Hi,
I’m in the final year of a work sponsored degree and have my final exams in May. I became pregnant in summer 2022, and had a horrific pregnancy with lots of complication and was signed off work for most of it, so I missed the tuition for most of the academic year 2022-23. I then went on maternity leave in February 2023, and am due to return in a few weeks.
My preference would’ve been to repeat the final year starting this September, but was informed that would not be possible. This left me with no option but to self teach the final year while on maternity, which has been pretty disastrous as you can imagine, and I’m quite behind.
I decided to spend my savings on some tuition to help me along, and because I’m a bit too honest, mentioned this in a catch up meeting with the university. They ummmmed and ahhhhhhd over whether this was acceptable because it may raise ‘integrity issues’ even though I made it very clear the tuition is with a reputable provider and would stop weeks before the final assessments.
I’ve had virtually no tuition for the final year modules and am now expected to walk in after maternity and take the exams. Without some extra help and guidance I will fail - it’s a heavy subject and not the kind of thing you can wing.
What would you do? What are my rights here? I feel very defeated by the whole thing and being made to feel I’m doing something wrong, when I’m just trying to make up for the lack of teaching and guidance on their part.