[AntiGCD]

Originally Posted by thebostoncrab

Funny how the page has 0 likes and quotes have been pulled from Boards rather than by people posting their own complaints. Yeap that's a raging majority against Griffith College right there

I'm long enough out the SU to be more open with my feelings on certain students within the college, so I'll say this: I can think of ONE person who actually came into my office to complain about a problem with the college. That's not an exaggeration, there was only one person. And you know what? The issue they had got resolved very quickly when they brought it up with me.

On the other hand, I would over hear the same minority of people complaining about the departments, the SU or something else in the college, and they would do NOTHING about it. If you are unhappy about something within the college then by not bring it up directly and try get it resolved. And if nothing happens then go to the SU and tell them.

I know full well from studying there, working there and still having friends there that it is a minority of people who are unhappy with the college, they are happy to complain about it with mates instead of trying to resolve it.

0 likes right now, but I'm about to start pouring money into advertising. This won't stop 'til every man, woman and child knows not to pick GCD. Any place that favors shareholders over students should be burned to the ground.

[thebostoncrab]

Originally Posted by AntiGCD

0 likes right now, but I'm about to start pouring money into advertising. This won't stop 'til every man, woman and child knows not to pick GCD. Any place that favors shareholders over students should be burned to the ground.

....I can't tell if you're joking or not. I'll assume you actually believe that statement.

I'll tell you one thing that shows that the college gives a damn about it's students: in the SU we would regularly talk with the directors to get support for different things to help students lives, and they have always been very eager to hear us and help us out. Tomas in particular really wanted to hear everything and give help when he was asked. We got wifi brought in, increased events numbers and got permission to allow more late night events. We got issues within departments resolved (I had one big case that Tomas made a top priority and to this day I'll stand by him for what he did). The directors want students to be happy, because if they are not then the college fails.

I'll say it again, if you have a problem with the college then tell them! Nothing gets resolved just by posting here or starting a Facebook group. And if you feel you're not getting anywhere, bring the SU along, that's what they are there for (Yes every year there are some you know wouldn't help you but there are those who will and they are very easy to spot)

[owenbutt]

First of all, DO NOT DELETE THIS OR BAN because this is my experience with Griffith and feedback. It's not a moaning or bitch1ing. I have every right to it as I have spent a lot of money and time.

For everyone who has been reading all the previous posts if you think it's a myth then you are wrong. Griffith college is the WORST ever place you can imagine.

The college is interested on the commercial side of things than academic. It's all about fees, fees, fees otherwise they don't want to listen or talk to you. The restaurant has limited choice of menu not to mention highly expensive. The international office is a foreign students nightmare. Accounts are horrible as they don't even want to talk to you. And faculty (especially computing) are full of attitude and make sure that they don't make you feel welcome at all.

My personal experience was in relation to fees. I have been associated with this college for the last 10 years. Did my degree which cost me 35,000 euro. Went on to do my master after 4 years which was another 7,000 euro and thought that being an ex-student of the college I might be entitled to a reduction in fees. I was offered 300 euro which the president "Mr X" reluctantly conditionally agreed after a lot of wriggling. The faculty head of the department "Mr Y" then improved on that to 500 euro. Because of the breakdown in communication, accounts, faculty and admissions office were completely oblivious of what was going on. I was sent around on a wild goose chase to seek out persons unknown for 10 months. The guy "Mr Z" in admission office would be there for two random weeks every week and everything stopped untill he was back next week. You couldn't get through to anyone on phones. Emails were seldom replied back to. The college has a system of controlling student fees where they cut you off from moodle so you don't have access to your notes and assignments. I ended up falling behind my assignments due to lack of access to moodle. To cut to the chase, after my second semester exams I still had no results even after 3 weeks of them being announced. I had repeats in first week of august and at the time of this writing still don't know what assignments and exams I have to repeat. I ended up paying the 500 euro balance and refused the discount in order to get my results quicker but I'm still at loss as I don't have my results yet. They even demanded an apology out of me for causing inconvenience to everyone and chasing them around.

