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?

[Viviennemary]

I thought that letters couldn't be sent to parents if students were over the age of 18. But poor attendance is an issue. If there is poor attendance it reflects badly on the tutors and if the poor attendance leads to exam failure then surely it must affect the reputation of the university. If there is a family emergency then fine the university should be sympathetic to childcare issues. But this can't be used as an excuse for habitual poor attendance.

[LouisevilleLlama]

YANBU at my university it was strictly no talking to parents about any issue, we were adults we were to sort any issues

[thatcoldfeeling]

Haven't read whole thread so may be repeating but having worked at a uni I feel quite confident to say this is one lecturer on a rant; letters home to parents is simply not a thing in HE and it cannot be because (with the exception of a few 17 year olds) students are over 18.

[MaliceKitten]

I just showed this to my husband who is himself a lecturer at the university near where we live. He teaches maths and statistics. And he couldn't believe this. These students are adults, it's not like school. If they don't turn up for class and fail the class, it's the students fault. They're wasting their own time and money.

[Lovelymess]

YANBU - it's actually laughable to threaten with that like they are 10years old

[Mulledwine1]

her group were subjected to an angry 20 minute rant about poor attendance and threatened with letters home to parents

I think it's a bit much - all students are adults - some may be 18 but others may be 28. If a parent wanted to get involved, they'd be called a helicopter parent. Unis can't have it both ways.

I'm not sure even why they're ranting about poor attendance. It's not school. The students are there because they want to be and are old enough to learn the consequences of not attending. If they are in breach of contract, they need to be told. But I fail to see why the parent is actually relevant.

On a slightly related topic I remember being really annoyed on my first day at post-graduate college. We had 3 hour sessions with a break in the middle. Loads of people were late back. The teacher/lecturer told us all off in no uncertain terms. Everyone there was at least 22. Many of us had been on time. I was not impressed with being told off like a small child for something I had not done. I don't like being late and I find it annoying when courses are held up because people are late, but on this occasion I found the rant totally over the top and inappropriate.

[Madwomans]

Mulled universities can't and don't have it both ways. The OP's daughter clearly misunderstood. No lecturer or tutor would threaten a parental mass mailing, because we simply aren't allowed to do it, and parents just aren't on our radar, because we're dealing with adults, not school kids.

Unfortunately, it's hopelessly naive to think that poor attendance leading to a fail only affects the student. Staff are subject to intense scrutiny these days, including for low median module marks, low attendance, more fails/fewer firsts, especially now there is an attitude that the student is a highly-paying customer.

I sat in a team meeting today where a colleague whose module involves a big practical workshop component was told that she had to invent a new assessment in order not to disadvantage a student who never attended at all and whose only contact with the department was to ask for this across all his modules. The fact that he is treating a FT degree like a correspondence course makes far more work for everyone.

[funkky]

I'm more worried students are not attending lectures. Must be really bad for the lecturer to have had a go at the class. Half empty classrooms must be demoralising for both students who attend and the lecturers.

[MrsRyanGosling15]

There are only 2 unis in NI and both send these letters home to parents. Addressed to the parebts with a big red stamp on the front saying urgent attendance office. I once missed an exam and they wrote home and told my bloody mother!!

[Beeziekn33ze]

They'll be threatened with the naughty step next!
I think it's the lecturer who needs a letter home or a lie down in a darkened room!

[falange]

YABU. I wouldn't complain about it. If it doesn't apply to your daughter then so what? Sounds like the uni are at the end of their tether with lazy arse students who never turn up for anything and they are trying anything to improve matters by saying what they said even if they are not going to do it. I don't blame them.

[FatherJemimaRacktool]

The OP's daughter clearly misunderstood. No lecturer or tutor would threaten a parental mass mailing, because we simply aren't allowed to do it, and parents just aren't on our radar, because we're dealing with adults, not school kids.

Agreed that this is by far the most likely explanation. I can imagine a rogue TA like one of mine who turned up to teach dressed as a pirate saying something like this, thoguh. But obviously the idea that any UK university would have a policy that allows this is all sorts of bollocks.

[FatherJemimaRacktool]

... except in NI, from what MrsRyanGosling says. That's bizarre - how on earth can they have a policy of sending confidential information about adults to other adults, without their consent?

[shitgibbon]

I don't understand how the university has the parents addresses. My universities wouldn't have had the information to contact my parents even if they had wanted to.

[MiladyThesaurus]

Actually, I prefer the 25% full classroom. The behaviour I have to deal with when the majority of the class turn up is ridiculous. It's bottom set Y9 stuff and it disrupts the entire class for everyone. (My colleagues are all worn down by dealing with awful behaviour issues in class from adults who've chosen to take this course).

