Repeating 2nd Year Due to Compromised Learning in Lockdown

[Charliesunnysky10]

My son is a second year university student who had a brilliant first year, achieving firsts in semesters 1 and 2 (he didn't have a 3rd in year 1 so wasn't affected so much in his first year. Lockdown then meant he had to stay at his digs which is a tiny room, because he is on the minimum maintenance loan.
He battled to keep his scores high, despite being lonely and not allowed to come home to see us, or visit the gym, which had helped to lift his spirits. The lack of face to face interaction and regular visits into the university has made it so difficult for him to study.

He has to sleep, study and have down time in the same tiny 14 x 10' space, and it's a big difference from the regularity of going into uni to work with face to face contact and peers to bounce off.

He is struggling now, going from a first in T1 to a second in T2 and he says not expected even to scrape a second in T3. He says he's disappointed with the work in his portfolio because it's not up to the standard he was achieving when enriched by visiting uni, and face to face tutoring.

The isolation is making it difficult to find inspiration and energy to produce the high standard he achieved in his first year and given that he stammers, he needs a stellar portfolio to have a chance at impressing employers versus other applicants whose portfolio wasn't compromised by lockdown and lack of support.

He is talking of re taking the year and has contacted SFE to ask if this can be done.

Anybody else going through this or have experience?

I'm really concerned about him - he's kept it together for so long but broke down this weekend. He finds it difficult to seek help.

His fixed thinking does not bode well for him as a successful student, or in a future career, unfortunately.

But he will need to learn that himself - possibly quite painfully.

If he expects you to pay for a repeated year, can you make it a condition that he talk to his personal tutor - online, so you can accidentally on purpose overhear it?

If one of my tutees came to me with this plan:,
I would give him information about the university regs (as @Mxflamingnoravera* says, they should be publicly available on the university website - make sure you check the intake year to which they apply)

• I would clock the inflexible thinking & suggest that this is self-sabotaging & not a strategy for success in the future
• I would look at his marks so far and talk him through the actual consequences of these
• I would talk about the very common phenomenon of 2nd year marks going down in comparison to 1st year
• I would send him to a) the Careers Service to get some professional advice about the reality of the stammer working against him (ie none - we have disability legislation for a start); then I would recommend b) university Counselling service (which I imagine he would hate )

I sympathise @Charliesunnysky10 but I also think he's not going to be a particularly good colleague/employee with this sort of attitude and approach to his work (hackneyed question about either anxiety? or ASD?)

From my experience staffs are very good on student support and want students to do well. It might be worth you contacting student services for advice on who he needs to contact and what to say.

The only way he can repeat the year in full with "wiped marks" at Staffs is if he has less than 60 credits in the stage he is at and this would prevent him from progressing to the next stage. Their regs are horrid to navigate.

The regs are clearly aimed at getting students to progress to the next year not prevent them from doing so.

They state: "Assessment First Time on TimeIf you want to be the best you can, and kick-start your career at the earliest opportunity, you need to complete your course on time. This means succeeding in your assessment. To get better marks and improve your final award you need to submit and pass all work on time, first time, by the deadlines set. "

www.staffs.ac.uk/students/course-administration/academic-policies-and-regulations/docs/pdf/academic-regulations.pdf

@thesandwich

From my experience staffs are very good on student support and want students to do well. It might be worth you contacting student services for advice on who he needs to contact and what to say.

I did this. Got a rather curt reply about student needs to contact them, not mum.

However I told them he wouldn't reach out to them as he wants to avoid discourse about the subject and is feeling low so no drive to seek help.

They contacted him with a list of suggestions he said very similar to the ones I'd forward from the great suggestions here about sleep, protein etc.

But didn't engage in anything beyond that. He might be difficult to engage/talk to perhaps.

I've been a bit disappointed in Student services. They were helpful in the weeks before he became a fresher, when he just arrived, but when he really needed the help, they were difficult to contact- probably busier with students who are actively seeking them out.

[quote Mxflamingnoravera]The only way he can repeat the year in full with "wiped marks" at Staffs is if he has less than 60 credits in the stage he is at and this would prevent him from progressing to the next stage. Their regs are horrid to navigate.

The regs are clearly aimed at getting students to progress to the next year not prevent them from doing so.

They state: "Assessment First Time on TimeIf you want to be the best you can, and kick-start your career at the earliest opportunity, you need to complete your course on time. This means succeeding in your assessment. To get better marks and improve your final award you need to submit and pass all work on time, first time, by the deadlines set. "

www.staffs.ac.uk/students/course-administration/academic-policies-and-regulations/docs/pdf/academic-regulations.pdf[/quote]
Can't thank you enough for this. I'll forward it to him now and ask if we can chat this evening. Much appreciated x

Sorry to hear that. It must be so frustrating if he won’t engage. I wonder what more they can do if he won’t.
Must be so hard to watch happening. Have you seen him face to face?

