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?

[KitKat1985]

Sodomeyes yes I completely agree.

[Epipgab]

Students are adults, not children, and there's no place for contacting their parents. Yes the parents may well be contributing financially, but the agreement is between them and their son or daughter. Infantilising students is never going to be a good idea!

[KateAdiesEarrings]

Sodom their parents will find out about it if they are expelled from university for lack of attendance. No, the university won't write to tell the parents but presumably the parents will notice

[Itsjustaphase2016]

Jeeez! I went to uni in 2002 (oxbridge) and I don't think o attended more than 3 lectures in the first year..! Even in finals, I probably missed about 25% of them due to parties and general tomfoolery! Universities aren't schools for heavens sake! They are research institutions and do a bit of teaching on the side to those keen enough to show up. I'm pretty sure my parents neither knew or cared how many lectures I attended. How ridiculous.

[Itsjustaphase2016]

How do they even know who attends? Surely there's not a register?!

[LordRothermereBlackshirtCunt]

KateAdie, not necessarily. As noted above, there have been cases where parents haven't found out for months or years.

[BorpBorpBorp]

There are registers. At my institution registers aren't taken for lectures, but are taken for everything else. Some institutions require students to swipe in and out with their ID cards to record attendance. Universities with international students have to take registers, we could be audited at any time to prove that the tier 4 visa students we have are worthy (i.e. that they are turning up) so we can continue to recruit international students.

[titchy]

How do they even know who attends? Surely there's not a register?!

Swipe card.

[cordeliavorkosigan]

Attendance is a problem. I don't think there is any excuse for threatening to send letters home or threatening to break data protection (!).
But universities can't hire enough lecturers to catch students up on missed lectures, spend hours answering questions for individuals who need help at the last minute having missed course content, read late essays on Boxing day, etc etc.
We don't actually see more money than we did before the fees rose so high - in fact we are constantly told we must "do more with less". So while we empathise and don't agree with the high fees, departments cannot deliver high quality education to students who don't attend / don't do the work. Learning is a participation activity.
Apart from what's mentioned above, we have found that recorded lectures do help strong students revise, they help students with additional needs to hear/ see / take notes/revise/prep for next lecture, and as far as I know they are not (yet) used in place of next year's lectures. They also can have a negative effect on attendance.
Totally agree with guidance for appropriate lecturer evaluation. Data show that there is gender bias in those, with men delivering the same content getting reviewed more favourably than women. There have been incidents of explicitly racist comments too.

[Misspilly88]

I agree with you OP. They're adults. They're paying. I had lots of mature students on my course...what will they do for them?
My course had a required attendance, you had to sign the register every lecture and got a bollocking if you missed a couple. But I know most aren't. And if it's exam based then who cares as long as they pass!

[FatherJemimaRacktool]

They are research institutions and do a bit of teaching on the side

If only! This isn't even true for Oxbridge (unless you're a fellow of All Souls), let alone most UK universities. One of the strangest things about academia is that even in research universities, time to undertake the part of your job for which you get recognition and promotion is treated like a special luxury you have to earn -so why am I spending part of it dicking about on MN?

[LordRothermereBlackshirtCunt]

Totally agree with guidance for appropriate lecturer evaluation. Data show that there is gender bias in those, with men delivering the same content getting reviewed more favourably than women. There have been incidents of explicitly racist comments too
My colleague who returned from maternity leave as a single parent and was exhausted from lack of sleep had evaluations that expressed disappointment with the lack of variety her outfits displayed.

[Katie0705]

What a load of crap!! University students are adults, tutors should be talking directly to the students concerned, and most definitely not be treating them as children. No wonder the attendance rate is poor!!

[frostyfingers]

I find this communication with university so very difficult. My son has had a torrid time which I appreciate is not the university's fault but it has been impossible at times. At one point he vanished, I put him on a train back and then lost all communication with him for over a week - phone was off, couldn't contact any of his housemates, his brother hadn't heard from him - so I rang the uni, explained and asked if they could just let me know whether he'd attended lectures. No, they couldn't/wouldn't which I felt was ridiculous. Their suggestion was that I report him missing to the police.....

I get that there are confidentiality issues, I get that parents hassling them is annoying but I did think on this occasion that they were being spectacularly unhelpful. He has now dropped out and we have had no contact with them at all since letting them - no enquiry as to his wellbeing, no advice, nothing....

[Sodomeyes]

They are research institutions and do a bit of teaching on the side

Funniest thing I've read on MN all day

MissPilly If you RTFT, you'll see that lecturers care and other students care.

Lord and Cordelia We've had horrendous comments too.
One of my colleagues wears a hijab and is also into proper make-up artistry so comes in with flawless make-up every day. She received a tirade of abuse in one evaluation about her having double standards and not being a good Muslim woman.

Another female colleague got told to smile more when she teaches.

I received comments one year from what I presume to be a drunk student (lots of spelling errors and generally not making sense in the open comments) about how the male students had rated me as the sexiest lecturer. I've also had lots of compliments about my hair. Although they are less problematic than the overtly sexualised or racist comments, my male counterparts have never received such comments on their appearance.

