Sunday, April 06, 2008
University Censors its Own Student
Donal Blaney has an interesting post about a foreign student who recorded a YouTube video saying she thought her course fees weren't worth it and Anglia Ruskin University were ripping her off. The university has now banned her from the campus. And they say universities are bastions of free speech. For the full story click HERE. Donal is taking up her case through the courts.
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31 comments:
*sigh*
Usual nonsense. I absolutely can't stand student politics and the way universities are run. At Keele we had a massive problem with the far left dominating everything. They even tried calling me a fascist. Though I'm perpetually suspicious of Blaney's motives, so I won't be lending him my support as such.
Um, did she try complaining through the proper channels first? If the first time any organisation hears that there are problems is on YouTube, you could just perhaps understand how they might get just a little vexed.
Are you sure that she is a FOREIGN student? She doesn't sound foreign.
Also, the Telegraph says that the fees for her postgraduate course in Management are £4,750 a year. A foreign student would pay a lot more than that.
Surveys show that almost all self-financing postgraduate students feel that they are not getting value for money. I felt that when I was doing a higher degree.
They justify barring her by saying the video was 'defamatory'. I have seen it. It wasn't. And I strongly suspect they don't know the meaning of the word.
I had already seen the video. Had the university not made all the fuss the Telegraph wouldn't have mentioned it, nor would you, and I would not even know that an Anglia Ruskin University existed, let alone its faults. That is despite the fact I studied in Cambridge for three years. There was an Anglia Polytechnic university, I can only assume this is the same one.
Foolish indeed to make such a fuss, and draw attention to your critics.
I was helping a student enter Portsmouth University and the charges and lack of coordination between departments were most surprising.
They didn't exactly bend over backwards to ease the situation.
My old alumni, Iain.
She was lucky, in my day someone waited 6 weeks for their timetable.
http://kerroncross.blogspot.com/2008/04/problems-with-admin-at-anglia.html
It was only a 12 week term!
Isn't this illegal under section 42 of the Education (No 2) Act 1986 that protects freedom of speech:
"Every individual and body of persons concerned in the government of any establishment to which this section applies shall take such steps as are reasonably practicable to ensure that freedom of speech within the law is secured for members, students and employees of the establishment and for visiting speakers."
This is a story of the same type as the one about the school pupil who was not allowed a bar of chocolate in their lunchbox. Only one side of the story has been aired -- again, the complainant's -- and again Iain is urging us to rush to judgement.
Sounds about right. It's virtually impossible to get any complaint about anything to be paid attention to these days. No wonder most people are turned off from politics. Certainly I've completely lost interest in my own degree course. Fifteen grand down the drain, sigh.
Why did she go to Anglia Ruskin and what did she expect?
Good luck to her. Universities -- especially the ex-polys -- are thinpy-disguised profiteering operations nowadays. They'll cut costs at a stroke. I had a piece published in a national paper when I was an undergraduate, saying as much. I was hauled before my head of department, and told that it was only because I hadn't named the university in the article that I had escaped some sort of formal censure.
That sounds par for the course. I had far more free speech at school. Universities' idea of free speech is the freedom to espouse as much politically correct commie nonsense as possible. Woe betide anyone who thinks for themselves. My essays get marked down whenever I argue against communism.
Where did you get the idea that universities are bastions of free speech?
At their best, universities seek to acquaint you with the 'best that has been said and thought'
At their worst, universities seek to acquaint you with whatever self-serving hogwash is currently fashionable.
In neither case are you given the option of dissent - and nor should you be since you are going there to learn.
As for student politics, since when have the left been interested in free speech? Freedom to be oppressed roughly sums up that creed.
anonymous @ 7.52 PM: You ask: Isn't this illegal under section 42of the Education (No 2) Act 1986?
Yes, it is.
Much as I sympathise with her, and detest the 'university''s heavy handed response, this does slightly smack of that 'rate-my-teacher' bollox which is making recruiting into the teaching profession well nigh impossible. Any inaccurate drivel is printed, and they name and shame any institutions which have the temerity to block access to asinine sites like this.
At the end of the day, she paid for a 'cheap package holiday' rather than all-expenses, all inclusive resort holiday. You pays your money you takes your choice.
Our politics department discourages discussion of the Israel/ Palestine conflict.
a student, I almost envy you... my student union seems to talk about nothing but the israel/palestine conflict... student matters have been put to one side for years.
While it is fair to say that we're really only hearing one side of the story, I don't think we should be fretting about rushing to judgment.
University procedures are at best Byzantine, and the one external body with a responsibility for making the Universities play ball - the OIA - is very slow, for all its virtues.
You're not allowed take things to the OIA until the University has finished chewing you over, something which itself can take a year - and the OIA can take more than six months after that.
If she goes through 'the proper channels' she can say goodbye to the next year or two of her life.
Chris Goodman
What kind of university did you go to? the whole point of a degree is to teach how to find new information alongside learning the core of knowledge. That is why it traditionally differs from a diploma of further education, and contains a strong element of self-directed research (modern "degrees" on non-academic subjects excepted).
