Help advice needed re really poor uni admin screw ups

[RhubarbandC]

Help my son is at a pretty well thought of uni. He is ND and also struggling with his MH. Last summer he got EC and did 2 resists which he passed well. This enabled him to continue on to the 3rd year of an MEng this year. He had an email confirming this.Unfortunately they made an admin mistake and unrolled him for a few weeks so he started his dissertation 4 weeks late and don’t get the subject he was expecting. He didn’t have a great year mentally and the above didn’t help but managed to submit his dissertation and do his final exams this year .Needs to do 2 resists and resubmit his dissertation. EC were discussed by course leader before both. Nothing onerous. Went online today and last years resits have been removed from his profile with the result that they have awarded him a DipED and off the retake route for a BEng which is completely incorrect. He has emailed to alert them to the error but we’re really worried they won’t be able to find last years resists grades if they’ve just disappeared. It’s such a stupid mistake as he wouldn’t have been allowed on to the third year without them.

He has paid a fortune for this degree and needs to study for the 2 resists but can’t even book them. The worry isn’t helping him focus on his studying and I’m so bloody angry, their admin is shite. These young people pay a fortune in fees , his ND and MH struggles are well documented and twice he has been messed around.

Is this normal and how likely is it that the grades will be found?

Thankyou, agree with all you’ve said. He hasn’t got a copy of the marks because they were just on the interactive transcript which has been wiped.

Also he sat them at home, then had to take photos of the papers when he sat them and send them in which seems v clunky for a state of the art well funded and well thought of uni but there you go. Worried that they haven’t even got paper copies stashed somewhere .They were marked and he was given his grades which were put on the transcript which allowed him to proceed. All he has as evidence now is that email I quoted from and the fact he progressed onto the third year. You had to get a 2:1 to do so. The exams were necessary for that.He doesn’t have the photos because it was a year ago. I’ve done all the frustrated shrill”why didn’t you take photos of the transcript periodically”and he said he didn’t think he needed to ie never thought anything would disappear from it which I kind of get.

He has unfortunately sent the email and a whole email trail because it is necessary for whichever poor soul has to sort this out.

I don’t think many that he knows are are doing retakes on the specific 2 modules he needs to do. But yeah he needs to just revise regardless but it’s hard if you’re ND and don’t have dates, certainty etc.

I meant from a member of staff.

So if DS tries to access his marks now, what happens? Are all his marks wiped?

Hi, OP -

A possible misunderstanding!

In your original post you referred to an incorrect current transcript containing the old marks that were replaced by the resit marks. Can DS still access that?

That’s what he should screenshot and store securely. Because if and when his resit marks are restored , it will be crucial evidence of the problem. . In case he needs to take this further

Does this make sense now?

I am sorry your son is experiencing these difficulties. Are the resit dates in the module handbook? - my sons uni handbooks contained all the relevant dates to include resits/resubs. I am amazed at the idea of sitting those previous resits and submitting by taking a photograph of the finished paper and emailing? or did he then upload onto a platform/Turnitin? in which case the papers and marks can still be accessed.(by uni and also your son). I would suggest this is the root of your problem. I cannot imagine that this follows university systems/protocol for resit submission.

All sounds very upsetting for your DS. Some serious admin stuff up here, but that is all it is, an admin stuff up. Which will get sorted once it hits the right people. Somehow an exam board this year has made a decision based on marks excluding last year's resits - weird but university admin can be quite something. It is good advice from pp to screenshot everything. But regardless, the university will not have lost those marks, there will be paperwork from all of the previous boards for them to go back and look at.

Your DS has the email from last year telling him he meets the criteria to progress.
He has in fact, progressed, and completed the current academic year.

What documentation/evidence does he have telling him about this year's two resits? That's the important bit now. Based on that he needs to push hard to find out when those resits will take place (even if the portal will not let him book into them). Does he know anyone else who needs to take those resits?

If not I would suggest to go back to the SPO with a follow up email saying simply that while they sort out the administration errors please advise asap the dates of those two exams to ensure he does not miss them, and cc that to
personal tutor, student support officer and director of undergraduate studies.

