Graduate takes uni to court over his result...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-11376021

"A Belfast graduate has taken his university to court after they awarded him a 2:2 degree.
Andrew Croskery, from County Down, applied for a judicial review of the grade he received from Queen's University in Belfast.
Mr Croskery claimed if he had received better supervision he would have obtained a 2:1, the High Court was told on Monday."

Students annoy me at the best of times but this is just taking the p1ss...better supervision?? Sorry mate, you're an adult, you're at university, you're supposed to be independant enough to not need your hand held the whole way along!
I would imagine this wouldn't do him any favors in his future employment prospects either, employers will click why his name seems familiar and remember this is the guy who took his university to court just because he didn't do as well as he wanted to and steer clear of him...but sure, graduates know best eh :rolleyes:

Adam

do you do your job better when supervised or unsupervised?

hidinginthebush

I agree OP, this is another case of abusing the legal system due to your own stupidity. (like people who sued mcdonald's after burning themselves with hot tea/coffee)

curlzy

Adam wrote: »

do you do your job better when supervised or unsupervised?

I do my job to the best of my ability at all times because I get paid to, you know? Do you slack off when unsupervised? How old are you?:rolleyes:

With regards Mr WaaWaa Ididn'tgetwhatIwant, what a loser, seriously no employer will go near him with a bargepole now and rightly so I think.

Dravokivich

curlzy wrote: »

Do you slack off when unsupervised?

Only when I'm on Boards.

petes

curlzy wrote: »

Do you slack off when unsupervised? How old are you?:rolleyes:

I do. It's great. I even do it when supervised!!

Shenshen

curlzy wrote: »

I do my job to the best of my ability at all times because I get paid to, you know? Do you slack off when unsupervised? How old are you?:rolleyes:

With regards Mr WaaWaa Ididn'tgetwhatIwant, what a loser, seriously no employer will go near him with a bargepole now and rightly so I think.

I think the point was more that most people work better with less supervision... I know I do.

bonerm

Is this actually with a view to getting a job in some particular company or is it just out of vanity? In the long term it really doesn't matter whether you got a 2.1 or a 2.2. Nobody will care except yourself.

flyton5

So because he was a lazy slacker he didnt get the result he wanted? I might talk to Joe and tell him it's a disgrace that I didnt finish college...if only someone had come around to my house and woken me up for all those 9am accounting lectures....

cheeky git!!

Mark200

bonerm wrote: »

Is this actually with a view to getting a job in some particular company or is it just out of vanity? In the long term it really doesn't matter whether you got a 2.1 or a 2.2. Nobody will care except yourself.

I don't see why it wouldn't matter. If you're competing for a job with someone who got a better grade than you, then obviously it'll make a difference.

There's plenty of job adverts that say "2.1 or higher required".

Trashbat

Adam wrote: »

do you do your job better when supervised or unsupervised?

Probably unsupervised. Well, at least not micro managed. Makes me jumpy and over cautious to have a superior looking over me. I find i'm professional enough to do my job without having to be told to.

I learned this skill in University, where I was expected to work without constant supervision.


Having said that, I think this could be a case of supervision being a requirement, where a supervisor is assigned to a student for a dissertation or research project. I know of situations where the lecturers constantly cancelled appointments and the like with students and the ty were left a little neglected. so it this is the case, fair enough.

Adam

Adam wrote: »

do you do your job better when supervised or unsupervised?

Neither, I do my job the same, and because I'm a big girl now I take responsibility for my own failures in life...thing is he didn't even fail, just didn't receive the grade he had hoped. Life's harsh, you can't win everything, you just got to learn to man up and deal with it. If there really was a problem with the teaching methods and whatnot he should have raised it long before receiving his result and took it up with the university directly, and he wasn't the only one doing the degree so if it really was bad then the rest should've been complaining aswell.

If he does get somewhere with this I can just see it starting off a trend

Columbia

Seems to be confusing a university degree with a secondary school class where the teacher will mollycoddle and spoonfeed you into trying to get a good grade.

At university you take on responsiblity for your own education, nobody will "make" you go to class. Such matters of character and organisation are part of university, and one of the reasons that a university degree is more prized than a secondary education. If he hasn't done this then he hasn't fully filled his course requirements, and so deserves the mark he got.

wes

When you have some work experience under your belt so to speak, whether you got a 2.1 or 2.2 tends to matter less and less. A court case like this will hurt him in the job market more than the grade imho. If he can't get the job he wants right away, get some work experience and apply again in a few years.

bonerm

bonerm wrote: »

Is this actually with a view to getting a job in some particular company or is it just out of vanity? In the long term it really doesn't matter whether you got a 2.1 or a 2.2. Nobody will care except yourself.

