked holiday all paid for before they changed the reading week dates' (So Lecturer could go to Vegas with his mates).

Same female colleague gigglingly told DH that Lecturer was doing her work for her and there's nothing DH could do about it.

If anyone on the course complains they get herded into a clasroom as a whole groupa nd shouted at until complainant admits their identity: happened after course got low results in satisfaction survey.

DH has slogged for 2 years and is so demoralised about it all. No mature student has completed the degree in 6 years.

I think the trigger is his class rep status and that he should pack it in, this Lecturer clearly ahs an attitude issue that won;t just go away (I know, some people do, in every profession- my own lecturers were lovely but I have seen the emails he gets first hand).

He can't go senior as he ahs already done that twice- both times decision overturned (I almost lost my college palce when timetable was changed to work until 10 on Tuesday so student could get to pub earlier on a Friday- fab,, almost at end of my MA, talk about money wasted if I gave it in now and no chidlcare available to us).

So, aibu to ask him to giove up the role? he has scouted around it himself but I woudln't normally ask him to do this sorrt of thing: grown up making his own decisions and all that, but a lot of our future depends on this degree. Lecturer issues started within weeks of DH's election.

suggest it. discuss it. offer your opinion and your views on how all this is impacting on you - and your support. but I probably wouldn;t "ask"

If he is a class rep - they surely he has some recourse to the Student Union? They would not be happy with this seeming abuse of power. Can he not enlist help at a national level? And what degree is it that no mature student has completed in six years? And why didn't his student advisor/lecturer who looks after him, help him out re his illness?

I have suggested, typically for DH he has said 'do you think?' and gone to do some work: (not angry, more over his head as he always ahs ten things on his mind at once) he would feel he was letting people down if he gave it up. He HAS big issues about letting people down, very big ones. Almost bankrupted us once rather than let a group of people down who needed his help a long way away daily over months- in petrol costs.

He hs no student advisor he is aware of, and theya re not assigned separate class lecturers: they ahve a Lecture Team and this man is head.

He ahsn;t ahd delaing with student union: class rep just seems to report to exec committees every few months.

Oh and would his being class rep not be beneficial to him on his CV? (sorry not what you want to hear!)

I will talk to DH about speaking to teh student union.

Cannot say what course, only runs in three places nationally you see so obvious. It's the technical side of stage, but far more specific.

CV miinal issue as DH will be self employed.

Well if your DH is a student, then he has every right to contact the Student Union for advice and represenation. What degree is he doing? And who is in the exec committee and I would enlist the Deans help. Certainly make a formal complaint about his treatment?

ohh re course. Still dosent preclude him from some help - google the Student Union or the union he will eventually belong to?

I would try and persuade him to give it up, for his own health and for the sake of all the hard work he has done.

I am going to try again later.

If he says no i won;t force it but i think it is worth pursuing.

last year's student rep made formal complaints every time his grades were less than he wanted and everyone thought he was being a prat: now we can see why he might ahve felt that way.

Funnily enough that 'prat' is the one now being told peple's grades before theya re initially released.

there's a lot wrong with the course tbh, a trip seems to eman a visit to see what lecturer did this week; an assignment is always what LEctuer did in the past. very odd.

But not worth complaining too loudly as will simply decrease rating of the degree in a very small profession.

Scram, one thing I don't understand: you say his last essay was peer-marked and they gave him 80, but then he was marked down. Do you mean the 80 was a low mark? If you are in the UK, that is a VERY high first-class.

Anywho, that aside, I am lecturer and I would say your DH's lecturer is behaving highly unprofessionally by crying in front of him (wtf??) for a start. The idea that he cannot get an extension for an illness is also ludicrous; with a GP's note, certainly, it would contravene the policy anywhere I've worked for them to not grant him an extension.

I think he needs to get in touch not only with the Student U (altho' that's a good bet) but also with the Office of Academic Appeals or similar at his uni. Most places will have somewhere like this: an 'exams office', an 'appeals board', something similar. These are NOT the lecturer's superiors but an independent body within the university that can reassess marks. They will normally give the work to another tutor to mark, often someone outside the uni, and see if their mark differs from the original tutor's - if so, they may award a different (generally higher) mark.

That, or the NUS.

RP, no he was dropped from 80% (a fairly usual grade for him) to 62%. DH even ahd 100% for one module so has been getting good grades up until now (was a science module so very yes / no / number answers).

Are all universities meant to have a similar procedure? My ex Prof is my next door neighbour and Chair of the Appeals at my uni; would he be able to advise DH informally I wonder? DH said something about my university once (mine does a handbook laying out expectations for say fonts, paragraph spacing etc for each module) and was told we were having it made too easy, but since then they have started the handbook too.

Lecturer still works FT in field as well as uni, and there's only about 5 people making a profit afaics in that area, it's where Dh ahs shown a lot of talent. Am I being paranoid to think self protection? If so Lecturer is silly as DH doesn;t want to do that at all.

Dh ahs a differnet take; female student he thinks may be invovled with lecturer and she and DH have been drawing for top of class since term one, they are both quite competitive, if so though with no evidence he's stuffed I think.

DH is going to talk to SU and resign from course rep role; thank you all.

A year of iton his CV is more than most anyway. And most students are not trying to combine the role with uni, PT work and four SEN kids- something ash to give even with out The Evil Lecturer!

Thanks again.

Scram, good for you and him. But if you genuinely think his marks have been lowered due to personal reasons then you really ought to take it up.

Imagine if his average comes out 1 mark below a first or something, and challenging it could've helped?

Yeah, talk to your neighbour. Not every uni has one but the vast majority will.

The uni's Dh attends and neighbour works for are vaguely linked so he will know.

DH is seeing GP in ten minutes so will get paperwork and go straight to head of dept for extension (he wants six days not six months!).

He does seem to think that this past few weeks have cost him a first which would be terribly sad woudln;t it? Pride cost me mine(not asking for help when I was PG and struggling) and I won;t watch that happen twice.