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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To not attend online seminars?

85 replies

coolstef · 08/03/2022 13:54

I'm in my 4th and final year at university and am due to finish in 2 months. It has been online for the past two years due to COVID. I have not set foot on campus since 2020.

I consistently sit at a 2.1 without much effort at all, I am fine with that and a 2.1 is what I am hoping to graduate with (on track for this). However, I haven't attended any online seminars this full academic year. It says the seminars are mandatory.

The reason I haven't attended is due to my experiences of online seminars last year I find them to be a complete waste of time. I gain nothing from them, learn nothing in them and would much rather focus my time elsewhere like on the actual assessments and my dissertation.

I have never been pulled up for my lack of attendance and always submit my work on time and as I said consistently get 2.1s.

However, my friend doing the same course has started to ask me am I not worried about getting kicked out due to my lack of attendance? I'd never really thought about it as no one has questioned me about it. I had a look at the uni policy and they said that they would give three chances before being kicked out and try and support you to engage more. Additionally, I am engaged with the course, this is shown in my work and working to the deadlines.

So am I being unreasonable to assume that since no one has been in touch they are not going to just kick me out of uni for not attending the seminars?

My personal tutor is very happy with me and says I'm the most hardworking student she's had this year.

OP posts:

UnsuitableHat · 08/03/2022 21:12

If you were pulled up on it (which sounds unlikely now), could you say you listened to the recordings? I'm doing an online Masters, and that's all we'd have to say, not that we'd be asked. Your degree sounds pretty much online if you haven't been on campus since 2020.

Brefugee · 08/03/2022 21:20

Not attending seminars that I literally gain nothing from is very different. But thank you for your patronising 'lecture'.

you sound as though you think you don't need to waste your time attending. How do you think the lecturers feel? What if nobody attends? I wonder why they waste their time trying to teach you anything. You sound quite supercillious about it all, tbh

ShyMaryEllen · 08/03/2022 21:35

IME attendance is usually monitored for the Borders Agency, so that international students can't register on a course and then disappear, rather than to check up on anyone. It is assumed that people who have registered on a course have an interest in it and want to participate. Other students tend to get irritated by those who don't bother, too; but I suppose if you are at the end of your course that's not a consideration.

There are always those who get along just fine without attending much, but for every one of those there is another who thinks they are doing well because they don't know enough to know what they don't know.

HumptySumptious · 08/03/2022 21:43

So, if you can easily get a 2-1 without attending online seminars, wouldn't it hold that you could probably get a 1st by attending seminars?

I don't understand - seminars were a relatively large part of my degree, I can't imagine wanting to 'go it alone', even if I could pass by doing that.

aluvss · 09/03/2022 13:12

I don't think you need to attend.

I went to uni and achieved a 2:1 without ever going to a seminar, they were a waste of time IMO.

RampantIvy · 09/03/2022 13:27

I don't think what anyone else did is relevant to the OP. It depends on the university and the subject.

Gwenhwyfar · 09/03/2022 19:15

"So, if you can easily get a 2-1 without attending online seminars, wouldn't it hold that you could probably get a 1st by attending seminars?"

No. That's really not how it works in some subjects.

Gwenhwyfar · 09/03/2022 19:17

@Mullercornershop

You’re the most hard working student but only on course for a 2:1?

It's not just a case of how much work you do leading to a certain grade now is it? You must understand that. I wouldn't have got a first at my uni (I did manage one with the OU) even if I had worked day and night.

HumptySumptious · 09/03/2022 19:20

@Gwenhwyfar

"So, if you can easily get a 2-1 without attending online seminars, wouldn't it hold that you could probably get a 1st by attending seminars?"

No. That's really not how it works in some subjects.

It would put you in a better position to try to get a 1st though 😄. Or even to make a 2.1 more secure.

Gwenhwyfar · 09/03/2022 19:26

"It would put you in a better position to try to get a 1st though 😄. Or even to make a 2.1 more secure."

Not really. If OP knows she can't get a 1st it changes nothing. If she knows she already has enough credit for a 2.1 then it's already secure.

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