Letters home to parents of Uni students?

[Butteredparsnip1ps]

Posting for traffic, and looking for perspective. AIBU is whether I have given DD the right advice.

DD1 is in first year of Uni and enjoying it. Likes the course, loved placement, works hard / plays hard. Today though, her group were subjected to an angry 20 minute rant about poor attendance and threatened with letters home to parents.

There are some ironies here. As DD said, what was the point of ranting at the people who had turned up, when those who were absent missed it? Also her group includes a number of mature students who have missed lectures due to childcare and family issues. Are they going to get letters sent home to their parents too?

Although DD is on top of her work, she was worried as she missed some sessions before Xmas and again at the end of January due to illness. She suspects she may have a letter sent home, and rang in a bit of a panic.

My slightly cynical opinion is that the course leaders have become aware of poor attendance overall and so the Tutors have had a verbal kicking that they have passed down to students.

FWIW DD is very driven and doesn't bunk off. If there were any issues as a result of her illness, it would be possible to ask the GP she saw to confirm it, and we would of course support her. My hunch actually is that the rant probably wasn't aimed people like her, but at habitual non-attendees.

But. She is an adult who is paying for her education, so frankly whether she turns up or not (and the consequences) are hers. Why on earth would a university send letters to parents? And what would happen to the mature students? Surely all students should be treated the same??

So AIBU, or just precious?

[UPWithPup]

I agree with pp, it probably is a scare tactic. However, it's also worth remembering you don't have to be 18 to go to university. I studied with a 17 year old, so they were a child.

[LordRothermereBlackshirtCunt]

Sadik, I had lecturers like that too, also many years ago. But there is little room or tolerance for that kind of thing in the new Commercial Age of Higher Education. Everything we do now is evaluated and monitored by senior management. I suspect the parents who come to open days now find us all disappointingly dull in comparison with the eccentrics who taught them back in the day.

[Butteredparsnip1ps]

Kateadie just to clarify, I meant that as an adult she has them choice and the consequences. Im certainly not encouraging her to skip lectures

I'm also reasonably happy that she isn't missing lectures as she has been moaning about people who do saying she can't understand why they would bother with uni (and the costs) if they won't put the effort in.

[Sodomeyes]

Sadik Shit teaching is, mostly, no longer tolerated.

Students pay too much money and, consequently, have too much power to give shit lectures. Students give module evaluations at the end of every year and these are scrutinized heavily. Students pull no punches in these. In actual fact, I'd like to see some coaching of students on what is appropriate and inappropriate to include in these evaluations!

We also have the Teaching Excellent Framework coming into universities which is a national teaching quality assurance model.

Whilst those with outstanding research profiles but limited teaching talent will still be appointed (because of their research profile), they'll be quietly slotted into appropriate teaching roles.

[Sodomeyes]

Lord Haha! I run our departmental open days. I had a parent come to me who'd studied the same subject who was telling me about being taught by one of the "greats" in our discipline.

She said he'd rock up, sometimes drunk, with no notes very often with un-matching shoes and say to the students "what do you want me to talk about today?" and they would just go off on one. Or he'd just start ranting about something on R4 that morning.

Instant progression monitoring nowadays if you attempted anything like that!

[BaDumShh]

I don't know what the story is in the UK, but where I live universities are prohibited by data protection law from discussing anything to do with a student with anyone other than the student unless they have permission.

I work in a University in the UK and can confirm that this is 100% correct. We cannot talk to a parent of a student regarding anything to do with the student's studies.

[chipmonkey]

God, I wish! In Ireland and ds1 who has ADD failed the first year of his degree course for which I had paid the fees. I didn't find out until I became suspicious that he seemed very woolly about when he was starting back and when fees had to be paid. I would have loved a letter home to parents!

[Ta1kinPeace]

DD often does not go to lectures
BUT
that is because she watches them on the video feed on her laptop in her room, with the powerpoint of the slides open in another tab and her text books open on her desk.
She hits pause when she wants to check something.

Attending lectures in person is not a big issue for her or her friends
or for the tutors at her Uni

Getting all assignments handed in on time and attending labs is much more important

[KitKat1985]

YANBU OP. Letters home to parents is ridiculous.

It's only been about 15 years since I was at Uni but I am involved with mentoring students who are on placements from Uni and there's been a real infantilising of some of the students which I think is partly the fault of the students, and partly that of the Uni.

When I was at Uni we were told we were adults and if we missed lectures that was our choice, but would have to deal with the consequences and couldn't rely on our lecturers being able to provide extra support sessions etc, especially at short notice. I think it's a statement that should be repeated to be every student once they start a degree. A lot of students I've worked with seem very happy to miss lectures when it's convenient for them, but have far too much expectation that the Uni staff will help that catch up on stuff they've missed rather than do independent study etc. And I think the Uni's need to be firmer at reiterating to students that helping them catch up is not their problem.