Then I agree with pp, work on the basis that the admin will be corrected, get the dissertation submitted and start preparing for the resits. Most universities will publish general resit dates on their webpage even if not a specific timetable, if that is available it would that will give your DS some idea of whether it's going to be late July or mid August for example.

I'm sure it will all work out and there will be no need to escalate to Office for Students etc. I also don't think that calling to speak to anyone will be of great value at this point, because many staff are away and it's easier to set out in an email what has happened so that once the right person starts to investigate they will be able to make the necessary corrections.

Sorry, I don't have anything useful to say

But I feel absolutely rage on your son's behalf. This is just extraordinary. I don't know how many institutions, academic or otherwise, are running computer systems that no one actually knows how to run. But there is an awful lot of it around.

One of the reasons I feel like we're swimming in incompetence is because every fecking organisation has IT systems that people bought and either don't know how to use - or they don't work properly. And they keep absolutely no backup. It's insane. And I don't understand why anybody buys the damn things.

When I saw the screw up with the doctors exam results last year, I did wonder if that was going to be replicated across the universities. And it looks like it is.

@RhubarbandC wishing your son all the best and hoping this gets sorted quickly.

A good point here about submitting via Turnitin (or similar) vs photograph. Moreover the resit marks will have been submitted by the School to the Registrar. The School and IT can recover the marks from the Registrar if IT systems cannot recover them.

I agree with PP that it is very unlikely you will need to escalate this to OfS. I thought it would help to know that you have the option.

This will get resolved. The question is, whether it will be quick enough. Lots of annual leave is coming up, There may also be more delays because people have to get their heads around the fact that something so bizarre actually happened.

Sympathies OP. It is very difficult when ND students go to uni. I previously had input as DS2 had an EHCP but he is supposed to fly solo at uni. He gets DSA but support has been totally rubbish - his funded 1 hour per week of 1:1 has been 2 hours in total this year with the staff not responding to emails.

He’s also enrolled on MEng and has a range between first and resit because he doesn’t understand what is required. The admin is the problem not the course content.

I understood that unis will only deal with the student. Can he give permission for all emails to be shared with me and give me access to the online portal? He doesn’t read or respond to emails, he has no face to face contact with a personal tutor or any other staff and doesn’t access the online portal.

On the other hand he surpassed the grades necessary for admission to his course. He is autistic and ADHD and so operating at an age expected level lower than his peers. I expect in future he will develop skills of administration that he doesn’t yet have. ATM he’s just really good at maths and physics.

i read your post with dismay as I can see this looming in the future.

How best to help? To avoid things going wrong in the first place because of lack of social skills because it seems you need advanced social skills to intervene if they do go wrong.

Is it engineering that is the problem and he should transfer to maths or physics?

A heartbreaking post, and I am so sorry.

Your DS can give permission for the uni to contact you directly. I don’t know that they would cc you on emails to him. That is something to discuss with the Office for Students with Disabilities - if DS does not already work with them, he should.

But DS is always free to pass on anything he likes to you. He could share login details to his Virtual Learning Environment (and anything else) and if he won’t read email he could simply forward it to you.

The lack of allocated support for DS is inexcusable. It could be the fault of Engineering but is more likely to be a systemic problem. DS could join the (anonymous) online forum The Student Room and pose the question to Maths and Physics students with SEN (at his uni) of how well they are supported.

I genuinely admire the courage required of SEN students to pursue degrees. But I also wonder whether many might not do better to take a year to adjust first, particularly if a gap year or break in studies is allowed. (Sometimes in STEM it isn’t)
Restarting on more of a level playing field might beca huge relief.

I know very well that undergraduates often feel a sense of urgency, but actually these are the best years for stopping the clock if necessary and getting the basics right.

