Why are students treated like shit?

[StudyBuddy]

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?

OP I'm an academic with extensive experience of recruiting and supervising PhD students. I know very well that a student accepting an offer of a PhD position - even if it has funding attached - is not a mutually binding contract.

A student can change their mind and not take up the PhD position with no repercussions. A student can register on the PhD programme and then withdraw at any time with no repercussions, except perhaps having to pay back some stipend if it came as a lump sum. None of this is true of an employee who has signed a contract. PhD students are not employees in the UK and occupy a completely different legal status.

I won't be engaging with you any more because your attitude is atrocious. You come across as entitled and aggressive, particularly towards any posters who suggest you might not be 100% correct about everything. If you do take up this PhD position, I sincerely hope - for the sake of your supervisor - that you are less obnoxious in person than you are on this thread.

I'm an academic with extensive experience of recruiting and supervising PhD students. I know very well that a student accepting an offer of a PhD position - even if it has funding attached - is not a mutually binding contract.

Yes. Neither administrators nor academics may be able to write the letter the OP wants until they have officially enrolled on the programme. PhD students do not have the same legal status as employees.

By the way, if the OP is enrolling for a PhD, it sounds peculiar that they are engaging with administrative staff extensively, rather than with their prospective PhD supervisor and research group. The back and forth about the offer letter in particular sounds strange: wouldn't you write directly to the prospective PhD supervisor and get them to sort it out?

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.

This again sounds extremely peculiar. Every university I know held extensive exam boards to mitigate impacts of strike action. It would be completely absurd to reduce students' marks due to strike action.

My undergraduate university have one member of staff assigned to each student to provide employment references.

BTW this also sounds strange. Usually personal tutors are indeed responsible for references for their students - but they are not the only ones who can provide employment references as students often need more than one (particularly for those applying for PhDs or for specialised positions, using skills acquired during dissertation). I have never heard of a university insisting that only one staff member can provide employment references for a given student.

While academics take very little leave, they are sometimes unavailable due to parental leave, illness, etc. If a student needs a reference with quick turnaround they would then approach somebody else from their course: dissertation supervisor, module lead etc.

My university’s student welfare officer was a sexual predator and slept with numerous students even though he was in a relationship with a student (who was an acquaintance). She then dumped him and he spent the next year stalking her.