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Hello,

I've been doing a Master's at a reputable red brick university since September 2019.

Two modules I am doing involve doing group work. We can't pick groups and a sizeable majority of the students in my groups can't speak English very well at all. The work involves discussion of complex ideas which is crucial for getting tasks done. They may be able to write in English but when speaking to them, there's no productive conversation and so nothing gets done. Me and one other person in the group often end up doing most of the work as it's hard to delegate anything. I have done lots of good group projects in the past during my undergrad so it isn't me that is the problem.

I'm paying over £10,000 for my course and other expenses to do this, and got other deadlines to complete as well. It's awkward trying to explain to the academics running the modules that a big problem is that other students can't speak english. A number of them don't pull their weight either and don't have any original ideas. They just seem to be there to get the piece of paper than actually do any real work.

I don't want to come across as prejudiced either as they're nice people but there's a big disconnect and it can be quite stressful when balancing other commitments.

Has anyone else has this problem, in group work generally or with those that don't speak english as their first language? And has anyone ever raised this with their university and or anything positive come of it?

Let me know your thoughts.

Better talk to your personal tutor explaining the situation.......although I’m not sure how you uni consider pointing finger on self funding international students!

He'll get nowhere talking to his personal tutor - international students are ££££ to unis.

And it's not pointing the finger it's pointing out a legitimate concern that other home students have noticed. Home students are also normally self funding Master's courses btw - from family funds or by getting a loan that will need to be repaid with interest.