Best wishes to DS

I really feel your pain. My son is very able at engineering( another maths& physics lover here), it’s the way his brain works however his autism and adhd are such a hindrance and so debilitating.I think a lot of uni “support” for students relies on students reaching out, pushing and accessing phones, emails, etc which as we know is the complete opposite of what those with ND can easily do so they basically end up unsupported as we can’t do any of it for him. It’s so frustrating for this to have happened as my son is the last person to know how to handle it and has so much on his plate anyway. He has just got on and pushed through with difficulties over and again. His autistic sibling went to a uni lower down the rankings and has had a much better experience. I sincerely wish my other son had done the same. From what I’ve heard from other parents those unis lower down the list do seem better equipped to deal with SEN and MH struggles than those higher. You can’t turn the clock back though so we just need to battle through this.Just about to check in with my son to see if he’s heard anything.

Thankyou for all this, it’s hugely helpful.

Oh yes I see what you’re saying, good point!

Has he spoken to disability services or whatever his university calls it? I work at one of the 'lower ranking unis' and if we knew about this we would have done all the running around and chasing admins etc for him to get this resolved.

Please don't ask your child to share their university log in details - it's almost certainly a breach of the agreed usage policy and could get them in serious trouble with the university.

They haven’t be that great thus far but yes I’ll get him on to that tonight.

If his DSA support has been crap he doesn't have to stay with that person or that company. On the DSA2 letter it tells them what to do if the provider doesn't meet their needs, they just need to ask for a new company.

I know this may be true and thought hard about writing it. I think DS should talk with Disability Services about it. The reason I mentioned it is that the alternative may be failing to complete university. Common sense may be applied. Eg DH Head of School and School IT are aware I know his email login from his sick leave and not bothered.

Simply forwarding emails DS cannot deal with - promptly - would be a start.

Apologies, my post above was for @bizarre

So they’ve found the exams!! That’s the good news. Bad news resits and dissertation resubmission he’s now on for are 2 weeks time. He’s wiped out.The course leader previously said there was an option for May so he’s going to ask for that and pray that it’s still an option. It’s frustrating as the course content would be more fresh for August and he could have got himself ready in time but this has been a complete shock and has derailed him somewhat. Other bad news is both exams and resubmission of dissertation are capped and the extenuating circumstances he was awarded for exam season were given in the form of the mistaken diploma so he’s asking that his ECs be given in the form of uncapped resits and dis instead. Hoping they are as he thinks capped would bring him down to a 2:2 and he wanted to do a Mech Eng masters. There are a couple of places that take a 2:2 but not many and it’s frustrating as he really is a 2:1 student. He’s even talking about retaking the year 3 to get a 2:1 but there would be no loan funding for his masters so thinking a 2:2 and masters is better than a 2:1 and no masters. It’s also a lot of time and money all round to resit year 3 even assuming he could. Trying to reassure him that a mech Eng 2:2 isn’t the end of the world and there would still be work out there. It’s such hideous time as he’s seeing all his friends graduate online but he’s being so amazing and strong about it all.

So pleased the exam results are found. What a relief.

It sounds as though your DS is somewhat stuck between a rock and a hard place but it does seem pulling out the stops for the next two weeks will get him his degree which would be a really positive step forward even if not the class of degree he was hoping for.

Great your DS is pushing for the uncapped resits & diss- the uni sound very chaotic. Can you place any pressure on them about the disruption caused by them wiping your DS's record?

Good luck

I am glad they found the exams, OP!

The rest is disappointing. Surely awarding the diploma as mitigation had to do with using the wrong exam marks, which was wrong, so I very much hope DS can get his resits uncapped.

Taking the resits (and revising the dissertation) in May seems more reasonable now than ever. The kerfuffle that has just concluded (over the incorrect transcripts, barring DS from registering for resits) makes the case even stronger. If the course leader refuses, DS could request EC on the grounds that this was very upsetting. I strongly recommend he consult with the Office for Students with Disabilities and emphasise that his ND made this very difficult to cope with, because ordinarily one would be expected to start revising for resits without knowing the timetable.

But 2 resits plus the diss in May is a lot. Can he get the diss out of the way before Autumn Term begins? That would help a lot.

PS Or if DS must do an oral presentation for his diss, perhaps he could do it Autumn Term or during the Jan exam period. Just don’t wait til May if possible

Are you sure the masters would come out of same student funding? If not, resitting the year to improve the grade and keep focus could be better, then consider a masters, if appropriate. It sounds as if prolonged independent study may not not suit him though, which may limit options.