How did the first year go for your DC? First year exam woes.

[funnyperson]

Its the end of the first year at University for my DS and he has grown up, gained in confidence, independence and happiness.
His end of year exam results sheet reveals firsts and upper seconds in all his papers, but no record (NR), alas for- wait for it- 8 out of 12 essays. They were all submitted, agrees the faculty, when he enquired today, and emailed them his proofs of submission. But the tutors didn't mark them. Not for want of time- some of these essays were submitted in the Autumn term.

'As a favour' he will be allowed to retake the year. I am so angry I will probably get a heart attack. I am taking it to the head of the exams section but any more suggestions would be welcome. Any others have first year exam woes/successes?

Dear all
just to say: all receipts were genuine as they cant be faked by the computer/dept. The dept agrees all the essays were submitted, no one is questioning that atm.

The plagiarism score was zero for them all, no one is saying any part of any essays were plagiarised.

Some were too short apparently, 1000 instead of 2000 words, though as DS says they had an introduction, argument and conclusion. DS wasn't told they were too short till after he was asked to repeat the year.

The faculty deadline point is on the right track. The faculty deadlines, which precede the school deadlines, are crucial to the decisions which have been made. Unfortunately the student undergrad handbook, which is also the faculty handbook, didn't make it clear in advance that repetition of the year would be the consequence of missing faculty deadlines, as otherwise I have no doubt DS would not have done as he did.

Sadly, therefore, it looks as though DS was doomed to retake the year before he even began his second term because he had submitted 2 essays late by then. Its a real shame the tutors didn't point it all out then.

DS didn't chase marks as he thought essay marks/feedback would be given out at the end of the year, especially after the tutor said nothing in March when we/I contacted him by email to ask where the first terms essay marks were.

DS is partly at fault and I am still coming to terms with this and trying to get my head round it. To fail a first year does seem massive to me.

There are key lessons to be learned- for example DS needs to ask for help and advice from tutors more if he is stuck, to approach them himself, and submit essays early, and chase the feedback, be a lot more proactive. In a way its better if these lessons are learned early on.

However what I cannot get my head round is that his tutors were there to guide him and they didn't. Also that the school written policy is totally misleading.

Anyway, DS and I and the family are coping. He is around, he is not suicidal, he is coming to terms with repeating the year. He has said he is sorry to me and is reflecting ( I have to say that after the first day I haven't told him off at all as I feel what has happened is bad enough)

Sorry for the long post. DS has given the exams office hard copies of all his essays and submission sheets which prove the submission dates and asked for them to be marked according to current written policy.

I have written to the head of dept asking why DS essays were not marked according to current written school policy, why the tutor did not feed back earlier, and saying that the consequence, of DS repeating the year, seems a last resort, and asking if it is possible to resubmit for the module failed. (Even with zero for essays, DS passed two modules!)

Sorry, just to repeat, the plagiarism scores were zero and the faculty agrees the essays were submitted, no one is saying DS faked anything.

so he failed one module out of 3 because he didn't submit essays and his score on that module wasn't high enough to make up for it? If that is the case focus on the essays for that module. Were those essays the correct length and when were they submitted? If you only need to get those modules remarked for a pass it is less work for everyone. if those essays were in fact on time then you have a far stronger case for arguing that his "failure" of his first year exams (which I assume is why he has to resit) was their fault not his.

I would seriously be thinking of suing them and looking for appropriate legal advice.

It still sounds like a mess from their perspective and they ought to be sorting it out for you.

I really feel for you and your DS, he must be thoroughly gutted. Glad he is coming to terms with it and not too down; boys this age are more vulnerable than many folk think.
Horrible mistakes ARE made by unis. I don't know which one your DS is at- is it a London one?
My DS was at a three day board at Sandhurst, being interviewed, when the discussion turned to his degree. DS said that he had decided not to take a certain position in the Officer Training Corps because he wanted to concentrate on his degree and try for a First.
The interviewer commented "Well, that didn't work out, then!"
DS was confused, as he did get a First.
Interviewer then showed him his reference which commented "Sharper's DS might have got a first if he had applied himself...". It transpired that there were four on the course with the same first name, and DS had the wrong reference.
He was unable to do anything to help himself, and despite desperate texts, we could not help him, as no-one would speak to us.
Eventually, he got an apology and a re-assurance from the Head of Department that it would not happen again, but the damage was done. He was left stuttering and protesting, whilst inwardly wondering if he had been given someone else's results.