I'm marking at the moment and the majority of the class (who have no attended) have done dreadfully. Their work demonstrates absolutely no engagement with the module at all. And they can't possibly know whether I'm a good lecturer or not because a good proportion of them have never attended a single class. The students who have attended have done really well, but they're few and far between.

I think that student feedback come with information about their attendance and marks along with their comments. Because it would be very useful to know how much effort they put in so we can decide how much weight to give their comments. And YY to the results being more revealing of the students' prejudices than anything else. My (mostly female) students really do not like women who present as intelligent and capable.

I also find it very problematic that I am held responsible for their success or failure. Students who do not attend and fail badly are the architects of their own problems. I actually don't care if they fail and I don't see why I should.

I utterly refuse to offer to additional support to students who don't turn up to my classes (unless they have a very good reason) and in really resent my colleagues who make excuses for them and give their time because every time they do they screw us all over. They aren't being kind to the student either because they're preventing them from experiencing the consequences of their actions so they never bloody learn during their whole 3 years with us.

I've decided that the only reasonable plan is to give the absolute minimum time, effort and headspace to teaching and to devote myself to the only activities that will help me get promoted to a level where I don't have to teach in any meaningful way at all. In my faculty my grade get hammered with teaching and student support while the grade above get no personal tutees and negligible amounts of teaching.

I always feel deeply misanthropic at this point in the year, due to hundreds of students who all think I'm their personal slave.

[MiladyThesaurus]

They'll be threatened with the naughty step next!

Several of my students behave in such a manner that you'd think they were young enough for the naughty step to be a reasonable disciplinary choice.

In a session today a student asked a question and then didn't bother to listen to the answer. Instead she checked FB and chatted to her friend. I know it was FB because my colleague (who she'd asked the question of) pulled her up on it (he could see the screen). In return she mouthed off aggressively.

But that student will be the first to complain that we treated her badly. I wish I could say she was an isolated case, but she's probably representative of about 10% of my class.

[FlyAwayPeter]

I always feel deeply misanthropic at this point in the year, due to hundreds of students who all think I'm their personal slave

If you read some threads in the Higher Ed forum here on MN, you can see where they get that idea from: parents. Who have spent 13 uyears buying their children educational advantage, and see a degree as the cherry on top.

And the public discourse about universities etc all over the place: that we are lazy, that we have long holidays, that we lack common sense (noted upthread), that we are head-in-the-clouds eggheads.

So of course the children of Thatcher's children, raised under neo-liberal selfishness masquerading as choice, are unable to value their opportunities.

[LordRothermereBlackshirtCunt]

Don't get me started on the "long holidays", FlyAwayPeter. After 15 years as a academic, I've still not managed to get it through to my mother that, actually, I have 30 days annual leave (that I often can't take anyway because I have a writing deadline), that I'm not "off" when term ends, and that I do have to go into the office and can't just pop round to visit her in the day during the student vacation.

[cherish123]

They are adults but it might shock some young (18-23 yr old) students into attending - so no harm done.

[IAmNotAWitch]

I am 40, with 2 kids and a professional job.

LOL at my lecturer writing to my mum.

Non attendance may be an issue but this is not any sort of solution. If they don't get the work in, just flunk them.

[2rebecca]

Sounds like they should take a register. At my son's Erasmus year placement they take registers in the practicals and when I visited he came out with us in the evening (his practical didn't finish until 7.30) but went to the first half so his name got ticked off and said they were much stricter than in the UK and failed people who didn't turn up enough. He was OK in the large lectures.

[Madwomans]

Of course we take registers! At my institution, you swipe into all teaching rooms with your student card. Two consecutive absences gets you a standard central admin letter, but as we are not allowed to penalise non-attendance, there are no real consequences.

Unfortunately, there are consequences for the lecturing staff, who are slapped on the wrist for too many fails, low median grade, poor student feedback (from students who may have never attended, but we don't know this as feedback is anonymous) leading to slips in student satisfaction rankings, consequent low recruitment etc.

So the 'let them flunk, they're grown ups' argument isn't helpful...

[cheval]

Guess the whole frigging got squervy when it suddenly cost ten grand a year to attend uni and they're still behaving like rik mayall off the the young ones. Then if they're lucky, ma and if there's a pa, bale them out,

[MiladyThesaurus]

Well it might be helpful if senior management would actually realise that merciless failing of students who deserve it in first year would be a Very Good Thing.

Maybe at the same time they could realise that the bums (not on) seats but fees in the bank model of never penalising anyone for non-attendance does not work. Kicking out 25% of the students at the end of semester 1 for having attended pretty much nothing would send a wonderful message to all the students.

[LordRothermereBlackshirtCunt]

Are you at the mid-career stage, by any chance Milady? I ask because there's a certain air to your posts that strike a chord with me!