Oxford/Cambridge - current students support/chat thread 2022 - cont

[Panicmode1]

@petitebleu - so sorry to hear about your DS. I hope that some time out over Christmas may help to give him some space and time to think about his next steps.

Thank you @HewasH2O and @mutterphore yes, finishing exams on Friday is very good timing for her 21st birthday weekend! Her college's July graduation date was not available to book for this year's graduating students as it was too early for their results to have been ratified (this is crazy if you ask me), so she had to book graduation for September. I don't know if there are any problems or delays with marking due to industrial action. I don't actually know when they usually get their results - first half of July?

DD reports that her dissertation is being marked with vivas taking place at 9am the day after the college ball, so students have been told to drink no alcohol.

The two exams she sits are not being marked, so no graduation and no degree classification until they are marked.

Shitey ersatz picnic ceremony. There will be NO graduation ceremony for them at all; they can just tag along to next year's ceremony.

I can't believe that academic staff would behave like this. I usually fully support all public sector and transport strikes, as there is the opportunity to find alternative means to procure the service that is being withdrawn, or you may experience a delay. You are not paying for the service that has been withdrawn.

This is very poor behaviour, as these children do not have recourse to alternative jobs and further education that is actually dependent on having a degree. The delay in receiving a grade will be at least 3 months. They have also paid for someone to mark their exams.

...and if that was me, I wouldn't effing leave until I'd got what I'd paid for.

Thanks for that link @HewasH20 . I think it's Cambridge, rather than Oxford that there's more likelihood exams won't be marked in time for graduation.

DS1 (C) has been told that they can still have a graduation ceremony even if exam haven't been marked! How can that happen though as there's no point in a ceremony without actually graduating, post exam marks? That would be completely meaningless. He's already had to book his college graduation date which is very early July and presumably families of international students will already have booked flights and accommodation. So they really do need to know soon whether or not this is going to be a legitimate graduation.

@CinnamonJellyBeans I agree with your sentiments, even though I do understand also the need for conditions and pay to change for uni staff. I just wish we knew exactly what was happening.

I'm being very laissez-faire as far as DD and her French Master in Paris is concerned, so she doesn't pick up on it, but angry in real life

*masters

I didn't mean to sound dismissive @CinnamonJellyBeans. DD is going through hell at the moment, having struggled with her MH throughout her degree. She has another 7 papers to go and it's hard to see beyond 6 June at the moment.

Does anyone know if some Cambridge subjects are being marked and others not or is it all students now suffering delays?

@JulesJules a lovely double celebration for your DD!

DS (C) hasn’t said anything about the impact of strikes. Whether that is because his degree mark won’t be affected or he is just so focussed on finals that he hasn’t the headspace to say anything to us I don’t know. His degree ceremony is booked and his college have sent out invitations for post ceremony refreshments.

Hi all! DD at C starts exams Tuesday. She hasn't mentioned anything more about the industrial action. I've tried to get something from the Vice Chancellor's Office and was hoping for something along the lines of that Oxford notice. But they just sent a link that I can't access as I'm not part of the uni and have not responded any further. I do have sympathy for the lecturers but impacting final year students like this seems callous and excessive. They get one chance of a degree, and most will need their grades for grad schemes etc. As pp said, it's not like there is an alternative they can use.

Nonetheless, graduation is booked. I'm just not sure what we will actually be celebrating 🤔

Oh, and in response to @mutterphore, I believe the impact is likely to vary by faculty like it will between Universities, depending on unionised and radical the faculty is. DD's is pretty hard core unionised, so she will be badly impacted. In a way, while it is good some won't be affected, it leaves those left without a degree, for who knows how long but could be months i guess, even more disadvantaged. And as far as I know there aren't even negotiations taking place currently.

Huge sympathy @HewasH20 for the MH struggles.

I would also like to know which faculties are taking part in the marking and assessment boycott. The lack of transparency makes the situation much worse than it needs to be.