I would strongly look into suing for damages. When he goes out to get his job after graduation, employers will want to know why he had to repeat his first year. It's a waste of your money, his time and well.... Everything really.

I dont understand the feedback or lackthereof. I'm so sorry this has happened. I've never heard of such things before and I've sat on several committees.

Good luck.

It sounds like your DS would benefit from a University which takes a more pro-active approach to guiding students in their first year. Without wishing to put him down, I wonder if at this point in time, he's rather young for his years, and needs some things spelling out to him that other students of the same age would already know (I'm thinking of handing in every piece of work late, and writing essays which are very much shorter than expected). I think he's screwed up, but I think that the University has left him to sink, and it sounds from this thread as though they may be known for it.
Has he considered moving to a different University to re-start his degree? My sister did this, after a year out, and it worked wonders for her.

curious about the outcome - are you pursuing this or did you let it drop?

I am taking it to the ombudsman.
DS was an immature idiot for aiming to do only the minimum and so will repeat the year and get a lousy reference and be unemployed when he graduates anyway so there is nothing to loose.

Besides I am still very very angry that the rules which he followed were misleading, his essays weren't marked, and his tutor did f all the whole year, and the uni wont speak to parents even in the circumstance of repeating a year. Some of the essays not marked were near 2000 words and all -repeat all-made the college/school deadline.

I dont want to try and defend or make excuses for a boy who seems to have spent an inordinate amount of time clubbing, but equally, this failure was so easily preventable as DS would have quickly pulled himself up earlier if he had realised he was off track.

As someone mentioned it's a London university has he made an appeal to the Chief Operating Officer, University of London International Academy under Annex 3 of these regulations?
www.london.ac.uk/fileadmin/documents/about/governance/New/Regulation_1_UoL_Awards.pdf

I agree with the post above that suggested a transfer. This will make it much easier to disguise the repeated year - it can then be explained away as not getting on with that particular institution rather than being asked to repeat the year.

Re. the Ombudsman: I assume you are talking about the Office of the Independent Adjudicator? It can literally take years to go through the process, and I believe that they only issue "recommendations" to the institution rather than anything legally enforcable (though obviously institutions tend to comply with these recommendations as they'd look pretty bad if they didn't). Have you gone through the university's formal complaints procedure? The OIA will want to know that you have done so.

Can I just say that I know it's frustrating when tutors won't discuss details with you, but they would actually be breaking the law if they did. There was a case a while back of a student beginning legal proceedings against his department simply because a lecturer revealed to his parent that he was a student in that particular department.

DS will be sticking it out and repeating the year at the same institution, along with others he knows well. He and I (and the tutor) think this is best because the key lessons of essay skills and deadlines do need to be learned- he might even get a good degree at the end of it.
Its better that DS learns life skills about deadlines and submitting detailed thorough work now, as he will need them all his life.
Regarding the processes etc it will be the QAA we will be going to. Does anyone have any knowledge of this?

As far as I'm aware, the QAA does not deal with individual cases, but with complaints of more systematic institutional bad practice. While your son's situation could well be part of broader malpractice, I think the onus of gathering evidence to present to the QAA would potentially be very burdensome (and actually not that helpful to him individually) and that you would be much better going through the OIA, which is set up to deal with precisely this kind of individual case. You do need to go through the official complaints procedure at the university first, though - both the OIA and QAA require this to have been done before you refer a case to them.

Your son's legal contract with the university is based on its published regulations. Any changes to those regulations, as in having earlier deadlines, should have been notified to him in writing. Did he receive that notification and can the university actually show that he received it? If not you may have an argument that they are acting unlawfully.

If those regulations do not explicitly state that late submissions will not be marked then you could insist that they are marked. If very late and they deduct so many marks per day they may be given a mark of zero but they have to be marked.

The QIA are unlikely to award compensation that will cover the cost of repeating a year. If you are prepared to give specific dates for deadlines and when essays were submitted and to post these on the legal section of mumsnet with the relevant college regs you may find a legal mumsnetter prepared to offer you advice. If not gather all the relevant paperwork and see if a local solicitor will offer you a free half hour advice.