Help! University not processing transcript so son can't apply for Masters degree.

[rosiethehen]

Ds completed his degree this year and was awarded a First. He wishes to start a Masters this autumn, but his applications are stalled due to his university not forwarding a pdf of his transcript to prove he has actually graduated. One of his application deadlines is next week.

He has contacted his tutors and the department responsible, but nobody appears to be interested.

He is also planning on applying to the Civil Service this autumn and it may affect this process as well.

Please, does anybody have any advice on what to do?

DD applied
For this masters last December requested her degree confirmation certificate the day after her results this was the end of July - still hasn't arrived . Other oversubscribed Uni are insisting it being uploaded to their portal
Before confirming her place.
She's not assuming fthat because she went to Oxford they won't turn her down . Module
Selection starts next week so this delay will cost her , if not her place then possibly her module choice .

She should email the course director/leader/coordinator (all different names in different institutions for the same person) directly. Mark the email urgent and make sure it has application issue, the name of the course, and urgent in the subject line.

Oh wow, another thread bashing ‘lazy, feckless, university staff’. It’s been a complete nightmare to adjust overnight to entirely online teaching, to somehow classify, ratify, and award degrees without exams, and to sort out all the graduation paperwork without access to the buildings/working only remotely. Everyone is now focussed on delivery for next year, lecturers are frantically recording content, admissions staff are sorting out the admissions fiasco. And I agree with the comments about doubling up - both exams and admissions have core teams but when we get to graduation and clearing there is an expectation that staff members from other registry departments will pitch in and help. It’s something I actually enjoy doing because they are high energy times. At the moment, large numbers of university staff are frantically trying to take some annual leave because most of us have had none since the pandemic started, and our leave year ends at the end of September. Most of us will lose the majority of our leave (which is ok, many people up and down the country are also having that issue), but some break is necessary. And to top it all, we have gone into voluntary severance, so are losing staff all over the place.

Flamingo, I know it is hard. I do think some priority should be given to getting these mark transcripts to those who need them and to do it urgently.

On annual leave I have not had a night away all year nor any holiday and have not had furlough ( I am not an employee), not had self employed covid 19 help (as earn over £50k before tax), no universal credit (have savings) and not in the 50% of workers now being paid by the state ie by tax payers. Anyway lots of people have had a very hard year and I am sure I will get some sort of holiday next year so am not complaining and at least I am not ill.

I've found some of the things said about university staff on here over the last few months really depressing.
Every person I know working at a university has never been so busy and lots of us have been doing this with no childcare and the added pressure of home schooling.

I think it's amazing what the sector has managed to achieve in such a short amount of time. Turning entire courses into a blended learning offer is no small feat and we've done this while supporting existing students and recruiting new ones. Not to mention the practicalities if how we're actually going to manage any on campus activity. All of this alongside constantly changing government policy ( some of which seems to actively work against the the sector and certain types of universities)

Most universities have a system where students can download their own marks and transcripts as pdfs.

Those that don’t will presumably look to change that if they find it’s impacting students.

Instead of failing at the hard pressed admin person or lecturer, how about directing your ire at the senior management who never see a student, and are responsible for the crappy systems that don’t work for the students or the staff?

Please support your ds to apply for disabled student allowance including funds for a mentor.

Mine has been so helpful during my MSc.

A mentor could help with situations like this because they often have a good understanding of the systems.

Absolutely @SuperLoudPoppingAction The support at my place for students is excellent - very centred on maximising the student’s ability to do the best they can.

@Xenia most university staff in the professional services will have salaries that are less than half of what you earn. Ok so there will be another tranche off staff in the £25k-£35k region but the bulk of registry is driven by staff earning £18k-£25k. They are hugely undervalued. Most of us have also been struggling with kids at home (just like everyone else). I’m not saying we have it harder than anyone tbh, just hate this idea that we swan around and do nothing.

The holiday thing is driven from the top. We’ve been told we can’t carry leave, they won’t pay us for it, and that we need to take some so that we don’t burn out. It’s frustrating because I’m taking the bulk mine in September, but the uni is operating on a skeleton staff right now. The OP’s issue seems to actually be her son not using his initiative (possibly compounded by SN) but the solution is to bash the university staff.

