uel.ac.uk

Unhelpful, unprofessional and discriminatory

I started my PGCE (Primary teacher training) with UEL in 2022. I was so excited and really hopeful that I would learn a lot and would benefit from specialising in the arts. I received an award recognising my contribution to research informed practice, and got high grades in my assignments (86%, 92%). The teaching on the PGCE course was generally good, but the admin was atrocious- hundreds of students started the course not enrolled, unable to access course files and with very little support as the different departments within the university do not talk to each other and there is no shared responsibility. So many were forced to drop out because of this. Then there were long delays in getting school placements- some people were waiting for months! I ended up organising my own school placement, which was fine, but for the second placement I was placed in a school with a teacher who had not finished her ECT and every single other teacher in the school had quit the previous year (not exactly the high standards of professional practice we were told we had to demonstrate.)I then started a Masters in Education last year, and that is when it really became clear to me just how bad things are. I suffered a serious injury 3 weeks into the start of my Masters, and following notifying the university, was asked to provide 50% of the course fees. This is because their policy is set up to force you to pay this much even if you only study 3 weeks of the course and then quit! I then had repeated issues such as being contacted about my attendance after I had already notified them of my going on a break when I was in hospital recovering from surgery. I contacted everyone I could think of, lecturers, student services, the SMART team, even the University's students union, to try and find a resolution. There is a strong culture of 'that's not my job' and everyone wants to pass you off onto someone else. It was bizarre after having received such positive feedback last year. I would have left then and there but I didn't want all that money to have been for nothing and I wouldn't have been able to get funding for a Masters course somewhere else because of the way student finance works. In the end the only way I was able to return to study 4 months later once I had recovered enough to walk again was by literally *begging* student finance to pay me my next instalment early. After studying Term 3, my lecturer helpfully suggested I use credits from my PGCE to be able to skip 2 modules and move straight on to the dissertation module, however by this point I had already paid for the full course. I have now been trying (and failing) to get a refund for the additional modules I will not be studying for 2 months (£4437) and despite being reassured that I am entitled to this refund by every member of staff in the student hub, credit control and even the SMART team, and even having the refund request form approved, I have been sent £595, an amount which seems to have been randomly plucked from thin air. When I emailed to ask why I had received so much less, I received, you guessed it, no reply. It makes me so angry that this uni prides itself on being accessible. If you are unable to talk to someone over the phone (because you're hearing impaired for example) they say to open a ticket via my portal. I have opened hundreds! Student records will send you unprofessional emails mispelling your name and filled with obvious typos without ever actually addressing your problem, and then close the ticket as soon as they respond- then, you have to reopen the ticket and explain the issue to someone new all over again! I have quite literally received emails which seem to have been copied and pasted without actually answering my questions. I have even contacted THE DEAN of the university about my experience politely requesting their assistance in resolving this issue and have received no reply! I wish I could tell everyone looking at going here in September that they should go somewhere else because as a teacher myself it makes me so angry that you feel justified in treating students this way! How can you say that you are a university which prides itself on being accessible, particularly for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, if this is the kind of treatment they can expect to receive? If you can go ANYWHERE ELSE to study your degree/Masters, please don't go here. At the very least you will not receive the constantly gaslighting that UEL sends out that they care about Academic excellence, Respect, Dignity, Humanity of Others and Inclusivity (all listed as values on their website!)

Date of experience: Oct 18, 2024