Devastated DD - awful reference

[AnonymousStudentParent]

My undergraduate DD recently asked her Personal Tutor, by email, whether he could be her referee for a summer school (prestigious, with a generous scholarship scheme). She attached a link to the website of the summer school and underscored the information relating to the reference. She didn't hear back from her Personal Tutor immediately but after about 3 weeks he emailed briefly saying he'd already submitted the reference (she had anticipated him getting back to her for clarification on a couple of things she had done that she had mentioned in the email that he didn't know about). Yesterday she had a quick beginning of term meeting with him when he outlined to her the devastating terms of the reference, basically saying she was too young and under qualified for the summer school but a nice hardworking person if they wanted to take a chance on her.

My DD is neither too young nor under qualified for the summer school - quite the contrary, she's very amply qualified (though mostly outside the scope of her degree). It's in an area she is extremely knowledgeable about and she has properly researched the summer school. She spent several days in the Christmas holidays writing the extensive application.

She was too flabbergasted to react (and her time with the PT was up) on the spot. Needless to say, this isn't good for her self-confidence. Any advice to how she goes back to the PT and asks him whether he can spend a few minutes looking at the website and her application and rethink his hasty judgement? The deadline for submission of the application isn't for another couple of weeks.

My DD's Personal Tutor doesn't teach her.

You're expecting far too much of a personal tutor here. Why would he remember that she did her first year in her non-native language if he didn't teach her? I don't think you realise the huge pressures on academics at the moment.

That's not what happened because the crucial information he overlooked about her appropriateness for the course (age and level of qualification) was in the course outline she emailed and she provided 100% of the information requested by her institution in the format they required.

Maybe it would be better to get a reference from someone that teaches her? I routinely had 40-50 personal tutees a term, plus postgraduate students to advise. My tutees changed yearly. There were a few I knew well enough to write a detailed reference for, but not the majority.

Other PTs manage to remember that their students aren't working in their first language.

Can she ask someone else - approach another lecturer - course leader or if she'd done some volunteering in field or work someone there or complain via student rep or course leader.

DH says they aren't allowed to be negative in references as most uni he worked at worry about getting sued - though I suppose not remembering much about student is not quite the same.

I agree in some ways but the normal process in her institution is to ask the PT and he does work in a relevant area.

Right, but in this case it didn't get the result you wanted. If the PT would have said, no, I don't know you well enough, would you still have been upset?

In which case he could have just said 'no, I'm not the right person to give a reference for you.' Not just make one up!

I've just done a Masters and unfortunately there are plenty of academics who do not give a toss about their students and just see teaching as a means to an end to further their own research/studies. Of course there are really fabulous ones too, but others with far more ego than teaching ability, unfortunately.

I wouldn’t remember this I am afraid. I have 40 tutees and while lots of them are from other countries, some of those will have done their school education in the UK. I also have some that are British in terms of citizenship but went to school in another country. There is no way I’d be able to remember off the top of my head who did what.

If the PT had turned her down that would have in fact, thinking about it, given her a legitimate reason for asking someone else she really likes (there are 2 I can think of)

Well, I think most academics care about their students to some extent. I taught 30 years, and I cared...certainly didn't do it for the money. It is just many academics are pretty overloaded right now as 1/3 of universities are undergoing redundancy processes. The sector is not in a good way. That's why I took Voluntary severance and got out.

As per previous poster I would print out all the evidence, both her work record, plus the summer school criteria and candidates of same level and calibre as DD who have attended. Make it as easy as possible to go through and understand the details and ask him to rewrite it based on the new information to hand.

If he says no, I’d be inclined to go higher to his head of department or higher still to the overall deanery.

If your DD was an employee and had been given a bad reference she could sue him. He’s lucky it’s just a student. I’m not sure how the law applies here. All the same, the same standards should apply in my opinion. Tutors should not be giving such damning opinions as to say it’s way over her head. That’s a false statement and potentially defamatory. It’s up to the summer school to make a judgment. Not him.

https://www.farrer.co.uk/news-and-insights/blogs/providing-references-a-reminder-of-the-dos-and-donts/

My DD's department is expanding, recruiting loads of new academics, has lots of new funding.

I agree about the pressures on academics but there are also a lot mainly male academics who genuinely don’t give a shit about pastoral stuff, never reply to student emails and just leave it to their colleagues to sort out. I work with several of them.

So, this is a good lesson for your daughter. Get recommendations from those who know her/like her and can be supportive. I'm sorry it didn't turn out the way you wanted. I've probably written 350 letters at least for students and did my best, but not all of them got their desired wish.

It may be first port of call but she should still be able to ask someone else - they may so no and redirect to PT but she can ask - DH gets asked and he's not a PT this year.

It's possible he just slap dash but could be hiding worse attitudes towards her - if she gets nowhere try someone else.

I find it very unlikely that he has sent in a reference for an application that hasn’t been submitted.It just doesn’t happen that way. Something here does not add up.

I am an academic, plagued by references like everyone else.

I don't understand why people think OP's daughter should follow their particular preferences and instructions for references instead of her own institutions.

It is very reasonable for OP to post here. Her daughter is unlikely to want to post on a form for parents of applicants.

It's very usual to need two academic references, OP, so her department is bound to have somebody who can write another for her.

Students could jump through every hoop and some academics - including me sometimes - would still get things wrong. We are busy, we are stressed etc. So are many of our students. That's life. There is no formula to make things go right every time. But there are usually solutions.

There should be someone who can sort this out - I would expect that OP's daughter would be able to catch people after class to start with. With a second reference this really should be fixable.

Can only speak from my own experience. Most of my tutors were fantastic - inspiring and engaging. One was an absolute idiot. Absolutely giant ego, very obviously not interested in teaching (think he had Covid three times in one semester and couldn't come to class, but was on Twitter talking about playing tennis). Tutors like that do their students a massive disservice.

And among that type, this sort of casual gatekeeping is not unusual.

Right, but there is another thing to think about. Pastoral duties generally do not count for promotion (this is even at some post-92s), and when an institution is making redundancies, and thinking about who is going to go, they look at grant income and publications. I'm not saying that is right, but I know of a few colleagues who lost their jobs because it was thought they were spending too much time on teaching and not enough doing their research.

It's not a lesson because the process in her institution is to ask the PT for the reference. She 100% followed the institution's guidelines.

It could do. Sometimes the reference is to be submitted by email and I would send one off and not faff around contacting the student to see if they’ve submitted their application.

I've done lots where you just send an email - particularly European.

(think he had Covid three times in one semester and couldn't come to class, but was on Twitter talking about playing tennis).

That's really unfair.

But I suppose I could go on about the hundreds of students who've told me over the years that they've got a migraine or "stomach flu" when basically they have a hang over or they can't be arsed.