Universities have been furloughing staff left right and centre to save money, so far fewer staff, WFH, everyone at burn out. Take your leave or lose it, oh and in my case 2 extra days leave in August (uni closure) as a thank you - not sure how we are meant to catch up on the work though...

Many universities are huge and unweildy and those at the top have little idea about how professional services operate at the lower levels. Stuck in the bygone years of not running like a "business" I was very shocked when I moved into the sector after being a civil servant, was like going back 2 decades 😳

@rosiethehen I hope your DS gets sorted, please make contact with student support at his new uni. The government funds Disability/SEN support to the university so encourage him to access it.

At one uni I worked at, during admissions cycle, I was the only trained member of registry staff for 4 full days due to staff sickness And I was a temp on 16890.

He needs to apply without the transcript. I've been reviewing applications over this last month and about 1/3 are missing documentation. No big deal.

Basically the admissions office sends it to the teaching /academic staff and we reply saying "conditional on transcript." This means you haven't missed our deadline.

If the computer doesn't let him apply without uploading something, then use the "notes" function on an iPhone/iPad or equivalent to scan whatever document he has into a pdf. Certificate, for example. We'd accept that, not a screenshot.

And as a weekly temp, I was sitting on the Friday not knowing if I had a job to come to on Monday and wasn’t told til 3.45 that I did.

What kind of loyalty did I have? Only my own professionalism kept me caring about the students. But there were many temps who were left to do jobs that were vital to the student experience who felt undervalued and unappreciated and frankly I don’t blame them.

Take your leave or lose it, oh and in my case 2 extra days leave in August (uni closure) as a thank you - not sure how we are meant to catch up on the work though

Oh yes! we've been given an extra "rest day" in August. But as an academic, it's actually really difficult to take leave. It's not as if my work stops or someone else does it when I take a day off. There's just twice the amount to do the next day.

@ItalianHat

Take your leave or lose it, oh and in my case 2 extra days leave in August (uni closure) as a thank you - not sure how we are meant to catch up on the work though

Oh yes! we've been given an extra "rest day" in August. But as an academic, it's actually really difficult to take leave. It's not as if my work stops or someone else does it when I take a day off. There's just twice the amount to do the next day.

Exactly. I've 'taken' my leave but worked every single day of it

I ended working all through our Easter week closure as a lowly paid prof services meanwhile one of the senior managers complaining he didn't know how to fill his time whilst furloughed on 100% pay for a month...

I have not burned out with no holiday all year but then I never get paid holiday anyway. Nor by the way has my key worker son (at least not taken much holiday ) who delivers groceries for about £23k a year and has never been as busy. I think he did take a week's annual leave at home when we were due to have our one week a year holiday in June that was cancelled, but may have been called in to work part of that week.

Anyway CV19 is a difficult time for all kinds of people most of those who have died and those who have lost their jobs so the rest of us are very lucky I suppose and yes I recognise that a lot of non tenured university staff are losing jobs as indeed are loads of people. We are nearly back up to the 3m unemployed we had in 1982 when I graduated which in its day was the worst for 50 years. Actually as we had 16m people fewer in the UK when I was born than now I suppose the 3m in 1982 is worse than 3m would be here but even so it is going to be pretty gruesome for many as the depression takes hold.

@Xenia

I have not burned out with no holiday all year but then I never get paid holiday anyway. Nor by the way has my key worker son (at least not taken much holiday ) who delivers groceries for about £23k a year and has never been as busy. I think he did take a week's annual leave at home when we were due to have our one week a year holiday in June that was cancelled, but may have been called in to work part of that week.

Anyway CV19 is a difficult time for all kinds of people most of those who have died and those who have lost their jobs so the rest of us are very lucky I suppose and yes I recognise that a lot of non tenured university staff are losing jobs as indeed are loads of people. We are nearly back up to the 3m unemployed we had in 1982 when I graduated which in its day was the worst for 50 years. Actually as we had 16m people fewer in the UK when I was born than now I suppose the 3m in 1982 is worse than 3m would be here but even so it is going to be pretty gruesome for many as the depression takes hold.

Do you get a medal off Boris for not taking leave?

@Xenia

I have not burned out with no holiday all year but then I never get paid holiday anyway. Nor by the way has my key worker son (at least not taken much holiday ) who delivers groceries for about £23k a year and has never been as busy. I think he did take a week's annual leave at home when we were due to have our one week a year holiday in June that was cancelled, but may have been called in to work part of that week.