Free expression, dissent and freedom of thought is a necessary part of this. Science would never advance if people did not dissent or freely enquire, and I suspect neither would any other field.
Anglia Ruskin 'University'?
bj says
"are thinly-disguised profiteering operations"
Yes they are.
Sorry to sound a bit snobby but these former polys are scraping the barrel when it comes to lecturers. I went to a decent place and even some of my tutors were terminal loonies who only got the job because they were lefties.
These new universities spread themselves very thinly indeed and to the question "Got any degrees?" the answer will be, "Yeah, what do you want squire?".
Among the wonders of Anglia Ruskin are
"Animal Behaviour and Ecology"...where you will get "an awareness of moral and ethical issues related to the subject of the degree"
(Thank goodness they relate to the degree. I was worried you might have drifted off for a minute.)
"Leadership Cert HE" where the the course
"is focused on the individual developing leadership knowledge and skills primarily through an evaluation of themselves"
(Well, feck, I reckon I am fecking good at this leadership game. Gimme a First!"
and
Psychosocial Studies (BSc Hons)
where you will
"address important questions about the human condition"
(The human condition eh? Will that be? - the liberal existentialist take on the human condition and deconstructivist theory or perhaps a sub-lateral nihilist interpretation as contradicted by Lacan who uses the term ’submaterial nihilism’ to denote a mythopoetical paradox?
bottox
Thirsty gargoyle, the things the student is complaining of could have been settled by having a 2-minute chat with the departmental secretary. I find it significant that the complaints are being made at this point in the academic year rather than in the autumn. This is the point when students are looking around for excuses for their anticipated failure in next month's exams. For example, a student will come along now and say that they were ill in November and want special treatment. I don't know what has happened in this case, but it is odd that the university has accused the student of making a defamatory comment about a senior member of staff, whereas in the clip no individual is referred to. I would guess that the student has removed the original clip and posted a new one with a different set of complaints. There is clearly more to this story than meets the eye, and that is why I think that Iain and others are being naive in taking the student's side without waiting for the full picture.
"Free expression, dissent and freedom of thought is a necessary part of this. Science would never advance if people did not dissent or freely enquire, and I suspect neither would any other field."
You are confusing being a student with being a master. Your opinion about physics for example is (rightly) ignored until you are deemed to have mastered the subject.
Of course a free society gives scientists (within the boundaries of the law) the freedom to do their research in their own way, but if students were given freedom to dissent you might as well close the universities down.
"Much as I sympathise with her, and detest the 'university''s heavy handed response, this does slightly smack of that 'rate-my-teacher' bollox which is making recruiting into the teaching profession well nigh impossible. Any inaccurate drivel is printed, and they name and shame any institutions which have the temerity to block access to asinine sites like this."
Not sure why this should 'make recruiting into the teaching profession well nigh impossible'.
Yes, it might discourage those people unable to handle criticism, or who have been brought up secure in their unearned self-esteem from years of 'all must have prizes' education, but I'd have thought this was a good thing, surely?
As for 'naming and shaming', well, that only works if the institution feels any shame, or has done something it could be ashamed of, doesn't it?
Julia M, do you seriously think that?
"Julia M, do you seriously think that?"
Yes. Or I wouldn't have bothered to type it into this little box.
Helen said...
"Why did she go to Anglia Ruskin and what did she expect?"
Brilliant and dead right. Only excuse might be that she's foreign and had never heard of Ken Clarke's university joke/balls-up.
Anon ..."Only excuse might be that she's foreign and had never heard of Ken Clarke's university joke/balls-up."
But she did her first degree (in Japanese and performing arts) at Oxford Brookes - almost as bad as ARU.
"And they say universities are bastions of free speech."
I take it that you've never visited the racist, fascist hell-hole known as Lampeter Uni?
Wow, I can't believe that so many people have commented about my university experience. Just to answer a few questions. I only ever did one video and the "defamatory" comments were written underneath the video written by others and one was written by myself. Personally I didn't think any of the comments were "defamatory" but I was advised by ARU's solicitors to remove them, so I did. The uni did send me an email asking me to remove the comments but due to the fact that my student email didn't work from for a good six months between sep-feb I didn't receive it so I had no knowledge of it. The complaints procedure within the uni is long and arduous. The uni operates a 3 part complaints procedure of which I couldn't get past the 1st part as they wouldn't let me. I can't go to the OIA until I exhaust the internal complaints procedure which is impossible as the uni won't let me. I felt I had no other choice but to at least warn other people about the experience of my course in the form of a video on youtube. Just to clarify I'm not a international student not that this should matter and also my undergraduate degree at Oxford Brookes was very good and I learnt a lot. The reason why I chose to go to ARU was mainly financial, my mom lives here so I moved back to save on the costs but also because the course they advertised in the prospectus sounded good. Unfortunately the uni couldn't live up to the course description. I've learnt a very expensive lesson, GET everything in writing and never trust the prospectus. If you can, record all your conversations and get as much evidence as you can.
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