I love UCL but some things annoy me...

Before I write anything first let me say that I really like my programme here. Its very interesting and exactly what I expected it to be academically. However since I've come over from the US there are a couple of things about UCL that kind of annoy me....maybe its just an overall change in the way things work in UK universities versus American.

1. The fact that I had to submit the form to get my undergraduate US loans deferred and wait a week for the ONE person authorized to sign it...who apparently ONLY works on Friday. At any uni back home literally ANYONE working behind the counter at the student financial office could go to a computer...confirm your student status...sign and fax off the form within 2 minutes. This is a big thing because the speed with which this gets sent could make the difference of whether I have to pay another month of my undergraduate loans before they get deferred. This amounts to £300 I could certainly use now.

2. The fact that my programme courses have assigned dozens of readings for the semester almost all of which are articles from online journals and each student has to individually find and print out copies of them. My problem with this is the fact that I had many similar undergraduate classes and each of them would hand each student a printed and bound course-pack with any readings from online journals and usually every reading for the course that wasn't a whole book. And this was at a mid-level state university with like 45 students per class....my programme now has 10 people in it. This isn't me being lazy...I just think logically it would make more sense to provide the students with all the readings so they can spend more time getting started reading the hundreds of pages of coursework instead of spending hours in the library downloading PDF copies and printing them.

Other than these 2 rants I love it here.

Reply 1

Crazster

16

1. We get printing credit
2. Try the UCL Library website, we have access to basically every journal you could possible want. Search is easy through them all, and the format is not huge files.

- Welcome to UCL

Reply 2

dcarsten

OP

Crazster

1. We get printing credit
2. Try the UCL Library website, we have access to basically every journal you could possible want. Search is easy through them all, and the format is not huge files.

- Welcome to UCL

Yeah I know...and obviously thats what I've been doing. My point is basically that when you have 8 or 9 students in a masters programme all reading the same articles each year...it would seem to make sense to just print course packets instead of having all these people individually have to track down and print all the material each year. My brother took an English Literature MA programme here last year and he was surprised when i told him about my situation because the first day of all his courses he received a printed out course packet with all readings less than an entire book.

I think by the fact that we've all been admitted to UCL as Masters candidates its already been established that we all know how to search the library and download PDFs from online journals.

by the way we get 80 sheets of mono printing credit...which I'll have burned through by next week.

UCL is a world class institution of learning...meanwhile I went to what basically amounted to decent mid-level state university for my undergrad degree with all classes of 40 or more students and even there we received all the course readings. More or less I just think its a retarded waste of time that could be better spent reading and thinking about the coursework.

PS: I love the "Welcome to UCL" like I just arrived at boot-camp or something. Pfft.

Reply 3

dismal_laundry

15

What course are you on dcarsten?

Reply 4

TommehR

13

Law is pretty good on point two. We have 150+ in my year and for the most part we're provided with handouts and the like. For the essential articles we're provided with packs which contain them. Most of these are free. For a course last year which was solely taught with reference to articles we had to pay £5 for a few hundred pages of stuff.

Oh, and we have free printing. :cool:

Reply 5

paddy

14

The thing that pisses me off is how unbelievably unhelpful/arsey some lectures are. I went to my Intro to Econ (SSEES module) lecture today to find that I was actually in a maths lecture. After searching the building for a possible alternative location I still couldn't find it so I sent an email to the course tutor, really apologetic (and reassuring that I would catch up on what I missed) and asking what had happened. This is how he replied (I changed the names btw):

Dear Paddy

Not being able to find a lecture venue is not a mitigating circumstance.
Lecture attendance is compulsory within UCL so if you miss more than 30% you may be denied sitting the exam. All the relevant course materials are on
WebCT. The tutorial groups are posted on the departmental notice board (16
Taviton, 3rd floor).

Best wishes

Dr. Evil Man
Suffice it to say that I replied again categorically asking where the lectures are held, why it was not held in the lecture theatre as printed on the timetable, and that these things happen when you're only just entering your second taught week at university ;dry;

Oh and my Russian tutor is evil and annoying as hell :mad:

Otherwise I'm happy :smile:

Reply 6

pharmakos

8

Dcarsten, I felt the same when I first got to UCL. I had studied in the States for a postgrad degree before I came to UCL (I'm not American, btw). I was extremely disappointed at UCL's library services and adminstration efficiency.

But what you're undergoing at UCL is pretty much the same everywhere else in the UK. Friends of mine studying at the best and lesser unis in the UK all complain about the same things more or less. I realised that's how the British handle things. If it takes one hour to get some thing done in the States, it probably has to take one day or two or even longer in the UK. No offense to the British.

Besides, in major research unis in the States, library services are way better: e.g., interlibary loans are absolutely free, which will never happen here.

Other than these, UCL is hot to the core.

Reply 7

Erana

9

paddy

The thing that pisses me off is how unbelievably unhelpful/arsey some lectures are. I went to my Intro to Econ (SSEES module) lecture today to find that I was actually in a maths lecture. After searching the building for a possible alternative location I still couldn't find it so I sent an email to the course tutor, really apologetic (and reassuring that I would catch up on what I missed) and asking what had happened. This is how he replied (I changed the names btw):

Dear Paddy

Not being able to find a lecture venue is not a mitigating circumstance.
Lecture attendance is compulsory within UCL so if you miss more than 30% you may be denied sitting the exam. All the relevant course materials are on
WebCT. The tutorial groups are posted on the departmental notice board (16
Taviton, 3rd floor).