I think a masters requires a 2.1 or better, IIRC, that's what I needed.
That said, he has little hope of doing a masters if he kicks up a tantrum over this grade.

Naikon

Meh, most University courses vary dramatically when you consider the standard required for completing courses. You can't argue a 2.2 in Electrical Engineering is not a good result. Sure a 2.1 is the "gold standard" for academia and whatnot, but I would take a 2.2 in engineering or computer science over a 1.1 Arts student anyday. Engineering courses tend not to suffer from grade inflation. And for good reason. It's commonly known that colleges tend to(at least in the UK) inflate grades to match the 2.1 criteria set by most grad schemes. A 2.1 is a great result but believing that some arbitrary cutoff point is the be all and end all with respect to skill is wrong. I don't agree with his assertion that you need good supervision for projects mind you. You can do masters with a 2.2 btw. It's still an honours degree result. It's not a third, or a pass tbh.

Thirdfox

hidinginthebush wrote: »

I agree OP, this is another case of abusing the legal system due to your own stupidity. (like people who sued mcdonald's after burning themselves with hot tea/coffee)

http://www.lectlaw.com/files/cur78.htm

3rd degree burns on 6% of your body, McDonald's offering 800 dollars for a 11,000 dollar medical bill (ultimately they had to pay a lot more when the case went to trial).

I don't think it's ridiculous that people can sue when the company knew of 800 previous cases of people burning themselves on 90 degrees coffee.

As a result - companies are more conscious about product safety, and that's good for the consumer.

Speaking as a law student

IvyTheTerrible

Jesus, what ever happened to personal responsibility?

Trashbat

Thirdfox wrote: »

http://www.lectlaw.com/files/cur78.htm

3rd degree burns on 6% of your body, McDonald's offering 800 dollars for a 11,000 dollar medical bill (ultimately they had to pay a lot more when the case went to trial).

I don't think it's ridiculous that people can sue when the company knew of 800 previous cases of idiots burning themselves on 90 degrees coffee.

As a result - companies are more conscious about product safety, and that's good for the consumer.

Speaking as a law student

FYP

spurious

Wait til you see this happen on behalf of children whose parents will hire solicitors to 'prove' they didn't get enough help while at school.

We're already keeping detailed records in anticipation of a flood of cases.

All part of the culture of blaming someone else.

cp9a

Some people must think everything can be solved by complaining.

Kimono-Girl

IvyTheTerrible wrote: »

Jesus, what ever happened to personal responsibility?

It seems it went out the window a long time ago! :rolleyes:

Handsome Bob

Columbia wrote: »

At university you take on responsiblity for your own education, nobody will "make" you go to class.

It might not be a simple case of that though. The fact that we're talking about a supervisor in itself indicates that we're talking about a research project or a thesis. If that is the case, anyone who has written a thesis will tell you how much of a significant role their supervisor played in the result they got. So if this bloke was writing a thesis and his supervisor's contribution was non existent then I would sympathise with his situation.

Adam

@ all_the_haters

i'm not saying the eejit deserves to win the case or anything, but be honest, most of us will work harder when surpervised than not supervised at all.

how many of you are at work right now?

Dardania

LZ5by5 wrote: »

It might not be a simple case of that though. The fact that we're talking about a supervisor in itself indicates that we're talking about a research project or a thesis. If that is the case, anyone who has written a thesis will tell you how much of a significant role their supervisor played in the result they got. So if this bloke was writing a thesis and his supervisor's contribution was non existent then I would sympathise with his situation.

TBH I did my thesis in elec engineering with a total of 3 meetings with my supervisor (I was on erasmus[doss] in Spain) and got a 72% mark... supervision isn't the be-all & end-all, if you have a topic you can work on solo

Dardania

Adam wrote: »

@ all_the_haters

i'm not saying the eejit deserves to win the case or anything, but be honest, most of us will work harder when surpervised than not supervised at all.

how many of you are at work right now?

it's all a case of motivations...in my workplace there's a Machiavellian mindset - I work when I want to, as long as I get the results.

If no one is checking on your final progress, if there's no performance metric...then there wouldn't be supervision...

