Failing design based MA - what to do next

[DeeBeeCee]

Not me, DD, who is distraught.

Long story short. DD did theatre design BA. She has worked since but not enough to sustain her full time.

She decided to do an MA in Interior Design but has failed one of the component parts. It came as a shock as the tutor did not bring her attention to anything that suggested she was failing.

She is despondent and thinks she should quit. I think she should complain to the college about setting her up for failure, but anyway.

Has anyone got any suggestions about alternative arts based careers? She is dyslexic and not terribly academic.

Just giving your post a helpful bump

Whoa. What she should do is talk to them and see if she can make up the part she did poorly in, not true in the towel! I don't know how masters work here but I'm sure there must be something she can do so she can still get a qualification? She needs to get experience and it's her portfolio that will get her jobs - I don't think a masters is absolutely needed. Do they not have a careers service?

I think they should have alerted her to the possible failure first and give her chance to sort it out. She’s paying for it.

I might be tempted to ask her if she needed me to support her in chatting to the college about it. I realise she is an adult but if she is feeling so down about it a bit of parental advocacy could help.

And if she wants to potentially move fields she needs to look at her skills, strengths and maybe more importantly her interests - what sparks her real desire. Has she been doing interior design due to a burning love of it? Maybe she chose the wrong area. If you're inspired by whatever you're learning then you're much more likely to succeed.

Thank you. She spoke to her tutor who gave her pointers on what to work on.

I am still pretty mad as she thought she had fulfilled what was asked of her and was devastated as the feedback was a complete assassination and rather nasty in phrasing. I would normally expect if a student was failing it would not come as a shock.

I think she should make a complaint but she doesn’t want to rock the boat.

She has a loan and scholarships for the fees, so paying to be abused basically.

There are a lot of overseas students paying £40k fees. Some have a very poor grasp of English. I wonder if they are treated like that!

@DeeBeeCee I would possibly raise it with the head of department, or if not, someone else, maybe someone in charge of pastoral services? It is a bit strange so if she could get a second opinion on the work I am sure they could tell her if the grading is accurate.

@yasssr

I think what happened was that 3 of them graded it and while her own tutor seemed to think her work was fine, it was savaged by the other two. I am not sure that a regrade would work. It is more that she did or didn’t do certain things on the advice of her own tutor which has led to this.

Her tutor did give her advice on what to do to try and salvage her work, but she is doubting her own abilities.

She is still devastated. Thinking of quitting and was in tears at work yesterday. I will encourage her to speak to pastoral care. The college is still on vacation next week.

@DeeBeeCee well, whatever the situation it does not sound as though she has received appropriate support or tuition - and perhaps her tutor is the one at fault here for not providing it (at least to an extent). I would suggest speaking to the student advisor type body or person. Surely it is in the interest of the university for its students to complete their courses and offer correct guidance? Hard for her to go through but worth speaking to someone else (not one of the grading tutors) to explain and see what could be done.

Thanks @yasssr She has decided to approach her personal tutor in the first instance rather than student support. Unfortunately it’s vacation until the end of next week but hopefully she can get hold of him.