To think this is unacceptable from a university

[curaçao]

My dd us in the first year of a degree and every couple of weeks will have a timwtable clash.She us not doing a joint honours of 2 random subjects, but some of her modules will be with people from other courses.
It makes me really annoyed when she is paying so much and forced to have to miss lectures fairly regularly.
This is in a uni which is listed in the uk top 5

Why is everyone obsessed with unis making profit? In the real world this isn’t the case. And also… lecturers should be paid to work but seems the trolling of teachers also extends to lecturers.

Way too many people victim blaming here and trying to make out the student is at fault. She likely isn’t from my experience of a number of RG universities. It’s a shambles, OP, and as you say, she’s paying for a service that she isn’t receiving. Regardless of whether any of us agree with how universities are currently funded, if they’re charging for a course, then they supply that course. End of.

This is happening more and more at my uni as we take in more and more students without enough staff or rooms. It's really unfortunate but there's nothing your DD can do at this point.

I have limited sympathy for my uni as they spend stupid money on unnecessary things that should be going to hiring more staff.

Only read OP’s first post.

The reason she has a timetable clash is down to HER module choices.

Usually you enrol as a student, then it is your responsibility to enrol on the individual modules relative to your course.

There are mandatory modules but, usually, also there is a choice for those remaining to make up your remaining credits to 120.

For instance when I was at Uni there were 2-3 mandatory of 20 - 30 credits each that I had to take, but for the remaining 60 credits I picked from a selection of 10 - 20 credit courses.

Timetable clashes can occur and it is up to the student to avoid these when planning their studies/timetable. Some are intent on particular courses despite clashes, and they choose to go for them anyway, even if it means that every week they have to choose between lectures on a Friday or whatever.

The University would not be able to run if all the modules offered were at separate times. Lecturers are working there on their own research and so forth, they have other commitments beyond lecturing and may only be available at certain times.

Finally, it is perfectly normal to have modules relevant to multiple courses, for instance you may have students from multiple courses taking part in a statistics module because it is something relevant to multiple degree pathways.

In short this problem is on your daughter for not being able to manage enrolment effectively and on you for not supporting her with the entitlement process if she has difficulty with this sort of thing.

• enrolment process

sorry autocorrect

I'm a non exec at a uni, I think this is outrageous and shows the uni is thinking £ not education!
Please name the uni.

If she’s in first year then she’s most likely following a core curriculum. Are her whole year in the same situation? Can she contact timetabling and ask them to move her to a different seminar group?

^ This

if you get in early you have the full choice before courses are booked out.

You will always be automatically enrolled onto your mandatory modules and have a space there.

But for optional modules if it’s booked out (by those who have it as mandatory/early enrolled), then you can be left with limited choice and time table clashes as a result.

Again, this entirely your daughter’s responsibility as an adult.

😂😂😂
Im very clse to my children too - but I do let them off the lead every now and again.

I'm not getting the reason for the 3 x 😂

DC can be independent and share aspects of uni life with their family, can't they? Well, mine can.

I’d be very annoyed!!

My understanding is in the first year you don’t get to choose modules either (at least I didn’t!) so it should be even easier to make sure there isn’t a clash!

God knows what it’ll be like when students get to choose their modules in years 2 and 3 if they can’t make there not be a clash now!

I never had a clash all the way through uni.

At the university where I work (which could be the one you're talking about) students used not to be allowed to choose modules with clashes of compulsory elements. Once recording of lectures became routine, by student request, we dropped this rule to allow students to have the widest possible choice of modules - if they choose to enroll on their favourite options despite a clash, they can. Is that what's happened here? A clash of compulsory first year modules would be very surprising, as it would obviously affect many students. Certainly where I work a lot of effort is put into minimising clashes, especially ones that affect many students.

Also, profit? Ha. Ha.

Btw, at many universities, yes, first year students do get choices.

You do realise that degrees aren’t standardised don’t you? A degree from one institution may be in the same subject but have little in common with a degree with the same name somewhere else.

It's not clear from the OP whether the clash is caused by core or optional modules. If it's a clash between core modules, this seems wrong and wouldn't be allowed to happen in any of the universities I've worked in. If it's a clash caused by an optional module choice, there is very little that can be done - as others have said, it's impossible to timetable classes for every possible combination of module choices (I used to work in timetabling, so am very aware of this!).

If she's chosen things for career prospects, then she will have to put in the extra work to accommodate the clashes as best she can. If she's just chosen them because she likes them and is struggling with missing sessions then it may be she has to sacrifice something. Tell her to talk to student advice, speak with lecturers and see what they recommend. As it's university, no one will help her unless she goes to seek it. Good luck to her!

It’s not ideal, but I think it will happen more and more, since Covid proved that lectures can be recorded and students can still achieve just as well and indeed many prefer the flexibility of being able to study when works for them.
Tutorials and practical sessions are obviously excluded from this, but a basic lecture is fine to watch on recording. Less distractions, if anything. The

Are these two compulsory modules? If so, I'd raise it.
If not, it's normal and students are asked to double check there are no timetable clashes before enrolling. Where I work they wouldn't be allowed to if it meant missing contact time.

My DS has this too. It’s so annoying when you think how much tuition fees are.

To those posters saying it’s OP’s DD’s fault because she must have messed up with her choice of modules - generally there is no choice in the first year. 99% likely it’s the university’s fault and it’s very unreasonable.

I’m sorry what? So your daughter is expected to be in two places at the same time? Ridiculous. And are they logging attendance etc? They’re setting their students up for failure. Hoenslty I’ve been to one of the top 5 and then post grad at one of the bottom unis and not a lot of difference really m. All a poo show x

Seems odd when I was at uni you had to do this whole registration rigmarole where you picked your options but the timings of all the lectures and classes were clear- you couldn’t register for two classes which clashed so sometimes you had to pick something else instead.

if her compulsory modules clash however (we didn’t have very many of these) then that’s pretty rubbish. In this day and age I’d expect a lot of lectures to be recorded though.

@ColleenDonaghy The university is responsible. It's nothing to do with blaming timetabling staff. If your university made "a considerable loss per student, then you'll be closing down at some point soon and should look for another job. That is what was unfortunately intended when the government created the internal market in universities. They won't keep afloat unprofitable institutions for ever. I don't support it ; I'm just reporting it.

For those bringing up the financial aspect and "providing a paid for service", they always have done. It's just that in recent times that pay comes from those who will directly benefit from .the degree, not general taxation. They are, like private schools, not profit making institutions. Money earned goes back in. That's it.

I live in NI where student fees are lower but government funding isn't, so there is a gap per student that doesn't apply elsewhere. Not that other unis are rolling in it.

Student fees are far from the only source of income at universities.

Take fewer students and make less profit?

Profit 😂😂😂😂😂