The_Minister

Dardania wrote: »

TBH I did my thesis in elec engineering with a total of 3 meetings with my supervisor (I was on erasmus[doss] in Spain) and got a 72% mark... supervision isn't the be-all & end-all, if you have a topic you can work on solo

In most fields the student writes it up, but the supervisor tells them how to do it (what info in what order, where needs expansion etc).

Without that, your chances of passing drop dramatically.

starlit

I agree with a lot of posters here. Think that a supervisors input can make a huge impact and a difference on a students grade when it comes to the likes of a thesis project. Its their guidance towards the student that will be accounted for not just the students work. Of course the students work will be the deciding factor but a bit of proper direction will place the student at a higher regard if they follow good guidance coming from the supervisor. I know myself, I have done many major projects and the differences of my grades varied, they were all different projects had different supervisors for each but each of the supervisors guidance was slightly different, they wanted emphasis on certain aspects of the project to stand out more than other aspects. What the student might think is important and relevant might not be the case in the supervisors eyes and its up to the supervisor to point that out to the student if the student is unsure.

It really doesn't matter whether someone has a 1:1, 2:1 or a 2:2 or a pass degree. Its skills and experience employers are looking for. Why would they want to take on a student who got a first in their degree and have had no I mean zero work experience throughout their school and college days in comparison to someone who got a 2:1 or a 2:2 even a pass degree who has a fair bit of work experience and skills behind them whether be summer work, school/college placement/work-experience! I know myself have seen it happen to many students I know that have achieved all those kind of results and its usually been the ones who get below a 1:1.

Of course there are jobs out there and graduate work placement programmes that require a high standard with top notch results and even a top notch leaving cert but they still look for a reasonable amount of work experience! Its those who have relevant and enough work experience are the ones who will win out in the end of the day no matter what their degree result!

There are many Masters that only require a 2:2, even those that are a 1 or a 2:1 is a major requirement it isn't always and some courses will bend the rules a little even if someone got a 2:2 with relevant work experience they can still get into a Masters that require a 1 or a 2:1. Though you may need a 1 or a 2:1 for a PHd but every course is different might be some chance that a 2:2 is all you need even if its a Master and Phd course.

Columbia

LZ5by5 wrote: »

It might not be a simple case of that though. The fact that we're talking about a supervisor in itself indicates that we're talking about a research project or a thesis. If that is the case, anyone who has written a thesis will tell you how much of a significant role their supervisor played in the result they got. So if this bloke was writing a thesis and his supervisor's contribution was non existent then I would sympathise with his situation.

I am currently writing a thesis, I meet my supervisor once every two months. Yes, the supervisor's role is an important one, and I can't imagine anybody even getting a passing grade without extensive help. However, there are good and bad supervisors, you can talk to other postgrads, choose your supervisor and you can switch if it's not working out. This guy didn't take on any of that responsibility, as if the university was going to accept his sub-standard work just because in his opinion the supervisor that he chose (out of any university in Ireland, Britain, or even Europe) wasn't up to scratch.

orourkeda

This guy is a douche

Cookie_Monster

Adam wrote: »

how many of you are at work right now?

I'm in work but not at work, does that count?

Aswerty

This guy sounds exactly like he was in the same position I was 2 years ago except I didn't sue anyone.

My thesis was initially based on one thing which I chose and had an interest in but my supervisor had the authority to change the project because he needed something else done. I was doing an engineering course and my new project was in a field that was not really relevant to my course and I had no experience in. I had absolutely no support on my project due to having nobody in my working group who had any understanding of the technology I was dealing with. I of course gave a stab at it but my ability to understand and make progress was severely limited. And the worst thing is the point you realise the project is beyond you is after the point you can do something about it.

Now my supervisor wasn't exactly known for people skills so the whole thing turned into a bit of a mess and I got a result that just put me under the 2:1 mark. I think if I had a supervisor that was half decent, no scratch that. If i had a supervisor that didn't think he could use me to do research into an area because he didn't have anyone knowledgeable in that area at hand I would have been able to do a project relevant to my field and gotten the result I needed.

What really galled me was that project work has always been my forté but in this case it completely screwed me over.

I thought about appealing my result but that would have caused me to accuse my supervisor of being incompetent which would have been a serious accusation which I didn't feel up to making.