Best wishes

Dr. Evil Man
Suffice it to say that I replied again categorically asking where the lectures are held, why it was not held in the lecture theatre as printed on the timetable, and that these things happen when you're only just entering your second taught week at university ;dry;

Oh and my Russian tutor is evil and annoying as hell :mad:

Otherwise I'm happy :smile:

Oooh, ouch. Lesson number one - never, ever admit to missing a lecture! Quietly ask someone else on your course next time you see them where you should have been.

As for lectures being compulsary... unless you actually have a registration sheet or something similar, that's a load of toss.

Next time claim you twisted your ankle and couldn't climb stairs... maybe then he'd reply with "but Linguistics Lecture Theatre 2 isn't up any stairs".... :wink:

Reply 8

pure_joy

9

Erana

As for lectures being compulsary... unless you actually have a registration sheet or something similar, that's a load of toss.

Or unless it's a complusory atendance stats lecture with a workshop at 9 a.m. Friday, after freshers' ball. They actually had a sign-up sheet on that.
Nobody seems to check if you attend lectures, but they do check if you go to your practicals and tutorials.

Reply 9

Erana

9

Yeah, tutorials & practicals are compulsary, no argument there. On my courses this year, if I miss a single practical, I fail the course unless I'm in hospital on life support or something. And there's only one time for that practical, not like last year when there were two sessions so we could go to the later one if we missed the first one. If I miss a tutorial I'm in really deep **** but could probably just about beg/cry my way out of it.

Being a second year is cool. Yeah. -_-;

Reply 10

borntosleep

paddy

why it was not held in the lecture theatre as printed on the timetable

it was, you just didnt see the "biochemistry" part in the name of the lecture theatre so it was a bit of your fault...

Reply 11

paddy

14

;dry;
Again I must add that this is only my second taught week at university :hmpf:

Reply 12

borntosleep

hey, I dont blame you :wink:

and in fact it was very confusing - esp with this building being renovated and v unfriendly security staff

Reply 13

nikki

9

A bunch of the linguistics people accidentally walked into an economics lecture because the Darwin building is so bloody confusing. A lot of people were also late to one of the lectures because the lecture theatre wasn't on any of the maps and there are hardly any signs for it.

Reply 14

paddy

14

borntosleep

hey, I dont blame you :wink:

and in fact it was very confusing - esp with this building being renovated and v unfriendly security staff

OMG the security staff are ****ing evil :mad:

Except for one who let me in without my ucl id card (not that I'm thrilled that it is LITERALLY the only place I need to have my id card to enter) :proud:

Reply 15

sierraleone

Yeah all this new security stuff is annoying. But word of advice/pointing out the obvious, if you're about to walk into a lecture and aren't sure you're in the right place, read the lecture timetable which should be on a wall outside the lecture theatre. Saves you embarrassment and disrupting other people's lectures. Also, just ask someone if you get lost, I'm sure they'll be understanding!

Reply 16

TommehR

13

The security staff weren't really that bad last year. You didn't need an ID to get into most places. But now they seem to have installed barriers at every single department so you need your ID to get in anywhere. Grr.

Reply 17

dcarsten

OP

pharmakos

Dcarsten, I felt the same when I first got to UCL. I had studied in the States for a postgrad degree before I came to UCL (I'm not American, btw). I was extremely disappointed at UCL's library services and adminstration efficiency.

But what you're undergoing at UCL is pretty much the same everywhere else in the UK. Friends of mine studying at the best and lesser unis in the UK all complain about the same things more or less. I realised that's how the British handle things. If it takes one hour to get some thing done in the States, it probably has to take one day or two or even longer in the UK. No offense to the British.

Besides, in major research unis in the States, library services are way better: e.g., interlibary loans are absolutely free, which will never happen here.

Other than these, UCL is hot to the core.

This is pretty much what I thought...its just the way they do things in the UK. Its just a bit hard to get used to at first. Mainly because I went to a state undergrad uni with decent library services etc...but not anything that would be considered GREAT by American university standards...SO basically I had pictured all these things would be top notch at UCL. Don't get me wrong, UCL is a great place to learn and I'm really happy to be here. I just think its funny that in my undergrad university (Towson University in Maryland) I could get interlibrary loans from ANY library in the ENTIRE state of Maryland delivered to the university library within 24 hours. The main libarary is an entire 8 floor building with hundreds of computer terminals for students to use and several large reading and study rooms. Its open until like 2am during term time and 24 hours a day for the last 2 weeks of each term. And this library is considered just average by American university standards.

Man, I can't wait for the next step...starting a bank account with my rebate check from UCL.
They bank with Barclays....I'm depositing the cheque IN Barclays. How long will this take??? In the United States it would be instantaneous....the money would immediately post to your account.....Here, my guess is 8 to 10 working days. :rolleyes:

3 working days

OP

dismal_laundry

3 working days

So I went down to Barclays and I didn't even make any progress. I explained that I had filled out all the forms for a bank account at UCL orientation...so they told me to wait. So someone came back and told me that they needed to locate the paperwork and also that their computer system is not working so I couldn't really deposit the check today anyway...so they took down my mobile number and are allegedly giving me a call tomorrow. They also said once I do deposit the cheque it might take as much as 2 weeks to post...which makes no sense since I'm depositing a Barclays bank check from UCL into my account with Barclays. Gotta love the banking system here....maybe I should just the whole cheque cashed and stuff the money in my mattress.

I love UCL but some things annoy me...

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