AIBUto feel so angry with Dd's Uni

[Booklover123]

Dd taking her finals, first exam was today. Phoned me straight after distraught, as they had failed to provide the necessary appendices. Entire room were in tears, invigilators contacted dpt but to no avail.Were told to continue exam which they could not without the supplementary information! Tonight dd has received an e mail from said dpt "apologising for the error and mistake will be rectified". But how wii this be done? AIBU to be absolutely fuming with this utter balls up happening?

Milady I'm boiling it down to its basics, obviously. Their prime function is to educate. A bi-product of that is to record how well a student has taken on board that education by form of exam, degree, whatever. And while they are at university, the staff have a certain duty of care to look after their students.

Universities are both teaching and research - teaching is not our only or prime function, it has to run alongside research - otherwise what would we teach? And we don't have a "duty of care" in the same way as a school or social-care type duty. Undergraduate students are adults.

Goats Yes, you research but from the customer's point of view (and distasteful as it is, they are paying for a service) they are there to be taught. And I didn't say you had the same duty of care, but there is some duty of care. You still have to be concerned for their welfare on campus etc

Total over-reaction. Shit happens. It's being dealt with.

University used to be seen as preparing people for adult life, seems that it's now just extending childhood...

By the way, no, she hasn't "paid for a degree". She has paid for tuition, academic expertise, a careers service, access to libraries, support services, etc etc. Actually getting the degree bit is up to her.

I'm amazed how invested parents are in the minutiae of their children's university education. I don't recall talking to my parents at all during finals week!

Shatner students are not the only customers...

I had a similar situation during the last of my finals exams, and similarly the exam setter couldn't be contacted during the course of the exam. We ended up marching to the head of departments office and complaining en masse and I believe all got a small % uplift on the marks.

I was upset, but it was my last exam. For it to happen on the first one of a set though would be devastating. This was well before the days of fees and loans, but even then the stress at exam time could send students into mania or depression, and sadly there were 2 student suicides at exam time during my time and I know someone who had to quit university after ending up on a mental health ward during her first year exams time, so for people to scoff at millennials crying is nasty.

@Booklover123 What is she studying to have non-stop exams for the next three weeks? That's really unusual and not something most universities would put on their students.

There are plenty of ways that universities can rectify examination mistakes - grade only what the students could complete, or, average marks out from previous assessments being two of the top of my head.

ShatnersWig Students are not customers. Never have been, never will be. They are there to learn. University academics are not service workers.

Students pay tuition fees for the opportunity to learn, and study for a qualification.

Funnily enough, if you go into it, the new tuition fees & loans regime means that the taxpayer is still paying for students' tuition.

Why are people so vile?
They are stressed and in an exam situation and it goes to pot, is probably cry!
Not sure why the uni made them continue that seems ridiculous especially if they then as some people suggest don't count it due to the error.
The amount of debt students get in for their degrees and the pressure to find a well paying job afterwards I'd be bloody stressed. People have short memories.

@GoatsFeet @ShatnersWig students ARE customers. They vote with their feet. Why do so many units spend so much on marketing trying to attract them?

Unis not units!!

I had 30 exams in 3 weeks back in the day.
Don't recall telling my mammy about any of them.
Condolences to all academics having to put up with the sort of wahwahing that really you wouldn't expect from 12 yr olds.
OP- as a million people have said..it will be sorted. Probably already has been.

Mumsnet is now just a competition to see who can be the most unpleasant and hard faced.

It's not in the university's interests and certainly not in the relevant department's interest for all students to fail.
They will probably take out the questions that required appendices and base the mark on the rest. If every single question required an appendices then they will have to remove the whole exam from the final remark.
It wouldn't be soft for a student to cry if they were the only one disadvantaged but considering they are all in the same boat I think it was a bit "soft" for them all to cry, if that really happened.

remark mark

I don't think people are being vile, although I was a bit harsh to begin with. As has been pointed out, this was a mistake, and it is reasonable for the daughter to be upset, but it would be a bit strange for the whole room to be in tears.

Equally, it would be reasonable for the OP to be upset and supportive of her DD. Not so reasonable to hoping the lecturer is sacked, and comparing it to a surgeon butchering patients.

The whole sidetracking about being a customer and paying for a degree has just highlighted different views. I have worked in HE as a research fellow, and when I was an undergraduate, I was simply not aware of the work a lecturer had to do, and the other pressures on their time. Had I done so, I would have had more understanding for them.