@thesandwich

Sorry to hear that. It must be so frustrating if he won’t engage. I wonder what more they can do if he won’t. Must be so hard to watch happening. Have you seen him face to face?

Yes, he looked very careworn. The lack of social contact has taken its toll. He was carried along the first half of his first year before March 2020, into getting out and engaging with the world as he isn't a natural socialite. But once we locked down and all that stopped, he retreated from social situations and became reclusive.

I've been a bit disappointed in Student services. They were helpful in the weeks before he became a fresher, when he just arrived, but when he really needed the help, they were difficult to contact- probably busier with students who are actively seeking them out.

It's widely acknowledged that student services are under intense pressure. £9.2k doesn't actually cover the cost of most undergraduates (that 'tuition' fee pays for all the services students need or demand, plus paying the electricity bill, maintaining the buildings etc etc etc).

And really, university services can only help those who actively seek them out.

[quote Mxflamingnoravera]The only way he can repeat the year in full with "wiped marks" at Staffs is if he has less than 60 credits in the stage he is at and this would prevent him from progressing to the next stage. Their regs are horrid to navigate.

The regs are clearly aimed at getting students to progress to the next year not prevent them from doing so.

They state: "Assessment First Time on TimeIf you want to be the best you can, and kick-start your career at the earliest opportunity, you need to complete your course on time. This means succeeding in your assessment. To get better marks and improve your final award you need to submit and pass all work on time, first time, by the deadlines set. "

www.staffs.ac.uk/students/course-administration/academic-policies-and-regulations/docs/pdf/academic-regulations.pdf[/quote]
Just had a chat with him on the phone.

He's calculated he's on 56 credits and can't see how they'll be able to bump his scores up sufficiently with the troubles he's had with support through Lockdown, even though he's a disabled student.
I'm worried he's going to 'throw' the rest of the course this year, just as they're going back 2 face-to-face teaching in a couple of weeks. He feels like his two friends who quit in September are going to have have so much better chance to come away with a First because they're going to have the benefit of face-to-face teaching all of next year along with all the inspiration and energy that that brings, whereas he feels like he struggled all of this year with poor quality lacklustre provision and if he'd just quit in September and bummed around like his 2 mates, he'd be in a better position. He says they'll get to go to all the course field trips to expo's and conferences to get the inspiration for their portfolios (You use these to impress employers), that he never got the chance to do because of Covid. And he's feeling more down than ever.

I don't know what to say to help.

I've offered to help him write a letter but not sure who's be best to direct it to.

There should be details on line of who to contact in his course handbook.
Tutor, director of studies- is he getting support from the uni as a disabled student?
I can understand his reasoning re opportunities. But they are not certain next year either.
It must be so hard for you. 🌺

Thank you so much. We'll go with that. I think it's a long shot but he's willing to try. I feel like he's done so well to battle on when others quit, but they're getting a 2nd chance to achieve their potential. And he isn't.

56 Credits seems and odd number for nearly a year of study. At staffs the modules are usually The credit rating of all undergraduate modules is normally either 10 or a multiple of 10. If he has 3 x 20 credit modules to submit in the next few months it would not bring him up to the 120 that is normal for UG courses. I dont know how he has gone about calculating his credits. If he has passed his modules thus far it is likely to be at 60 credits not 56. Passing the module earns the credits regardless of grades. If he were to drop out now (interrupt his studies) he could probably return next year for the modules he has not already submitted but not the ones he has already taken.

@Mxflamingnoravera

56 Credits seems and odd number for nearly a year of study. At staffs the modules are usually The credit rating of all undergraduate modules is normally either 10 or a multiple of 10. If he has 3 x 20 credit modules to submit in the next few months it would not bring him up to the 120 that is normal for UG courses. I dont know how he has gone about calculating his credits. If he has passed his modules thus far it is likely to be at 60 credits not 56. Passing the module earns the credits regardless of grades. If he were to drop out now (interrupt his studies) he could probably return next year for the modules he has not already submitted but not the ones he has already taken.

Thank you. I've asked him to recalculate. He couldn't find contact details for Director of Studies, so has emailed the general support at Staffs to request a repeat of Y2, citing the extenuating circumstances of a lockdown during a pandemic making it impossible to achieve his potential.

His scores were 90% and 98% for the 2 terms of Y1 and while Y2 is more challenging, going from being top of the class to scraping by and a lacklustre portfolio due to being locked down and unable to attend the expo's that every other year would get inspiring content from.

And yet his 2 friends who quit in September and bummed around all year get a clean slate, and he has battled on in isolation, locked down with uninspiring zoom learning, now has his chance of achieving his potential slashed.

It's an absolute disgrace that he isn't being given the same chance as those who threw in the towel.