Anyway CV19 is a difficult time for all kinds of people most of those who have died and those who have lost their jobs so the rest of us are very lucky I suppose and yes I recognise that a lot of non tenured university staff are losing jobs as indeed are loads of people. We are nearly back up to the 3m unemployed we had in 1982 when I graduated which in its day was the worst for 50 years. Actually as we had 16m people fewer in the UK when I was born than now I suppose the 3m in 1982 is worse than 3m would be here but even so it is going to be pretty gruesome for many as the depression takes hold.

Bully for you. Have you been working full time while homeschooling a 5 year old? I bloody love my job but this has been the hardest 6 months of my career. I run 2 masters and I'm the only person working on both of them. I'm responsible for ALL teaching, marking, recruitment and admissions. At one point this included close 100 students.

My husband is a director at another university so he's being under as much pressure.

So yes, I'm bloody burnt out.

I think one of the problematic things about being an academic is that it’s a ‘lifestyle’ job - that means there are quite blurred boundaries between home and work, and most of us work far in excess of our agreed contracted hours. The pandemic has made this so much worse because we’ve had every waking moment taken over by homeschooling/caring/working/keeping house. My day starts at 6am and finishes at 11 or midnight. For the past 6 months I have been either working or educating or looking after children continuously (or preparing one of the seemingly never ending meals).

I know the keyworkers have been run ragged, but many of them are working outside of the house so have that work separation at least. For anyone working at home that divide is not so easy to enforce.

@Flamingolingo

I think one of the problematic things about being an academic is that it’s a ‘lifestyle’ job - that means there are quite blurred boundaries between home and work, and most of us work far in excess of our agreed contracted hours. The pandemic has made this so much worse because we’ve had every waking moment taken over by homeschooling/caring/working/keeping house. My day starts at 6am and finishes at 11 or midnight. For the past 6 months I have been either working or educating or looking after children continuously (or preparing one of the seemingly never ending meals).

I know the keyworkers have been run ragged, but many of them are working outside of the house so have that work separation at least. For anyone working at home that divide is not so easy to enforce.

Absolutely this. You are judged personally on your work and it becomes a huge part of your identity.

No, I have not been home schooling and I know how almost impossible it must be for those not rich enough to hire a student or childminder to look after the child. I do know how it would be. IIt is better than no income and no job or being ill and losing your house but still very hard.
I have worked from home since 1994 and the first thing i had was a locking door to keep small children out but more importantly child care. I know how lucky I am and also I just wanted to praise Bristol university who other than the strikes have managed very well.

@Xenia

No, I have not been home schooling and I know how almost impossible it must be for those not rich enough to hire a student or childminder to look after the child. I do know how it would be. IIt is better than no income and no job or being ill and losing your house but still very hard. I have worked from home since 1994 and the first thing i had was a locking door to keep small children out but more importantly child care. I know how lucky I am and also I just wanted to praise Bristol university who other than the strikes have managed very well.

You are so out of touch with the real world- do you do this deliberately to wind people up?

I could afford childcare but there was none available- literally zero options. Where are these mythical students desperate to care for and homeschool children? There certainly aren't any where I live. As for childminders.... round her you need to get your name down when you're pregnant to secure any kind of childcare.

I have a study with a lock as WFH is usually a perk of an academic job- unfortunately I've had to let my husband use this as he is in back to back, high level meetings all day so needs the privacy ( he's very grateful and has made up for it in other ways so I'm not moaning about him)
This means I'm in the kitchen - so get interrupted regularly. DS is 5 and while independent he's still only small and needs attention.

I'm extremely grateful to have a job but surely you can understand why some of us might be struggling?

@SueEllenMishke you’ve been way more polite than I was going to be!

@Xenia you’re being deliberately obtuse. You clearly are very well off and also don’t have any small children at home, which means that you don’t really have any idea what parents of young/primary aged children have faced. I was actually paying for childcare that I was unable to access for over two months. And even if there were childminders with space, they weren’t taking children, and we weren’t meant to have people in so that means no random/unvetted students either.

Jesus, I thought I was out of touch at times but you seem incapable of understanding the real world