Durham University

[KingscoteStaff]

The continuation thread for those with DC at Durham, or applying to Durham, or alumni, or staff!

September 2021 finds us packing, unpacking, meeting old friends and new, and all with our fingers firmly crossed for a positive year!

Thank you @Braveheart35. Will pass on info to DS

@user1468917781 that is disappointing for your daughter , I also think she should contact her academic advisor .

DD hoping that she will be accepted for a module but the majority are full now so slim pickings .
She has enjoyed both on line and F2F lectures today which is great.

@Braveheart35 Well done , I am pleased they are aware now of the impact their disorganisation is having .

And yes @Braveheart35 - thank you for airing the grievances to the history dept

user1468917781 I'm going out on a limb here but - knowing a little of Durham and course changes - I would strongly suggest that your DD goes down to the English Dept physically, tomorrow, and tries to speak to someone to make her a case - but she will need to be able to a) bag an appropriate person and b) articulate her case well. Check out the departmental website to work out who it is that is she should see.

This year sounds a complete mess in the most popular departments. History has never been the slickest at organisation. No idea why. It's a great department on the teaching front, just always seems disorganised administratively.

T

Did she get a high grade in A level English user1468917781? It will help if she has an A*.

Apologies for typos.

@user1468917781 that's interesting. I'm following this as dd wants Durham next year to do liberal arts in Spanish and English. Interesting that they might offer an alternative course, but only good if they allocate what they offer...

This year is obviously a bit of a horror show NCTDN, due to exceptional circumstances. Going down the personal tutor route would be the route advised generally, but will almost certainly result is sympathetic hand wringing, since the tutors will all be under pressure to make things work/ not rock a fragile boat. If a student is particularly determined to do a particular module, for good reasons that they can articulate well, then a more direct approach will be needed this year. Indeed as it is even in ordinary years.

More apologies. Trying to type on a phone while also trying to cook with lots of pans boiling over! basically, module issues need to be sorted asap after the course starts, or lost lectures become a reason for refusal.

Thanks for the advice everyone. It’s awful sitting at home feeling helpless and she’s adamant she doesn’t want me to interfere but I may have to make a couple of calls tomorrow. It’s a shambles and as with most things at the moment they will put it down to Covid which seems to be a get out of jail free card

Dd also not had her campus card or loan yet. She is hopeful the card will arrive tomorrow from what she has been told.

Your DD needs to go to the central admin department or whatever it is called and ask them to check her registration status and ask if her attendance on the course has been confirmed and if not find out why not as without this she won’t receive her student loan. Also ask if they can tell her who to contact to her ensure she receives her card asap
as without it she can’t access full uni services.

@goodbyestranger yes she got A* in English and is very good at arguing!!

Yes user1468917781 I suspect that there will be lots of hand wringing etc. I would try very hard to respect your DD's wishes about not interfering. If she can get down to the department and make a case herself then that's her best shot. You getting involved might well backfire.

Cross post. Splendid! That's the basics covered then :) Maybe suggest she tried to identify the two module co-ordinators/ tutors in charge.

I'm seriously giving up with this phone. Tries not tried. Grr.

@goodbyestranger surely that will only work if the dept is open , most posters seem to be saying that the physical depts are still closed with staff working from home

I’m assuming that the departments can’t be locked up, although it might well be that (for some reason I can’t quite fathom), the admin staff are rotating in.

If departments are properly closed then the whole uni has gone nuts.

I doubt whole depts are actually closed more likely working with skeleton staff in who are in maybe working behind the scenes maybe not seeing students face 2 face (with other support staff at home on a rota or if CEV). Staff are probably contactable by email and via their screens rather than usual office numbers.

it is a logistical challenge for staff and departments too - having to ensure they can deliver f2f and online, allocating space for lectures safely, changing lecture flows to allow for additional cleaning time in rooms, massive increase in tutorial support etc etc. Staff are generally and genuinely excited to be teaching f2f and yet it is not without its problems that they are trying to manage as best they can.

@myrtleWilson I would have sympathised with this if this was their predicament last year. However, they have had long enough to plan for this. Just like every other business.

I am absolutely livid about Durham's blithering incompetence on so many levels. Their whole application process was shambolic but I felt confident that all would be ok when DS arrived. But how wrong I was! He's been there 10 days and still doesn't have a timetable. As a result of this, his maintenance loan has been withheld so he has no money either.

His emails to the history department and his college principal are being ignored repeatedly. It's a complete shit show.

@myrtleWilson I have defended Durham a lot on these threads but honestly they have known that this would happen since Gavin Williamson announced the cancellation of exams in January. At that point pretty much everyone knew that the majority would get their predicted grades and they effectively had three choices

1. Vastly reduce their offer:acceptance model ( say down from 3:1 to 1.5:1) therefore reducing offers made . Would have been dubious on equity grounds but would have ensured they could cope
2. Gear up for the extra numbers including extra admin staff , sourcing accommodation etc
3. Bury their heads in the sand and rest on their laurels and blame everyone else including the students and the academic staff who are left dealing with the mess whilst still taking the extra money .

They appear to have chosen option 3 , they are not the only university to have done this but that doesn’t make it ok. The students have accepted their offers in good faith, none of this situation is their fault.

Yes myrtleWilson, tutors are for the most part bound to be excited to return to f2f but the system is obviosly at bursting point in the popular departments in Durham, and that's why I wrote that tutors will all be under pressure to make things work/ not rock a fragile boat.

It's for exactly that reason that I suggested direct action is probably the only way to go, in a situation where it's not a different module on offer, but no modules - that's really difficult.

Peaseblossum is absolutely right about the cash grab with seemingly no effective plan in place. The tutors' enthusiasm is rather secondary at the moment.

To be fair MidLifeCrisis, your DS's email are probably not being ignored so much as being several miles down the inbox of both recipients.