Kids at College

[David McKeown]

Queen's used to offer the most degrees of any uni in Europe, they've cut back a fair bit now but at one time it was possible to get almost any combination joint honours degree such as degree in Gynaecology and Byzantine Studies.

As for Coleraine, not being up to much I can't agree with that at all, its optometry and computer games design courses are amongst the best in the UK

[AhJaysusRef]

I'm not a horse. As a graduate from UU I can say from first hand experience that it is an excellent place to study.

Aside from its endless benefits, the one downside of UU was the many mucksavages and hallions drifting around the library wearing O'Neills jerseys, hoodies, jackets, tracksuit bottoms and asics trainers. These horrible breed of people originate from the Tyrone-South Derry region and refer to each other as lad/chap/horse/sir.

Their accent is disgusting and their manner is similar to wild guerrillas. 

[Hoof Hearted]

I'm not a horse. As a graduate from UU I can say from first hand experience that it is an excellent place to study.

Aside from its endless benefits, the one downside of UU was the many mucksavages and hallions drifting around the library wearing O'Neills jerseys, hoodies, jackets, tracksuit bottoms and asics trainers. These horrible breed of people originate from the Tyrone-South Derry region and refer to each other as lad/chap/horse/sir.

Their accent is disgusting and their manner is similar to wild guerrillas.

wrong thread - about 2/3 years ago that was.

[Ulick]

They may have 10 hours contact time but you can be sure they know they're expected to do 200 hours per module. At 3 modules per semester that's 50 hours per week, not counting holiday periods. The vast majority won't do anywhere near that but will get decent grades because staff will fiddle the spreadsheets to ensure they are making expected targets. I wouldn't let any of my childer go anywhere near an Irish or British university, especially if I was having to pay for it. 

[AhJaysusRef]

The vast majority won't do anywhere near that but will get decent grades because staff will fiddle the spreadsheets to ensure they are making expected targets.

I would be interested in seeing an example of this.

[muppet]

I'm not a horse. As a graduate from UU I can say from first hand experience that it is an excellent place to study.

Aside from its endless benefits, the one downside of UU was the many mucksavages and hallions drifting around the library wearing O'Neills jerseys, hoodies, jackets, tracksuit bottoms and asics trainers. These horrible breed of people originate from the Tyrone-South Derry region and refer to each other as lad/chap/horse/sir.

Their accent is disgusting and their manner is similar to wild guerrillas.

O'Neill has just gone way up in my estimation.

[Ulick]

The vast majority won't do anywhere near that but will get decent grades because staff will fiddle the spreadsheets to ensure they are making expected targets.

I would be interested in seeing an example of this.

It difficult to prove because lecturers are responsible for compiling their own assessment results. However if you put a freedom of information request into the minutes of external examiners meetings, over, say three consecutive years, and if they are complied correctly, you'll see from the discussions even the staff themselves don't believe most of the marks.

[Ulick]

Aye, but surely they can only be paying for the contact time, or a bit more to keep the library going, marking and admin etc.
You can hardly be charging for studying a young buck is doing in the house.

My thoughts exactly. The universities are run as a business. Student aren't necessarily paying for the tuition they receive but for the certificate they get on completion. If they don't like that tough shit, who they going to complain to? (answer: nobody because they two NI universities are exempt from any legal redress).

[AhJaysusRef]

It difficult to prove because lecturers are responsible for compiling their own assessment results.

If it's difficult to prove then how do you know it goes on?

If a student is awarded a 2:1 grade and they actually got a 2:2 but their lecturer rounded their grade up, it would become apparent to any employer after a few weeks that the student did not have the level of skill that they suggested they did have.

If, as you suggest, the vast majority of students have their grades rounded up then surely employers should look elsewhere for employees.

However the stats don't lie. The vast majority of UU grads get jobs within 6 months.

UU is a great place to study.

[Ulick]

It difficult to prove because lecturers are responsible for compiling their own assessment results.

If it's difficult to prove then how do you know it goes on?

If a student is awarded a 2:1 grade and they actually got a 2:2 but their lecturer rounded their grade up, it would become apparent to any employer after a few weeks that the student did not have the level of skill that they suggested they did have.

If, as you suggest, the vast majority of students have their grades rounded up then surely employers should look elsewhere for employees.

However the stats don't lie. The vast majority of UU grads get jobs within 6 months.

UU is a great place to study.

A 2.1 is an average of all individual module marks over a number of years. The lecturer can't round up a pathway/degree award but if enough pressure is placed on them, they will round up their module marks so they don't face criticism at exam board meetings. There is no check on this (academic freedom which has been upheld in the courts). End result is false module marks are presented when final degree classifications are awarded. At the end of the day, lecturers are judged on their research, not teaching, so no-one is going to look too carefully at what they are doing and to be honest the lecturers themselves are not going to spend too much time worrying about it. If they're not hitting expected targets, then they change the spreadsheets to meet them. Simples.   

[Ulick]

What ever happened your man who went to court after being shafted (according to him) out of a 2:1, or whatever it was?

It was thrown out, because as I said, students in NI universities have no recourse to law.

[Minder]

What ever happened your man who went to court after being shafted (according to him) out of a 2:1, or whatever it was?

TYP posted it at the time but the search fuction is defunct at the minute.

He was toul to f**k off.

[Ulick]

Basically the way it works is the universities are independent organisations founded by 'royal charter'. This gives them special privileges over their own governance in that they are not quite public organisations and not quite private - similar to the Church of England/Ireland. Now, all sorts of employment laws and Human Rights Acts have been passed in the meantime, however, so long as a University's internal student grievance policies are viewed as fair, then, under no circumstances may a student go outside those and appeal to law - as yer man did last year. It'll be thrown out every time by the judges with the excuse that 'the academic is the best person to judge on the value of student work' i.e. they are the experts, not the judge. IMO this is nonsense as you'll get judges ruling on cases of medical negligence all the time i.e. they see themselves as suitable to rule in some areas where they are not expert but refuse to rule in others. Has to be said though this situation was changed in Britain a few years back when they set-up the higher education ombudsman - so the only place where the universities are literally a law unto themselves is NI. 

[mayogodhelpus@gmail.com]

Coleraine? Obviously his A'Level results weren't the best.....

Any need for that comment?

Nope.

Poor form.

[tyrone exile]

It difficult to prove because lecturers are responsible for compiling their own assessment results.

If it's difficult to prove then how do you know it goes on?

If a student is awarded a 2:1 grade and they actually got a 2:2 but their lecturer rounded their grade up, it would become apparent to any employer after a few weeks that the student did not have the level of skill that they suggested they did have.

If, as you suggest, the vast majority of students have their grades rounded up then surely employers should look elsewhere for employees.

However the stats don't lie. The vast majority of UU grads get jobs within 6 months.

UU is a great place to study.

Thats an awful bit of shite coming from your mouth. sounds like nothing but propaganda, you must work for UU? I currently go to queens and i must admit the help you get is pure shite, you thrown 3 grand a year at the lectures and they act as if your a piece of dirt, absolutely no help whatsoever with seldom exceptions. come exam time the odd lecture will more or less tell you what questions are going to come up. feedback is piss poor and all lectures seem preoccupied about meeting a publicist to see when their next book is to be printed.