I've done a Masters since then and I'm hoping that the 2:1 minimum jobs won't be a problem anymore but they were a worry last year when I was looking for jobs and being just off the required minimum.

brianthebard

LZ5by5 wrote: »

It might not be a simple case of that though. The fact that we're talking about a supervisor in itself indicates that we're talking about a research project or a thesis. If that is the case, anyone who has written a thesis will tell you how much of a significant role their supervisor played in the result they got. So if this bloke was writing a thesis and his supervisor's contribution was non existent then I would sympathise with his situation.

If that was the case then I would have slightly more sympathy for the fool, but if he's doing an M.Litt or PhD he had up to four years to ask for a new supervisor or a secondary supervisor. If he was doing a Masters, regardless of the thesis grade he should have been able to bring the whole thing above a 2.2 by doing well on the other modules.

eta; its called a degree rather than a postgrad in the article so he should have been able to do his work with or without proper supervision tbh.

LZ5by5

LZ5by5 wrote: »

It might not be a simple case of that though. The fact that we're talking about a supervisor in itself indicates that we're talking about a research project or a thesis. If that is the case, anyone who has written a thesis will tell you how much of a significant role their supervisor played in the result they got. So if this bloke was writing a thesis and his supervisor's contribution was non existent then I would sympathise with his situation.

Exactly. I don't know what the story is with this guy, but it's normal to expect some level of supervision when writing a dissertation. My supervisor went out on sick leave over the summer (not her fault obv, but the university never informed me of this fact and I wasn't reassigned to another supervisor) and I think my work suffered greatly as a result. The whole point of having a supervisor is to get feedback, to have someone to tell you what you need to improve, what you should cut out and so on. It has absolutely nothing to do with being spoonfed. You can work your arse off but if you don't have a good supervisor, you're at a disadvantage compared to other students. Some supervisors will even look at an entire first draft and return it with notes in the margins - compare that to a student having to work on their own. I know my circumstances have affected the quality of my work and I'm not happy about it at all. If I'd paid the fees out of my own pocket, I'd certainly consider an appeal because I didn't receive the supervision I'd paid for. Now, it sounds like the guy was doing an undergrad degree, but supervision is still important.

Aswerty

brianthebard wrote: »

If that was the case then I would have slightly more sympathy for the fool, but if he's doing an M.Litt or PhD he had up to four years to ask for a new supervisor or a secondary supervisor. If he was doing a Masters, regardless of the thesis grade he should have been able to bring the whole thing above a 2.2 by doing well on the other modules.

eta; its called a degree rather than a postgrad in the article so he should have been able to do his work with or without proper supervision tbh.

Undergrad theses can be 25% of a degree. If the rest of his work is above the 2:1 degree mark and his thesis brings the average below but the circumstances of his thesis indicates he was given an unfair disadvantage surely that could indicate that he has a case? Supervisors can dictate the subject, the content and the purvey of a thesis to a very considerable degree and can be very inconsistent with what they want with respect to each.

I can't really see how someone can change supervisors since other supervisors will already have a bunch of students and won't want another one. Colleges can be very rigid with respect to things like this since allowing changes make things less fair and more complicated.

Of course we're just shooting in the dark since we don't actually know his circumstances. I'm just saying that he might be justified in suing although I don't think it is the most constructive of actions.

pakb1ue

Naikon wrote: »

Sure a 2.1 is the "gold standard" for academia and whatnot, but I would take a 2.2 in engineering or computer science over a 1.1 Arts student anyday. Engineering courses tend not to suffer from grade inflation. And for good reason.

I can see were your coming from but I have a 2.1 in Computer Science and I dont think I would be able to get the same grade if I did an Arts degree. I have good analytical skills but ask me to write about some Roman God I wouldnt have a clue were to even start.

That said if I had picked Arts I would have probably done Computer Science and Maths.

For my research project in final year I would have been lost without the help of my supervisor as I had to learn a new language and for my thesis I didnt even know were to start and my supervisor gave me heading on what to write about and made changes to the work I had already done. It was worth 25% of my overall grade.

Handsome Bob

pakb1ue wrote: »

I can see were your coming from but I have a 2.1 in Computer Science and I dont think I would be able to get the same grade if I did an Arts degree. I have good analytical skills but ask me to write about some Roman God I wouldnt have a clue were to even start.

I think that's what he was so nicely getting at though, that it doesn't matter if you know nothing about Roman Gods because it isn't important. That's how I interpreted it anyway.

Naikon

LZ5by5 wrote: »

I think that's what he was so nicely getting at though, that it doesn't matter if you know nothing about Roman Gods because it isn't important. That's how I interpreted it anyway.