If they can do it to an ex-student, then nobody is ever going to be spared. My suggestion to everyone is STAY A MILE AWAY FROM THERE and learn from others experiences.

By the way orangeytree seems like a part of the griffith faculty the way he/she is full of information and wonderful ideas. She/he has read the college manual all the way from 2004 till he/she posted that message in 2011. I wonder what he/she has been doing there for 7 years. And about the students running around in panic 3 days before their visas, then I think you have pointed out a weakness in griffith administration that the are not prompt to act on time for anything. They need weeks and weeks to sort out any problem. And by the way if you need any factual proof or information about it then I have 29 emails to prove that if the board allows it then I can post them here.


And my dear thebostoncrab, The only thing that I haven't done and the only person I have not approached is SU because I have knocked on every door you can imagine. But I will give SU a call right now and see what happens. I have taken a lot of time to write this message and by God I am not doing this just for the fun of it.

[Procrastastudy]

LOL you again - didnt get a discount and now you're moaning. Maybe you weren't up to getting a discount.

Resturant - yep pretty pants. Cant argue with the burgers though they are pretty nice shame they are only on two days a week.

Accounts - Yep take no prisoners regards fees - what do you expect. If you want a free education go to a University. I've always found them very helpful as long as you pay them.

Admin can be slow but try any full blow uni in Ireland and comapre it to that. Jesus there are some hilarous memes around regards DCU and UCD student services. Some of the facualty admins in GCD will do anything for you if you ask nicely.

EDIT: Did you give that poor person that had the misfortune of buying a car off you her tax disc yet?

[owenbutt]

Hey GCDLawStudent, let's not make this personal otherwise we will get distracted. I'm not doing this to get a discount out of this. I was glad I found this thread because the one that I opened up was closed down in an hour on the basis that GCD is a private business and it's upto them to decide how to conduct their business. Boards.ie should shutdown their website if people can't openly speak their mind on a public forum even if that involves bad mouthing about someone because GCD can come aboard and defend themselves. Just like a lot of student's in this thread I'm talking about the hassle and waste of time I had to go through which in turn affected my studies big time.

I do ask nicely and only have been able to get through my studies due to "FEW" of the nice lecturers and admin staff hence stuck around there for 10 years, but their hands are tied in most cases and you end up dealing with admin eventually at some stage. And truly I could have gone to the worst uni in Ireland and paid peanuts and never complained but when I'm paying top dollar in a private institute, I want to make sure that it is appreciated and I get my money's worth out of it. I wish I would have gone to DCU or UCD if I knew I was going to get this sort of treatment. And if you are telling me that this is the sort of treatment you can expect in any university in Ireland, then maybe the system in Ireland needs to be improved because it's no fun when the only thing you want to do is give priority to your studies and stay focused instead of trying to sort out your problems all the year round and chasing people and get them to do their job.

Again, this is for the mods, please no personal and smart comments and let's focus on the overall collective issue. GCD should look at this as feedback and opportunity to improve their service because all of us are not imagining it.

Edit: GCDLawStudent. That tax disc has been posted to her. She did not have a misfortune buying a car off me but infact I offered it to her at the point of sale and she refused to take it saying she will sort it out herself. She came with 3 other guys so she was well informed, but she contacted me looking for assistance later in the matter which I did provide her. If you like I can PM you her phone number and you can ask her yourself and for any other a55holes out there who dont' give up giving cheap comments for a genuine question out of innocence and ignorence about the way the system works. You are such a cheapstake that you would go down that low when you have nothing else to say. Hope this will now shut you up. If you want to talk about this more then go to the relevant thread or start a new one because you are hijacking a GCD thread.

Where are the mods on this one?

[Procrastastudy]

All 3 of you - the last guy who tried to launch a we hate GCD campaign failed as well? Why - becuase on the whole they are at the same standard as most colleges / Unis in Ireland. Not perfect but nothing to get your knickers in a twist about.

You didnt pay your fees so didn't get moodle access and messed up your course. I don't see where GCD is at fault here.

