Does anyone know what's happening with final year students?

[imsooverthisdrama]

So ds is in final year of a 3 year degree course . Me and dh have for a while not been convinced how much work ds has put in on his course .
Anyway lockdown happened and he says was working online so left him to it .
The last couple of weeks less and less work done till he finally admitted that recently he'd not done any work as was struggling.
I've sympathised as the situation is difficult for all but this is his final year !!.
Anyway after a talking too he said will contact uni and ask for extension but he said he's not heard anything yet.
I'm not sure what to think , will they allow this ? will they mark his work and get a degree ? I'm just so worried that ds has spent 3 years in education to not get a degree. He doesn't seam at all concerned but I am .

[CatandtheFiddle]

That's really good to hear, OP - we know that students have struggled. If he does a bit of work everyday, he'll catch up, and not have to do a terrible cram in August.

[imsooverthisdrama]

Thanks @CatandtheFiddle
Yeah hopefully he will learn from this.

[bottleofbeer]

No detriment is not equal at all unis. Mine only adopted a 'sort of' no detriment where only your lowest 20 credits from semester 2 will be dropped. Many unis have a total no detriment policy where any grades apart from any dissertation cannot lower your average as it stood when unis closed. I would have a guaranteed first class had our uni done the same. The irony is that in both 20 credit modules, teaching had entirely stopped for the second half the the weighed module so we are being held in at least one module to the same standard we would have been had teaching carries on as normal.

They are however going to consider grades ending in 8 and well as 9 for an upgrade. This is also a load of bull though because the only consideration they will use is if most L6 credits were over 70. Unlikely for most since we had next to no teaching in two modules.

Our no detriment has almost certainly robbed me of a first. My average in March when other unis would disregard anything after was 76, my dissertation was 68.

This one grade they will be counting is highly likely to keep me just under the 70 threshold due to absolutely no teaching on this, more heavily weighted assignment.

[imsooverthisdrama]

Argh just had yet another row with ds again because he's hardly put any work in .
He's gone back to his part time job but just plays games when home or sleeps .
I honestly don't know what to do , when I ask what's happening with uni he just ignores me and then we row so he stomps off upstairs.
Wtf am I to do with him ?

[Comefromaway]

At ds’s university (he’s a lecturer) most assignments were due in just before Easter so the students were just finishing off. Everything else had a no detriment policy.

[BirdintheWings]

@imsooverthisdrama

Argh just had yet another row with ds again because he's hardly put any work in .
He's gone back to his part time job but just plays games when home or sleeps .
I honestly don't know what to do , when I ask what's happening with uni he just ignores me and then we row so he stomps off upstairs.
Wtf am I to do with him ?

Feed him, expect some basic housework and contribution to family life, and grit your teeth as you accept that this is his problem, not yours to solve.


Easier said than done. We have one in a similar-ish situation.

The sleeping- is that unusual for him, as it could be a sign of depression (or just of late nights)?

[CatandtheFiddle]

Feed him, expect some basic housework and contribution to family life, and grit your teeth as you accept that this is his problem, not yours to solve

Speaking as an academic, that's sort of my advice as well. He needs to learn about consequences at some point, although I can understand the mix of frustration and concern you must feel (we often feel a professional, rather than maternal, version of that).

It's a big consequence though - not getting his full degree. But it's his degree.

What you could do is look at what qualification he'd receive if he doesn't complete his third/final year. There's a national framework of qualifications, and his degree will have accumulated a certain number of credit points.

The standard undergrad Honours degree (in England & Wales) is a total of 360 credit points, with some requirements for a certain number at each level, but most students do 120 credit points a year. So you could do a rough totting up - if he's not finishing his Spring Term (or 2nd semester) work, then maybe he's got 60 from 3rd year, plus 240 from 1st & 2nd years. Total 300 cp. I think (but you'd need to check) he could be awarded a Certificate of Higher Education. Maybe a Pass degree? (but that's a big maybe).

Then you could perhaps shock him with this?

Unless there are mitigating circumstances beyond the ones all students are experiencing, and for which most universities have instituted very generous mitigations, then it may be very difficult for him to get through without handing in the work in August. At my place, he'd have to repeat the whole 3rd year - it may be different where he's at.

But all of these degree and examination regulations are publicly available on university websites.

[shockthemonkey]

Hi drama, have been in a very similar situation and in my case (but hopefully not yours!) my child left the uni with no degree.

He nonetheless did very well the following year and got an apprenticeship at one of the big 4 (accountancy firms) where he is happy and feels successful.

Two things I'd stress. First, in our case there was a major MH crisis going on and we decided, after advice, to concentrate on the MH and work hard at getting that under control.

Minor things such as degrees went by the wayside, and in retrospect I'm glad they did.

Whether or not there's an MH thing going in with your son, he will remember these days vividly and what will count is how supportive he feels you're being. That support may take the form of chivvying, it depends on so many things as to whether that's right.

I had a terrible MH crash at the same age and after thirty years still find it hard to accept how little my parents tried to understand or help.

[seenbeensbean]

@titchy

All universities will have some sort of no detriment policy in place, and students WILL know about it.

That said, all the policies I'm aware of require the student to actually pass any remaining module component. So if he's done say an essay worth 50% of a module before covid, he has to take and pass the remaining post-covid 50%.

Not all of them do