There was a problem with one of my finals - people had been called in 15 minutes earlier than the alloted start time for reading time - I wasn't one of them and entered the exam at the correct time - it also meant the finished the exam 15 minutes early and I had barely started a final question. The invigilators knew there had been a fuck up and told us to write a note on the bottom of the paper - which we did.

We also went straight to our faculty, head of that subject and let them know the problem.

I was borderline 2:2 2:1 and this exam was critical. I ended up with.....................

a 2:1

The exam board took it into account when giving the final mark - it probably worked in my favour overall. Tell her not to sweat, they will either get a resit or the marks will be low weighted to account for the error on the part of the examiners.

"Students are not customers."

They really are. They are paying for a service. Too many universities consider students almost as an afterthought when in reality without them all those pet research projects would not be able to go ahead.

I can well understand how upsetting this would be. Final exams are incredibly stressful, and to be left uncertain about the outcome like this due to a stupid mistake by the university will be upsetting at the time and will likely unsettle the students for their other exams.

I'd hope that no matter how old my dd is I will react with empathy and understanding when something very stressful happens. I might feel quite upset on her behalf and may want to tell others about the horrid thing that happened. It's called caring.

It's only when a parent steps in to actually sort out the issue that it becomes interfering.

Final exams are really stressful, even umpteen years later it's a recurring anxiety dream I have. I know that many people still do! I don't remember any tears, but I do remember one lad storming out part way through saying something along the lines that he wasn't going to do this shit anymore.

I do find students today really worrisome: very driven, very ambitious, but almost disproportionately anxious, dependent & whiney.

100% this. Work at a university.

Total overreaction. Very annoying, yes, and shockingly sloppy on the institution's part but as the university has admitted liability and it won't affect her final grade I fail to see the need for all the hyperbole. It would have been obvious from the start that they wouldn't be able to penalise the students for their own mistake.

Part of the issue is HEI are run like businesses now which makes students think they are entitled to any number of things.

I don't think it's unreasonable to be pissed off about this but mistakes happen and they have cast iron procedures for fixing issues like this. They are really rare but it does happen so there is a way to fix it.

I don't think everyone quite understands what an enormous administration issue organising exams is - it's usually 5 or 6 per programme each time, and there's often 300-400 programmes to be examined - it's literally thousands of exams to organise for tens of thousands of students, times four for each year (Inc PGs). And usually universities get it right for everyone, and I bet the programme academics are pretty upset themselves at having let these students down.

Re: paying for a degree - the tuition fees are awful and lots of uni staff, myself included, hate them. Mainly because students are being put into debt yet the unis are actually getting £1000s per student less than we did before fees. Undergraduates are basically loss leaders now and the only way to break even is to pack 'em in and pile 'em high - but no one is making money in public universities off UG students. Even overseas ones only offset the costs of the courses.

It's helpful to try to think of it as gym fees, not as paying for a degree. You to for the gym/uni whether you show up or not, whether you're working on getting fitter/now knowledgeable or not, whether you are able to run two miles/pass the exam or not.

The difference is that unlike gyms, unis want you to do well and finish and stop paying 😊

Um judging by my typos I should probably hand my degree back, sorry!

DO NOT assume actions will be taken without a big fuss. Encourage your DD to dig her heels, if that's what she wants to do.

One of my finals (serious subject at a very academic and reputable uni) was interrupted by a fire alarm. Everyone was evacuated down a separate staircase to maintain exam conditions but then pointlessly mixed with the rest of the evacuees in the car park. A frenzy of phonecalls about the exam questions, finding friends with textbooks and other madness ensued. I watched in horror, totally unsure of what to do.

After the exam I went straight to student services and complained. They took it semi-seriously until they realised I was an out-of-sync finals student and didn't know the names of any of my fellow examinees. I pointed out that it was everyone bar me, couldn't they invalidate the exam for us all? They didn't care. OK, well, It was a small exam and I could point out the students by the faces? No, they didn't care. Names or nothing and that was the end of it.

I wish I'd taken it further up, but at the time I thought I'd done all I could and felt very miserable and deflated.

Sorry Goats I know academics don't like this, but students or parents are paying a fee or fees for a service. The university provides the service. They are a customer, even if you don't like the words.