[owenbutt]

My friend, again this is not about me alone but I will still answer the question. I DID pay my fees infact untill now I have paid 42,000 euros lol, but the arrangement and communication between departments took 10 months which could have taken at most 10 days and the matter is still not sorted out and I have documented proof for all of this so watch before you give your opinion because you are only guessing most of it.

Moving on to the broader aspect of it, this is not a hate GCD campaign. It is a "i Love GCD" campaign and "I want to improve" GCD campaign and about providing students a platform to present their concerns because trust me there are a lot of student and especially international student's who are not happy and satisfied but GCD gets away with it because everybody just moves on and does not bother bringing it to notice. We are only trying to highlight genuine problems here without spicing it up and if anyone is up for it then I can go as far as doing a research on it and gathering more concrete data as I know tons of GCD students who are willing to contribute to it.

I even know staff in GCD personally who admit that it's not the best place they would like to work at if they had a choice.

I have a feeling you sound like some who is a part of the administration.

[Procrastastudy]

I don't know about the Computering faculty but Law has a student council that sorts out most issues students have.

Your posts don't come across as constructive, or indeed, sincere. As for me people can draw their own conclusions. I am a fan of GCD but I'm well aware of their limitations as per my posts on the matter.

[owenbutt]

Well there are several hundred students there so not everyone can be as happy as you are. Also I do appreciate that for GCD it is difficult to keep all the students happy but I think the problem here is on a grand scale. I have been working in services for several years but there is a difference between being overworked and being completely grumpy because when you are overworked you can still be helpful and polite and friendly. But all you get from admin in GCD is attitude attitude attitude. People in admin run away from you as soon as they see you like as if you are going to eat them when infact you just want to say hello to them. Sad.

You can draw your own conclusions but we are just trying to use this forum because we are not getting any satisfaction and help from anyone or anywhere. I can identify myself. My name is Omar Butt just to make sure that no one thinks that I'm on a campaign to defame GCD. I am a genuine GCD student and maybe everyone else can identify themselves from now on so we can know that no one from GCD is coming up here under make belief names and declaring us a bunch of lunatics who are a very small minority who moan all the time no matter where they go.

[landsleaving]

My experience of GCD's administration has been pretty good, just to give some balance.

I did find out midway through my first semester of an MA that I'd paid €500 more than almost everyone else in my class because the fees were dropped just before the start of term and I'd paid well in advance. I got the €500 back in my bank account in less than a week. So did the other few who were charged more. In UCD, where I did a BA, that would never have happened. Honestly in comparison to UCD, Griffith is far superior admin-wise and much friendlier in my experience. I've plenty I could complain about but nothing that would be different to another college.

Also, why on Earth would you get a discount just because you'd been there before as an undergrad?

[owenbutt]

Because if you don't ask you don't get it. And I know numerous students who have recieved it in the past. Just to make this clear once again. This is not about me getting a discount or that I deserved to get one. This is about the difficulty and inconvenience I had to face when I asked for one which I would have been better off not asking for in the first place.

[melekalikimaka]

this thread has so far been cleaned up many times, whats up imo is fair and justified, theres a mix of views with no names which I would like to keep that way, no posting emails up and no name and shaming please.

I had a wonderful experience, possibly as my dept was quite small and well managed (photography), few issues with some students, but thats college, did a degree in DIT and same issues arose, no college is perfect, yes its a profit driven college, and as a result will pressure for money and well within their rights to withhold results as a result, but there are proceedures in place to recifiy issues and the SU are good at dealing with things when these go astray, the su work closely with the college heads. They dont want you to have a bad experience, it would be bad business.

[Plain of Aleion]

unfortunately I have had a similar experience to Omar.

There is just so much inconsistency. Essentially the biggest whiner (who usually are poor students) are getting best prices.

I know one student who is related to an embassy and they get a further discount. Its not fair that those who get good grades and are in financial difficulty as the jobs promised by recruiter in presentation are not there dont get same treatment.

i have paid higher fees but feel the service is less than irish students...