Uni disadvantaging DS?

[fingersandthumbs]

Not entirely sure what my am I being unreasonable is, but this is the situation.

My son is completing a Masters degree at uni which has a large practical element. This academic year has been mostly online teaching and no practical sessions and very few face to face teaching sessions. Disappointing, but he thought all the Masters students on his course were being treated the same.

It transpires that for one of the modules taught last term some of the students received face to face teaching and the rest were only able to access the lecture on line. Those students who had face to face learning appear to have received much higher grades than the students who were able to attend on line.

In addition and just to complicate matters, my son has exactly the same first and last name as another student at the same uni, studying a completely different course in a different faculty. He has only found this out today when he mentioned to one of his friends that he wasn’t receiving much info from the course coordinator, only info that other students forwarded to him, and my son’s friend showed him the email which had his incorrect student email address on it. It was the email address for the other student with the same name. Going back through previous emails it seems the incorrect email address has been used by several tutors since at least March 2021.

As a result of his tutors sending requests and info to the wrong email address he has missed out of his choice of dissertation subject and dissertation supervisor as he wasn’t privy to the emails sent to the rest of Masters group. He also has not received information about in person teaching and practical sessions as they’ve been sent to the wrong person, consequently he has missed several important practical sessions for the start of a new unit this term.

DS feels he has been disadvantaged and is furious that his Masters result has been impacted by this.

Does he have any recourse? I have suggested emailing the course coordinator, which he’s done, but the response has been oh dear, thanks for pointing that out, I’ll get it changed.

I know he needs to sort this out himself but am I being unreasonable to ask for your help in wording his complaint and should this be to the course leader or someone else within the uni. And is there any GDPR issue or is that a red herring?

Has he spoken to the course leader, either on the phone or in person? If I were him, I'd take in a list of what I'd like putting right and discuss what is or isn't possible. I'd then document it and email the course leader what he believes has been said during the meeting. If I was happy with the agreement, I'd move forward from there. If not, I'd take it to the head of Dept or school.

Out of interest, did he get replies to emails he sent in? Was it just the mailing list that had his wrong address?

Can't advise but could he go to the student union for help?

There are two issues here
(1) the fact he was not being emailed correctly. However I guess they could argue he was not being proactive in asking his tutor for info since he may have known other tutees were getting emails or could have asked why he was not getting any info.
(2) the fact that some people were being offered practicals where others weren't. It might be worth him getting in touch with those who weren't since he obviously knows them to know this has happened. It really needs to be backed up sufficiently to take it further.

I agree you can do nothing but support. He needs to be the proactive one here.

As someone who works in this area (Uni Assistant Registrar). Can he find the Uni complaints email address? All Unis need to have this. They then have to register it, and respond within 28 days. They should try very hard to make reparation on this, and not disadvantage the student. Good luck.

Thank you for your advice.

To try and answer some of the questions, yes he has sent emails to tutors and to his course supervisor from his student email account and received replies to that account. Some of the email replies, when he’s queried lack of information, have copied and pasted the body of the group email so he hasn’t noticed an incorrect send to address. Two of the emails just say, information previously sent and then a date.

What he hasn’t received are group emails to Masters students on his course. He has had some forwarded to him by his friend on the course, when it’s come up that an email has been sent with info on that he doesn’t seem to have received.

He has tried to speak to the course coordinator this afternoon after receiving the “oh dear, I’ll get it changed email” but has apparently been told, too late now, deal with it. Which I sort of get, it’s preparing him for hiccups/challenges in a work environment, but it feels very much like they can’t be bothered to find a resolution.

apparently been told, too late now, deal with it. Which I sort of get, it’s preparing him for hiccups/challenges in a work environment, but it feels very much like they can’t be bothered to find a resolution

Well no, because in a work environment he is being paid to do work. In this context he is paying to do a degree and the university is providing a service to him. They can't make a mess up like this and walk away and tell him it's tough if he gets a poor grade because of it. And how can they only provide practicals to some students?

He needs to get bolshy.

I've worked on college and uni courses. The best solution is to arrange a meeting and discuss it face to face. You can't fob someone off while they're sat in front of you and at the end your son will have all the facts, including the course leader explaining what they can and can't do for him. He's then in a position to take the matter further if he's not satisfied.

