Final year dissertation disaster

[GatherlyGal]

DC is in their final year. She has autism and has struggled a lot. She IDs as trans and life has been up and down and quite hard at times for about the last 6 years.

Uni has been going great though and all on course for graduation this year. Except as it turns out she has not done her dissertation. I had concerns at Easter but she brushed them off and told me she can get extra time it'll be ok etc.

It all came to a head this week when she handed in her final course work and essays leaving just the dissertation and she had to face the fact she can't do it.

She is very independent in many ways and not great at letting us in when she needs support. She's been lonely and isolated this year (girlfriend is on a year abroad) and I think she may not have been going into Uni much but I don;t know. She has high marks in all other work but will not get the dissertation done so no degree.

She's got a meeting next week with her tutor but I don't know what the options might be. I'd like to be at the meeting (if she will allow and she probably won't) but she's worked hard and done so well and I just don't know how to help to get her over the line so she can come away with a degree.

Any suggestions at all on what options might be or how I can help her very very welcome.

But she hasn't had an illness or accident, she has just procrastinated!

As many university staff have advised on this thread, it will depend on the individual university regulations. At my place, we’d consider the learning disability and level of engagement with supervision tutorials and taught seminars in research methods.

From what @GatherlyGal has said, there’s been a crisis in mental health so that would be considered. We don’t like to fail students, unless they’re obviously taking the mick. This case doesn’t sound like it, although the student doesn’t really seem capable or mature enough for independent work.

A Masters does not seem an appropriate ambition at this point. It’s all very well saying all the prep is done etc etc. But the dissertation is not written. There are possible mitigating circumstances but just not being able to finish a task is not enough - especially when other students have managed to do so (and I’d guess up to a third of those students also have some kind of reasonable adjustments because of learning or other disabilities).

So all those considerations need to be balanced by academic staff.

Thanks for all the comments.

She's having some kind of breakdown and she's gathering the evidence she needs. She has counselling on and off to help with managing the things that she finds hard because of the autism and her therapist is writing a letter.

This has obviously been brewing a long time and yet again I have to accept that she has not told me or DH how bad things are. She has been talking at length to her counsellor about it but of course she's an adult so they don't tell me anything.

Of course she won't be doing a masters! She just needs to graduate one way or another. If she has her mark capped it will be shame but it is what it is.

Sorry you are in this terrible club @Lucelady. We have been through a phase of what you describe - online influence and very unhelpful "support" group but luckily DD has pulled away from that.

At school all the friends were trans or ND or similar and it took up a lot of headspace and energy. That has changed a bit in at Uni in that they are not all trans but there are a lot of mental health issues generally and almost all of her friends have re-done a year or dropped out or some such. She is drawn to other troubled people and I would love her to have a wider outlook and circle but as I discovered a long time ago she will do what she will do!

I can see there are lots of replies so this may have been suggested. Some courses have the dissertation as optional? Or there may be an option to complete and have a later date for the dissertation?

All this, absolutely! I could probably have written a substantial book over the last few years in the time I’ve spent sending emails to ‘disappearing’ dissertation students, alerting their personal tutors so they can check on them, no-shows to meetings etc etc.

One student I actually accosted in the gym after months of attempted contacts from me and her personal tutors — she said she’d stopped checking her university email altogether because it made her feel stressed, and she was afraid it was too late to do anything about her dissertation. I don’t think she’d have submitted at all had I not had a ‘dissertation meeting’ by the peloton bikes! Like a lot of dissertation no shows, she’d just gone into full ostrich panic mode.

We can offer all the support in the world, but a student has to engage with it. If they don’t respond to emails, phone calls, letters to their address inviting them for a chat, are ignoring contacts from their dissertation supervisor, personal tutors, support services etc, there’s very little we can do.

It's frustrating isn't it @ChickenEggChicken And heart breaking - I find it quite upsetting to see students get to this state.