[randomer]

I tried to speak to Uni as I was very concerned about my son. They said absolutely no way.

[Sodomeyes]

^Attending lectures in person is not a big issue for her or her friends
or for the tutors at her Uni^

Ta1kin I guarantee for at least some of the tutors it will be a big issue. Of course we don't tell our students it's an issue but it is.

[LordRothermereBlackshirtCunt]

Chipmonkey There was a story I read a year or two ago about a student who failed their first year and didn't tell his parents. As far as they were concerned he was still at university, and paid tens of thousands into his bank account over the following two years. I can't remember how they eventually found out, but it took a long time.

Sodomeyes - I did have a colleague like that when I first started in my department. He wasn't ever drunk, but he did often act like he was. The university persuaded him (financially) to take early retirement.

[Sodomeyes]

KitKat It's the commercialisation of HE. Students are paying so feel entitled to more. Universities are aware that students are paying so feel forced to give more. We can't give any more teaching time or any more expertise but we can give more support, so universities do and that infantilises the students and makes the more reliant and entitled.

It's a massive problem

[CalonGoch]

One of my neighbours had no idea that her DS had dropped out of uni for his whole final year because he'd failed his exams - he carried on pretending he was there studying, so his DP (and the rest of the extended family) actually turned up for the graduation ceremony, only to find he wasn't graduating. University couldn't tell them anything at all, because of data protection.

[LordRothermereBlackshirtCunt]

Just in case this is of any help to parents on this thread, the university can talk to parents about individuals, but only if the student provides signed consent. Oddly enough, many students don't want to give it

[Ta1kinPeace]

sodomeyes
It may be for some people,
but they have had the discussion in tutor time about physically attending lectures and its not a departmental issue.
If nothing else there are more students than seats in the lecture theatre
Labs and tutorials are a very, very different matter !

[LordRothermereBlackshirtCunt]

And I think the Uni's need to be firmer at reiterating to students that helping them catch up is not their problem.
Oh, we tell them, but it's not taken on board. I was emailed on Boxing Day by a student wanting me to read a draft of her essay that she was told to get to me by the beginning of December.

[NotYoda]

I think, as is often the case with letters that don't apply to you, that you should not waste energy getting annoyed with the letter-sender. Just put it in the metal pile marked 'not me' and think yourself lucky you aren't the wastrel who needs the bollocking.

[Sodomeyes]

Ta1kinPeace I'm not talking about physically attending lectures. There's a much bigger picture. Academics are concerned that it's a slippery slope to universities basically becoming distance learning institutions and MOOC providers. We're also very concerned about our teaching being "out there" on the web. It stifles innovation and debate and copyright and ownership is very sketchy.

[Roussette]

How ridiculous YADNBU!

When my DD went to Uni, someone on her course did not go to one lecture or put in one piece of work. He literally partied for a whole Uni year and didn't engage with learning at all!

No one contacted his parents, but of course he only did one year at Uni, think his parents had a bit of a shock when they heard why!

They have to motivate themselves.

[Ta1kinPeace]

sodom
Ah, yes, the march of the MOOCs
AFAIK, DDs stuff is just on the University net rather than the big wide world
and the Labs and tutorial time and the field work can never be replicated virtually.
But for non practical subjects it must be a real worry.

Then again I did sod all work at Uni and got a crap grade but had a fantastic time and learned who I was.
That part of Uni will never go away.
Just the proportion with degrees will start to drop again (see South Korea as a place where its gone much too high)

[LordRothermereBlackshirtCunt]

There has been a lot of discussion at my place between the union and management about recording lectures and putting them on the student intranet. Once they're up there, the university owns them. What's to stop them harvesting all this material and then making staff redundant once they've provided their course materials? Universities are not particularly ethical employers! Students want this stuff online so that they don't have to bother coming to lectures, but the implications for academics are really quite serious.

[GeorgiePeachie]

Meh, its said every year. you will not pass unless you attend a percentage of the lectures.

happened to me, still left uni with a degree but I'm pretty sure i moaned to my mum about the stupidty of the system too. Shrug.

[MaidOfStars]

I am an academic, teaching a variety of lectures/PBLs etc.

1. I cannot imagine the words "letters to parents" escaping my mouth. I don't even think of such things. The people in front of me are adults. I am not refraining from such threats because of data protection or anything, it's simply because it's a ridiculous concept.
   
2. I cannot track who attends lectures or not - we don't keep a register. Also, I lecture to hundreds of students at once; any personal idea of who they are is impossible.
   
3. We do keep track of attendance at PBLs, which are small groups of 10-15 students and the sessions that really cement knowledge gleaned at lectures/from extra reading/etc. One session missed warrants a polite email. Two would be referred upwards for intervention.

[MaidOfStars]

What's to stop them harvesting all this material and then making staff redundant once they've provided their course materials?
Who's going to update lectures? And I have way more stuff going on at my institute than my teaching.