I wouldn't get bolshy initially. He's partially responsible for this. When he didn't receive the very first email that his fellow students were receiving, why didn't he ring up to check the email address. Isn't that the first thing you think of if you don't receive an email? Someone typed your address wrong?
Go in being cordial but show that you feel strongly that he's been disadvantaged and he'd like their input on how it can best be rectified. Some of it won't be able to be corrected. But some of it might, with the help of the lecturers.
Be clear what he wants, be polite, be persistent. But also be reasonable.

How do you know you haven't recievead something that others have when you are working remotely?

Are you supposed to mail your fellow pupuls daily or something and equire?

@Jossbow

How do you know you haven't recievead something that others have when you are working remotely?

Are you supposed to mail your fellow pupuls daily or something and equire?

His friends on the course were sending him copies of emails they were receiving and he wasn't. That would be a clue there was a problem with his email address, I would think. I'd have contacted them after the first email everyone had received and I hadn't.

His friend forwarded a couple of emails that between them they worked out he hadn’t received, one of these was the one today when he actually discovered the email address behind the student name wasn’t his own student email address.
Not all students are studying the same units so I’m not sure how he would know group emails have been sent and as the dissertation unit only started this term he has picked this up by the 2nd week but it’s too late apparently. And yes to the person saying they’re mostly studying remotely. It should surely be up to the uni tutors to make sure they’re including the right students in their emails.
He’s decided to go down the formal complaint route after speaking in person to the course leader.

Can he also speak to the Student Union? Is there also a departmental head he can speak to (not just the course leader)?

The wrong emails may be partly his fault, as pp said the very first email not being received should have been investigated.
However the F2F teaching for some students is wrong.

He may also want to post on TheStudentRoom which is a great forum.

Also OP they may be working remotely - but isn't there an active student forum/WhatsApp group?
Every assignment would have loads of people asking questions, did nobody at all mention the practical sessions?

University lecturer here.
He needs to make a formal complaint. If I sent a breezy ‘oh sorry, nothing I can do now’ email to a student who had not received emails because a group email had missed his address off I would be in serious trouble.

I'm confused how he has been missed out of emails. I'm a current master's student and have worked in an educational setting, and all information regarding students is processed through their student number, not their name.

This could entirely be user error from a tutor who has set up a mailing list. It amazes me that despite our uni using Microsoft for many things, we only get mailing lists for students through the Blackboard VLE. If I want to send an actual email to a group of students who can reply to me, then I have to set it up myself and it is really tedious!

Follow complaints procedure.

There was an active WhatsApp chat when he was an undergraduate but this is student led and has been chats about assignments/exam prep/inter uni competition. He hasn’t had an issue with assignments as they’re all on student Moodle for the term so he’s known criteria/deadlines for assignments.
The emails his name sake has been included in and he hasn’t are in relation to dissertation options and to let the group know when they’re will be a practical Workshop session they can attend.
From what I’ve seen the email address is based on his student number and name so similar to first initial.last name12345@ uni address. The group email that has been set up is for the other student so same name different numbers, easy mistake to make but it shouldn’t have happened. And yes he needs to take some responsibility but he’s also had 3 years when it hasn’t been an issue at the same uni.

@Mumteedum yes this, the group mailing list has been set up by the tutor!

Another university lecturer here, used to chair my dept's exam board. He needs to make a formal complaint, preferably with the help of his student union's support team. If he thinks it's affected his grades: most universities I know will consider appeals against awarded grades on the basis of significant administrative error, which the email cock-up certainly sounds like.

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I'm a lecturer and this has not been handled well.

The email error should have been speedily corrected. If he's studying remotely I can see how he'd be unaware of other emails as the students won't have the same kind of relationships that they do on a f2f course where he might more easily learn that he's missed something.

A formal complaint to the programme convenor is appropriate and I'd focus on what they are going to do quickly to resolve issues (eg diss). The dissertation is completed over a number of months. It's unreasonable to exclude him from an option as a result of someone else's error, this early in the process. See also any adjustments to grading as a result of their communications.