Has my university treated me unfairly?

PwnDirect

PwnDirect

PwnDirect

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So last October on my first day back to university, I collapsed when walking between lectures, suffering heart trouble & was admitted to hospital with a heart rate of 250 BPM which had to be reduced via drugs & remained out of rhythm for 3days and at 140 bpm. I then spent another 5 days in hospital.

I spent a further 2 weeks recovering at home, I then received a text message from one my lecturers asking if I was coming back or dropping out.

I was offered no help or support & no mitigation regarding marking.

After forcing myself threw the year with palpitations, regular exhaustion & being in & out of hospital for tests, I was forced to resit, which was capped at 40% which I have just failed as, I was asked to resit nearly an entire year in 1 month.

So quite simply is this the norm for universities?


Also this was my final year & I have already used up my one resit allowed by the student loan in a previous year, due to other medical problems & can not afford the cost of resisting the year.
 
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As Tom said, how much contact did you have with the university about this. Seems very harsh. Can't see any other option than repeating the year.
 
tom_e said:
Did you ever actually go and ask them for help and apply for mitigating circumstances?
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You shouldn't need to ask, but you really do need to ask. The uni as a whole won't have any idea why you were off unless you pointed it out to them formally. Even if you've talked to some of your lecturers / programme leader about it, if the results were already submitted, they're probably powerless.

You can fill out a mitigating circumstances form, but I'd email your programme leader and ask about it first.
 
CaptainRAVE said:
Universities can be tough, but this story sounds very one sided to me.
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It all depends on whether the OP actually tried to get support and apply for mitigated circumstances and was turned down/ignored, or whether he thought this would come automatically which in my experience isn't how unis work.
I pretty much disappeared off the face of the earth as far as uni was concerned in my final year and didn't hear a peep from them until I got myself in gear and went in and spoke to the various people to sort myself out.
 
Um... You should have submitted a PMC at MINIMUM.

You could have basically suspended your studies for as long as you wanted (at no cost, provided you were as bad as you say), you just needed to speak to your head of school.

Example: Friends nan died, she couldnt handle it, so suspended her studies and now starts back again in January doing the final half of her 3rd year.
 
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I submitted PCM forms after the first semester & again after the second semester, I was never offered the option of suspending my studies.
 
PwnDirect said:
I submitted PCM forms after the first semester & again after the second semester, I was never offered the option of suspending my studies.
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In fact, i don't even know what happens when you submit a PMC as ive never done one, do you get another go at assignments, extended time or what?

Not being offered the option to suspend your studies is quite bad, but like i said you should have spoken to your head of school about it.

edit: PMC forms have deadlines related to the assignments, did you meet those specific deadlines? If you submit a load of PMCs for first semester at the end of semester 1 its too late (in our uni anyway).
 
I know somebody whose mother died just before the final year exams and he was also admitted to a&e 2 days before his final exam yet his situation wasn't deemed to be sufficient to be considered for mitigating circumstances :rolleyes: They offered next to no help or guidance either.
 
The experience of my university is that exams will make up 100% of the mark and are uncapped in circumstances like this, that sounds terrible.
 
Universities are unbelievably **** at times, but in the circumstances above it does sound like that most universities providing the circumstances above are true would allow some kind of special consideration..

But more importantly were they aware of your situation, if they weren't they can't have done anything...

kd
 
It seems to be very harsh action from the university. However having been in a kind of similar situation, how often and well did you communicate with your department?

Namely, what did you say to them and when? It sounds like you didn't hit home that your health was still not great, that you needed support from them, and that you were falling behind.
Why did you not ask for a year out, especially as your health didn't appear to improve after a few months?
Even then, you could have asked to not sit your exams when you did on health grounds, and then took them at a later date, avoiding needing to rush for resits which are capped at 40%?
 
On what you have said, I'd start appealing immediately and relentlessly, taking everything one step higher even when they say nothing can be done.
 
Ordinarily if you aren't well then your "resits" don't count as resits, so they aren't capped at 40%.

Are you now repeating the year? It sounds like that's what's best for you anyway if you failed all the exams second time around.

If you were unwell there are also some things about getting fees back I think.
 
Not really relevant to the OP`s situation but I had a really bad situation with my uni. I was in the 2nd year of a 3 year degree and at the end of the year I had failed 1 module. We were allowed to carry over 1 module to the following year and resit it the following year so no problem for me I thought. Then there was another module where everyone was called to a meeting for. It turns out that some people in this module had been caught cheating on there assignments (Someone left a copy of his completed assignment on the network drive and load of people had copied his work) and that they would be reviewing everyones work. This process took so long that I had already sat all exams and everything and was ready to start my final year. When I went back to uni in september they told me that since I had failed 2 modules I couldnt start the final year. I explained the situation and that I wasnt alone and was still waiting for the outcome of the situation with the module that was being investigated, this process was completed about a month later and I was cleared of cheating becuase I didnt but I was then told that since I had missed 4 weeks of my 3rd year already that I wouldnt be able to catch up I was offered the opertunity to resit the module I had failed that year. I had zero faith in the place after that I just left.
 
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