I've decided to start a postgraduate course this September and I already regret it. I've not even started yet and I'm so sick of being treated like shit already.
Some examples:
- I need a reference from the university for my remortgage application. I sent a very polite email asking who at the university I should provide as a reference. I got a VERY rude email in response almost immediately saying they won't provide a reference. This response was within an hour even though I emailed that exact same email address for help with something else over a week ago and have had nothing back. The last time I emailed for help before that, I phoned after two weeks and was told I was on "today's list". I got a rude and unhelpful response a week later.
- My offer letter incorrectly stated that my course was an undergraduate level course. I repeatedly asked them to rectify it providing evidence from their own website, a statement from the tutor etc to say it's not undergraduate etc. I needed it to say it was postgraduate for my funding. They spent months insisting it was an undergraduate course before then realising it was a postgraduate course. Their response at that point was to accuse me (in an email thread that showed our entire interaction) of thinking it was an undergraduate and condescendingly explained to me that it was a postgraduate.
- During my undergraduate degree, I was working a night shift in the Students' Union and had a seizure. I was taken by accident to hospital, taken barely conscious from the trolley and put in a chair where I fell to the floor. My husband repeatedly asked the hospital staff for a bed and he and my boss confirmed over and over again that I hadn't drunk anything. No tests were done and twelve hours later (still on the floor), I was told I could go home "if I've sobered up". I had another seizure at a networking event two weeks later (in a suit) and was immediately given a bed and had multiple tests done. Turns out I was epileptic but the assumption is that the only thing ever wrong with a student is alcohol.
- A friend of mine died after being thrown out of a bar and left on the pavement. She's Muslim and doesn't drink but she was diabetic and had low blood sugar - they just assumed she was drunk.
- My undergraduate university have one member of staff assigned to each student to provide employment references. I'd applied for quite literally my dream job and was just waiting on my reference. I emailed her many times requesting that she complete it and the firm extended the deadline repeatedly. Eventually, they withdrew my job offer. The next day, the member of staff emailed me a link to another job (not even close to the same thing) with the subject line "FYI".
- Students in my town must be registered with the university GP, not a local GP - but there are only 5000 spaces at the GP (which has one GP working two and a half days each week).
- I studied a language module during my degree and each week someone had to do an assessed presentation for 25% of our grade. Our lecturer went on strike for three weeks so those three students received 0% for that assessment.
Perhaps my perspective is skewed because of my age and because I've always worked full time whilst studying (and married, with a child etc) but I really notice that in any environment where the person knows I'm a student, I get no respect at all. Otherwise, people are perfectly pleasant.
Can someone explain why this is?