Unprofessional running of course

It's none of your business what your classmate gets. He might have extenuating circumstances that you don't know about - and you have no right to know about. It's also got nothing to do with the other people failing.

Also, uni is about more independent study. It's not necessarily up to them to provide "intense revision". The fact that some of you need it shows that you have insufficient study skills to do the work on your own - so more intense revision sessions would just mask the issue.

There is nothing here that would warrant an official complaint.

Hi, I am attending a degree course. I'm not sure how many people went to university but the course i'm doing is being run so unprofessionally.


I am actually thinking of complaining about my course now officially.


I had a few issues.


We have a guy always hand his assignments in late the next day (4 so far) which is an automatic fail (or should be). He has no reason to, no excuse just leaves them until the last minute and passes.


Couple of people hand them in on time and fail by couple/few points and have to retake the whole assignment. My main argument being that he also technically failed and they passed them anyway. It really annoys everyone. There are only eight people on my course.


We also had an exam with three revision sessions. Some of us really relied on the revision. Being a lecture, I assumed that the lecturer would be lecturing about past papers etc. She sat there and did her own work... really an easy lesson for her. A couple of us really needed more intense revision.


Another issue same lecturer we had two assignments to do in one module. She gave the feedback for the first just AFTER the second one was given in. Some people barley passed. The feedback was just too late to boost the second...

I'm actually class rep but don't see how I can raise the comments.

you mentioned that there was no 'intense revision' sessions and that there were things on the assignment that were not covered.

I'm pretty sure at university it's more about independent study so it seems like it's your fault for not revising intensely enough and not doing extra reading outside of lectures.

Agree with Juno, there's nothing that could warrant an official complaint. Here's what I think:

It is none of your business when people hand their stuff in/what they get (you'd be surprised how many universities will let you hand in a day late or so). If people fail, they fail - there's nothing you can do/complain about. If you do want to complain about lateness though, take it to the head of your faculty.

Again, a large part of university is self study, and you'd be surprised how few revision sessions other courses get (I don't get any). If you're struggling in a module/with a concept, you need to talk to your lecturer/course tutor. Many of them have open door policies so you can visit them, or you could request that they go through it in a revision session/lecture.

You could also ask for your marks back earlier.

If you want to make a complaint, go to your course tutor then your head of faculty.

Yes I will try to speak to them.

The problem is, I had permission to hand in late (official evidence approved by the university) the department i'm in said no know-one can hand in late. So i handed in on time. Another person walked in next day handed in late. I do not believe that wouldn't annoy you when it happened about three times. There is an issue there sadly. There other things I can understand.

I know the reason they do it... they know full-well they are turning a blind eye to it. They do not want the course to be cut and they are trying to keep everyone happy and passing because they need the course to run... but the down side is they cannot treat people equally.

I would worry about yourself and your own degree rather than worrying about other people bending the rules - maybe they have their own reasons and extenuating circumstances (he might not be telling you to truth for all you know).

University is about independent study - it's not uncommon for things not to turn up in lectures that may be present in the exam because you are expected to do further reading of your own. On my course we have gotten hardly any revision sessions and often no past papers. Just the way it is

I would worry about yourself and your own degree rather than worrying about other people bending the rules - maybe they have their own reasons and extenuating circumstances (he might not be telling you to truth for all you know).

University is about independent study - it's not uncommon for things not to turn up in lectures that may be present in the exam because you are expected to do further reading of your own. On my course we have gotten hardly any revision sessions and often no past papers. Just the way it is

For my course we have to buy the past papers - £1.25 for a pdf download, or more if you want a printed and posted copy.

I have medical issues that lead to me getting DSA, although to people who don't know me that well I look perfectly fine. I have made offhand remarks to people who I don't want to know my situation because it's not up to them to know. So if someone was shouting at me for my work being late and I thought it was none of their business, I would potentially say it was because I spent too long playing Rollercoaster Tycoon or something equally as silly. I'd rather say that than admit that actually I was crying in pain and couldn't even move my fingers enough to hold a pen, or that I was so out of it on painkillers that I managed to set fire to my hair.

Again the annoying thing is.... someone with no DSA etc different set of rules just because he takes advantage.

How do you know? As has been said above, he maybe does have extenuating circumstances and isn't talking about them, or is misdirecting anyone who asks. After all, it's nobody else's business. Some people don't like talking about personal difficulties. Just concentrate on your own work and don't compare yourself with others. You run the risk of looking vindictive and silly.

Revision is a very personal thing. Only three of my undergrad modules ever held formal revision sessions and one of those was a question & answer session. When we ran out of questions to ask, the session was cut short. As you're in your second year, you know by now that you have a need for more intense revision. You should either be asking lecturers to help with this (and they aren't obliged to), organising your own revision groups or finding alternative revision strategies which suit your learning styles. Nobody's going to spoon feed you through exams in the way they did for A Levels.

As for how you go about raising issues - you talk to your Student Union. They're there to represent the student body and you're there as a rep to raise your group's issues with them. It sounds like you could use their advice on what does/doesn't constitute a cause for complaint.

Listen you are right, and it is none of my business but he doesn't even deny it.

It's been mentioned here and a few times in other threads about not being given direction with assignments. At my uni we have an introductory lecture at the start of each module where we're told what will be lectured on and our assignment titles and deadlines. At my uni lectures are purely for exam material and assignments are 100% our own reading and are never mentioned again after the first lecture. Nobody is there is remind you about it and if you miss the deadline it's your own fault. Is this not normal?

In my opinion yes.

We had timetabled revision of nine hours. Lectured revision and self-study revision are different in my opinion (I know some people will disagree).

9 hours? Really? If we get it (we usually don't), it's an hour and even then it finishes early.

Yes. three 3 hour lectures hence why it annoyed me that they did go to waste. BTW more than half failed.