To think this response from my fellow student was quite uncalled for and OTT?

[Ahsoka2001]

I'm a postgrad student and for our next assessment we have to do a group presentation. They're randomly assigned and I was originally in a group of 4, but then it turned out the other 2 had been put in by mistake and I was left in a pair with just one other student.

Our seminar tutor emailed another group consisting of 3 students politely asking if me and my partner would be able to join theirs.

Then one member of the group replied at 2am with a huge email (almost 1,500 words) saying that no, it's not OK, because most of their work has already been finished on the basis of 3 people performing, not 5.

OK...I can kind of see what he means, but there's more. He said very bluntly to the tutor that as a "customer" paying £10K his personal time should not be interfered with due to her "poor management of forming the groups" (he thought he'd have to re-schedule free time to accommodate us joining).

Also, he said if she insisted I join his group he would discuss leaving the university with his personal tutor because his confidence in the quality of teaching here would be ruined. He seemed to be trying to tell her how to handle the situation himself e.g. "Most important for you is to consider the options below on how to handle this" and "Consider these points and discuss with your colleagues if necessary".

Also - "Lecturers are required to respond in 72 hours. You gave me less than 24 hours to respond to your email" and "Are you seriously considering inflating the group by 66%?"

^ Just to give you an idea of the email's tone.

Regardless of the tutor's management of things (some other students have had similar thoughts) I can NEVER imagine writing something like that to a lecturer as a student. Am I wrong, or was this an uncalled for response?

He sounds like an arse.

I think you’ve had a lucky escape

you know you’re not wrong so why are you asking if YABU

Well, I thought maybe there was another perspective I hadn't considered, like the disruption being caused to the group being more severe then I might think or him having a right to speak out if he's not satisfied, etc. It's not his feelings I was shocked with so much, just the way he wrote the email.

If I were her I'd have to respond that I was very sorry that he felt he had to leave the university but I accept his decision and have notified the relevant departments that he is no longer a student. Preferably late on Friday so he can stew over the weekend.

But that's why I'm not allowed near any sort of service role.

Well you certainly dodged a bullet not being in their group!

How much work had the group of three already done on the assignment?

Well, he said about 2/3rds of the work had been done already, but at this point the groups had only been assigned 4 days. I think maybe they started working before the groups had officially been allocated but not sure.

Is this the final straw? Have there been problems with this lecturer before?

He is right he is a customer and is spending a lot of money for the seemingly unorganized course you are on.

As I've got older I am more accepting that mistakes happen but don't put up with poor service

I am a lecturer and sometimes get emails like this. I once had an email from a student who didn't like their grade so she wrote 2500 word email detailing why I was wrong. Her grade was not changed, its a very very small proportion of students who behave like this but I do wonder what will happen to those when they enter the real world.

As others said you made a lucky escape.

In all honesty, I don't blame him for being pissed off in that case. It sounds as though the email was worded in an annoying and pompous way, but it's reasonable to hold the tutor to account for the mistakes.

I don't blame him for being pissed off. It does seem odd to expand the group so significantly when they've done most of the work. I know what you mean about the tone... and it makes me wonder if this isn't the first issue he's had.

After four days it's probably an expectation that it's easy to slot someone else in it's not the lecturers fault they started prematurely

I would accept his decision to leave

🤣🤣🤣

It seems quite OTT. Not aimed at you personally though.

I guess you don't know what's gone on in their group already - he might already have done the majority of the work and be pissed off at having to carry the other two through the assignment already, or perhaps they've all been at loggerheads and he's seeing adding two extra people as more drama he doesn't need interfering with his grades.

Whatever the reason, it doesn't sound like a fun group to be a part of!

If you work in any sort of customer service role, you seen realise that about 2% of the population are absolute bellends, and sadly academic teaching has an element of customer service. (That said, he wasn’t wrong to point out the problems with you joining the group.)

Perhaps you could reply to the poor tutor (copying in Arsey Mansplainer) thanking her for trying to sort it out and requesting that you NOT be put in that particular group because you are aware that some of the group members find collaborative work challenging and lack the people and communication skills needed to achieve a positive group outcome.

Really, he should just have replied, "I'm sorry, it won't be possible," and left the ball in her court to find another solution.

Haha, yes this.

He's very OTT but probably had a valid point in there that's been lost amongst hundreds of words of lunacy.

Definitely more entitlement (least in under grads) since large fees came in.

Blimey, you can just imagine what he's going to be like in the workplace!

It's obviously not the first time he thought her teaching was poor. Sounds like the frustration has been building.

I think he has a valid point but has expressed it extremely poorly. Is he young, with no experience in the workplace?