[Cessj]

Sodomeyes, I'm also an academic and agree with you completely. Of course, there will be unavoidable absences, but from my experiences, once first year students realise that they won't face any serious penalties for non-attendance, then many just don't bother to turn up for seminars and workshops, let alone lectures. I've had students whom I met in weeks 1 and 2, and then not again until the last or penultimate week of term, when they've woken up to the fact that they haven't submitted assessments, etc. I've been informed more than once by students that they hadn't realised that they were expected to complete assessments.

As you say, it's frustrating and really disruptive to group dynamics - though sometimes fewer numbers means that you do get to focus on, and build stronger relationships with the more engaged students who do regularly turn up.

And I'm all too familiar with spending hours preparing group or paired tasks or lectures and then only a few turn up. And the regular absentees are those most likely to besiege my office hours in the last week of term, demanding additional time for this, that and the other...

Oh yes, and they're often the ones most likely to fail, and then turn around and give you/your course poor evaluations.

I was Director of Undergraduate Studies for a couple of academic years and I can confirm that under the terms of the data protection act we are NOT allowed to discuss students' with their parents, guardians or carers, without the student's permission, except in the direst of emergencies.

So this was probably just an empty threat by a frustrated and perhaps inexperienced tutor.

[LordRothermereBlackshirtCunt]

frosty, I understand how worried you were, and I'm sure staff at your son's university did too, but you are expecting them to break the law and lose their jobs. It really is that simple. It's not a question of finding it "annoying" to deal with parents - it many ways it would make life much easier if we could communicate directly with parents. The only way around this is for students to provide signed permission for staff to speak to their parents, which actually very rarely happens.

[DoodleFunker]

YANBU and this would seriously break data protection - student's families should only be contacted in an emergency or if there is real concern for the welfare of the student.

[isseywithcats]

the uni where my DP lectures has the swipe card system for lectures attendance he says that at the beginning of the day several hands come through the open door swipe the card and dissapear he couldn't tell you what the owners of these swipe cards look like but they get recorded on the system as having attended,
of course towards exam time these are the students who are asking for meetings and emailing him because they are stuck as they didn't actually attend the lecture

[DoodleFunker]

frostyfingers

If your son has dropped out then the University will not be following up on his welfare as he is no longer a student there.

It's hard for universities - they have to follow data protection unless there is real concern from them that there is an issue. Any family, or partner, could potentially phone up and lie about not having contact with a student - this makes it extremely dangerous for those students who are vulnerable and who come from unsafe homes, or who are in unsafe relationships.

[Sodomeyes]

frosty That sounds like an awful situation for you and believe me the University would have wanted desperately to help you and give you answers.
But, see it from the University's perspective. We can't just start giving out details about the adults at our institution without their permission. We don't know who you are or what you want.

What if someone called your workplace and wanted to know whether you'd been attending, when was the last time you were there, who had you been speaking to, were you okay when you were last at work. You'd expect your not to tell them anything and rightly so. It's exactly the same at universities.

A few years ago I had a student on my course who'd been in care after escaping a violent and sexually abusive father. She was absolutely terrified that he'd find her and know where she was studying and lived. Hr father could have very easily phoned up and said "My daughter's missing, I put her on a train but she hasn't been in touch for a week. Can you tell me if she's been attending lectures?" We don't know the difference between a concerned, loving parent and a horrible abusive one trying to track their child down.

[LordRothermereBlackshirtCunt]

my male counterparts have never received such comments on their appearance. No, mine neither. DH did have a comment once that he "should be sacked". He's an English Lit prof and had the temerity to ask a student a question about the set reading she was supposed to have done (but it transpired that she hadn't). But he's never had any comments on what he wears (scruffy bugger) or whether he smiles enough (hardly ever).

[Oldprof]

As so many people have said, we mustn't and we don't write to parents. But it's quite OK to write to students at their home addresses. What an embarrassing shame when nosy parents enquire about these letters

[BlueDaBaDee]

I'm missing a lot of lectures at the moment. I live in a city with extortionate housing rates, and me and my daughter would be homeless, or I would have to drop out if I quit my job.

I catch up on all lectures etc from home, and am getting firsts on most assignments. Mt grades were in the top 0.5% in my first year. I'm in my second year now. I've never emailed a professor for help.

In third year, my contact hours will drop to 6 per week, and I should be able to make most of these as they're in the morning and I work in the afternoons. I've only got a month left of second year due to Easter/ summer holidays.

Out of interest, what would an academic make of my situation? I am worried that one of these days I'll get an email saying I need to start attending, or I'll be kicked off the course. But if my grades are high standard, I don't really see the problem?

[Sodomeyes]

Lord Blimey. I once got told I needed to go on a marking training course because I clearly have no idea how to mark properly. I didn't actually mark that particular piece of work, a much more senior, very experienced colleague did

I have to say, though, each year I do get some very measured responses also from students who understand the pressures of the environment and are sympathetic, for example, when a lecture doesn't go well because half the class is absent.