Completely agree @pantjog.

@Catsrcool69 well done for at least trying to get more information about the strikes for the VC office, even if it didn't lead to anything more than we already know.

It would be so helpful if they produced a list of subjects/ faculties which were still doing marking and which aren't. What will international students do about extending visas based on progressing to further study or jobs, dependent on degree grades? Given the extra costs of tuition for them too, it must feel particularly upsetting not to have their work marked, after so many years of study.

Am I correct in thinking that a a student can't legitimately graduate, even if there's a pseudo-ceremony at Senate House, without actually having their exams marked and an allotted degree classification? If that's the case, why bother with the ceremony? Does this also mean that students will then be done out of their proper graduation later on, if and when exams are marked because the powers that be will claim they had their 'time in the sun' at Senate House before actually getting a degree?

@mutterphore I fear its going to be a rather odd and flat graduation ceremony without actual degrees. So tough on a cohort that has already endured the impact of Covid. I also doubt they will be given another opportunity once they actually get their grades.

DD says no Senate House, just the chapel. If you want Senate House, you have to go with the next cohort in 2024.

She says there may be predicted grades, which probably means a 2:1 for her, which is fine, that's all she's going for. So that's OK for UK jobs and masters/phD, but I'm not sure whether we can sort out a French visa for her on that. Anyone who can offer advice on French visas, please do so!

DD (C) said that she got an email yesterday saying that exams wouldn’t be marked in time for June graduation so they could either ‘graduate’ in June with a blank piece of paper of wait until September to graduate with the classification certificate. This years cohort have had such a crap deal with Covid etc and she has really struggled with MH. This just seems the icing on the cake that she will start her exams next week knowing she won’t be able to officially graduate in June. We have hotels booked that can be moved but she said that 90% of her friends are all doing June so the September ceremony will be a much small affair. So rubbish for them all :(

I am confused as to whether this is college or subject based?
@CinnamonJellyBeans, have all graduands at your DD’s college been told a “proper” graduation isn’t happening or is it subject dependent?

@ofteninaspin , that's what I'm wondering too. Have some colleges paid for external examiners to mark all student pares or have some faculties done this - or perhaps don't have staff involved in strikes - or are all students in the same boat but some haven't yet had this clarified?

DS1 (C) seems to think that his college is going to have a graduation in July as planned but that there 'might be some delay' with having exams marked but he doesn't seem clear as to whether this would then mean a 'fake' graduation - ie without a degree - or if they expect exams to be marked in time but just by another set of exam markers or what. What's clear is the sheer lack of clarity between colleges and subjects.

Meanwhile, DS2 (O) has been told not to worry and that they'll 'pay for people to mark the exams' so that all students can graduate as normal.

Greetings, all. DD1 has the 5th of her 10 papers today. So glad that she’s halfway. What a slog.

Meanwhile DD2 has had a tech nightmare with submitting prelims papers. The faculty seems a bit clueless and made them open new gmail accounts so that they could submit their work anonymously… and the music software provided wasn’t right so DD had to export her work to a “dodgy” website in order to convert it to an MP3 file. All a bit nightmarish and I can’t imagine having to wrestle with that at finals level…

That is a slog @pantjog. I hope they are are not all three hours long?
DS’s exams started yesterday, another today and eight more days to go. At least it’s over pretty quickly.

DS (1st year Mathematics at C) takes his first exam of 4 - all 3 hours - the day after tomorrow with a week's 'break' until the following trio. In that interregnum we plan to take him out to lunch (and only that) to see him properly fed and see he is Ok as far as we can. As nothing compared to this year's finalists to whom I extend my best wishes, and my respect.

Ds's girlfriend also had a tech nightmare with submitting her paper after a 5 hour exam. Makes me very grateful it was just pen and paper back in the day.

3/8 through. Have sent Colin Caterpillar brownies to mark the half way point tomorrow. This time next weekday 7.30pm it will all be over.