Graduate takes QUB to court over degree
A QUB graduate is challenging his degree classification in the High Court yesterday claiming that better supervision would have helped him achieve a 2.1 rather than the 2.2 he was awarded in June 2010. Legal challenges to the actual awards given (or not given) by universities are rare enough, never mind querying the final degree classification.
What makes this one to watch is that, like all other universities, QUB already has pretty lengthy and detailed regulations which govern exams, awards and appeals. This case may deem all of that irrelevant.
In Section 1.3.60 of the Study Regulations for Undergraduates it provides two grounds only for review of marks (challenges to academic judgement are not permitted):
i. that there was a procedural irregularity in the assessment process which may have adversely affected the student’s results (Note: an appeal may not be based on the claim that the examiners should have made greater allowance for e.g. a student’s extenuating circumstances);
or, in the case e.g. of the thesis/dissertation element of taught programmes.
ii. that there was inadequate supervision of the student’s work. If a review is requested on the grounds of inadequate supervision, good reason must be provided as to why action was not taken before completion of the assessment.
The current appeal is based on item (ii) above. The details of this individual case aside (as the complainant graduated he may be deemed to have already ‘accepted’ the result), it will be interesting (and significant) to see if the High Court seeks to exercise authority in this matter.
Presumably, if it does, the universities will have to adjust their charters and regulations accordingly – otherwise expect an avalanche of appeals against results and chaos when it comes to graduations (wonder what the statute of limitations would be for this…).
It will be also be another small step away from assessing university students as learners and towards treating them as customers. So much for the knowledge economy, then.
“I had one lecture in my final year who plagiarised an entire module from another lecture from the university of limerick and then set an 2 hour exam for what was 3 two hour exams in limerick.”
And so do I…and after reading that sentence above it is clear that the product of these “rubbish lecturers up at Queens” is “pretty rubbish” as well.
In early 90′s, went to Queen’s, got drunk, squandered grant, skipped lessons, didn’t heed warnings of underperformance…got a 2.2….In early 00′s, went to Oxbridge, stayed sober, fees at own cost, attended all requirements, engaged with dynamism…. first class post-graduate degree. You don’t need a degree in Engineering (or module in Rocket-science) to work out the matrix of influence at work here. This guy only has an actionable case, legalise withstanding, if he has a documented learning need that wasn’t addressed or he wasn’t given allowance or support for it. P.S – why is he complaining anyway? – it’s not like recent graduates have a chance of getting a job in the current market however good their classification! I bet you now, if he is victorious, he spends the compensation on doing a Masters! Plus if he goes to the Univeristy of Ulster in Coleraine, he could easily prosecute for the weather being so piss poor in Portrush. …..Or get millions for having to listen to all those bloody Derry accents in Magee
.
Now be honest.
Does the MSM coverage of this story even begin to compare with this outpouring?
prefer the tray bakes myself.
Where is the coat which you were wearing?
There it is – lying on their bed.
Here is some music for you to hear.
………. and I only went to hedge school!
“Why should I have to turn to somebody who isn’t qualified (a class mate) for their help, relying on their version of the class, when *their* is a paid professional there who’s job it is to aid me in learning.”
You’re barely literate on the evidence of that, the fact you were in university at all tells us everything we need to know about the current failed free-for-all.
No but how many in the media have actually been to university?
My sincerest apologies, it was a convoluted sentence and I typed the wrong there/their and didn’t notice. Oh dear.
If 18 years of full time education has taught me anything Rory its that you don’t have to read over anything you write that your not being marked on or are putting your real name to. The gist is more important in a forum than the grammar.
I agree totally with Emmett, half the people commenting here didn’t even go to Queens and don’t no how bad the lecturers are when it comes to final year honours projects. My supervisor gave me a project that didn’t work, she told me wild rabbits are highly infected with lungworm and I had to investigate why. I got 12 rabbits to dissect, at the start of the year I was promised 200, so to begin with I had a shit sample size. Then when I dissected the rabbits none had the parasite! She then told me ‘oh well ill get you data to work off that was collected last year’! I then had no method as to how the data was gathered. I emailed constantly asking for this data and never got a reply! I was stressing out big time as I needed to get statistics done on the data and time was running out. I then complained about her to the head of the school, I finally got the data I needed, once I’d complained. during my final year I emailed her for meetings half the time she ignored me, when she finally did get back to me about a meeting she never turned up for them, after me travelling down there to meet her! I agree with this fella suing them, its ridicules the money they get every year, and the chasing that you have to do to get work back, or data that they promise. By the way I got a 2.1 with alot more stressing out that than I should have been due to being ignored. I wasnt the only one under this same lecturers supervison that was ignored.
Internationalist,
After eighteen years of education one might have expected to have learnt to construct a sentence gramatically without the need for much forethought. I was doing it by the time I was six years old. It is after all the language through which we engage with each other every minute of the day and we surely have encountered enough correct grammar in our daily reading to have imbued it into our consciousness at least by the time we are eleven years old.
In any case all this talk of obtaining degrees clearly has nothing much to do with education which is an ongoing, neverending process in the spirit of which I would point out that you omitted a comma after ‘everything’ and before ‘Rory’ above and that the phrase, ‘your being marked on’ should be written, ‘you’re (for “you are”) being marked on.’
It seems that the problem is that you simply don’t read enough or that you don’t pay proper attention to that which you do read.
There should be no legal help for this Dumbo, going to court because he’s stupid, I see most of Slugger’s thickos weighed in on his side.
Slugger’s thickos
I wanna be in your gang, please.
I thick therefore I am, and what’s more my vote counts the same as yours, Oracle. Nature’s cruel but democracy’s vicious.
Thank you for the lesson and insightful comments, Rory. I’d hazard a guess that it is spelling and grammar checking technology that has made me (and many others) this careless. Perhaps this technology should be banned from places of learning? It would certainly raise the standards of our schools.
Oracle – I just did a count back and make it about 40% sympathetic to the plaintiff and about 60% not sympathetic.
[...] Mirror; and commentary on the Cantakerous, Gullibility, and Learning Architecture blogs. Update: Slugger O’Toole’s post has the QUB regulations at [...]