I like to think about it this way:

Engineer-> Accountable for public safety in most instances
Arts student-> Accountable to nobody(except maybe the Arts department)

Not to say that Arts is piss easy, it's just that Engineering requires a distinct level of rigour which is reflected by the fact most engineering courses in general put other courses out there to shame in contact hours/exam difficulty. I say this as a CS person just to note. Seriously though, anyone who can manage a 2.2 in an Engineering discipline is still probably more employable than most "University Educated" grads.

Plautus

I'm sure it warms the blood like nothing else to put down 1.1 students in Arts as being the product of grade inflation but it'd be nice to see some proof of that. The percentage of firsts awarded varies from university to university and from department to department within Arts faculties. Rates of attainment of firsts can be as low as 3% of the class or as high as 15% when these criteria are accounted for.

So I'd suggest you look at the person's degree subjects, where they got the degree, and how they were graded in research projects or the like at undergrad before you suggest that firsts are anything other than worked for and deserved.

Engineer-> Accountable for public safety in most instances
Arts student-> Accountable to nobody(except maybe the Arts department)

No student of engineering will ever be accountable for public safety - he won't be left in charge of any building project. So he's only accountable to his department as well. If we're talking about what happens to the respective graduates in their lives after they graduate - Arts students too can be employed in positions of great trust and care. Think about teachers for example.

Naikon

Plautus wrote: »

I'm sure it warms the blood like nothing else to put down 1.1 students in Arts as being the product of grade inflation but it'd be nice to see some proof of that. The percentage of firsts awarded varies from university to university and from department to department within Arts faculties. Rates of attainment of firsts can be as low as 3% of the class or as high as 15% when these criteria are accounted for.

So I'd suggest you look at the person's degree subjects, where they got the degree, and how they were graded in research projects or the like at undergrad before you suggest that firsts are anything other than worked for and deserved.



No student of engineering will ever be accountable for public safety - he won't be left in charge of any building project. So he's only accountable to his department as well. If we're talking about what happens to the respective graduates in their lives after they graduate - Arts students too can be employed in positions of great trust and care. Think about teachers for example.

Ok, I am being unfair to the Arts people. I apologise for picking out Arts as an example. Just saying, Engineering is proably one of the most difficult courses to complete at University level, and this is reflected by the coursework, which in itself reflects the standards set by IEI and whatnot. I will use another example, I would probably take a 2.2 Engineering student over a 1.1 CS graduate:pac:

parker kent

Naikon wrote: »

I like to think about it this way:

Engineer-> Accountable for public safety in most instances
Arts student-> Accountable to nobody(except maybe the Arts department)

Not to say that Arts is piss easy, it's just that Engineering requires a distinct level of rigour which is reflected by the fact most engineering courses in general put other courses out there to shame in contact hours/exam difficulty. I say this as a CS person just to note. Seriously though, anyone who can manage a 2.2 in an Engineering discipline is still probably more employable than most "University Educated" grads.

Why are you comparing Arts students accountability when they are still in college to the accountability of engineers in their jobs after college? Surely you should compare their accountability in the jobs they end up doing?

I know Engineering students who are mathematically brilliant but are otherwise extremely weak in terms of written ability, decision making etc. In other words, things that are important in many jobs. Plus as is mentioned above, Arts students are often teachers. Also, remember that Arts students often do a postgraduate course that gives them a professional qualification in any number of areas. So they can end up in any number of jobs that are accountable.

Naikon

parker kent wrote: »

Why are you comparing Arts students accountability when they are still in college to the accountability of engineers in their jobs after college? Surely you should compare their accountability in the jobs they end up doing?

I know Engineering students who are mathematically brilliant but are otherwise extremely weak in terms of written ability, decision making etc. In other words, things that are important in many jobs. Plus as is mentioned above, Arts students are often teachers. Also, remember that Arts students often do a postgraduate course that gives them a professional qualification in any number of areas. So they can end up in any number of jobs that are accountable.

I know. I should proably remove that comment. Pretty stupid statement on my behalf. I won't try to argue this idiocy further. Apologies. Just try to ignore the fact I left a big gaping hole:o

brianthebard

Aswerty wrote: »

Undergrad theses can be 25% of a degree. If the rest of his work is above the 2:1 degree mark and his thesis brings the average below but the circumstances of his thesis indicates he was given an unfair disadvantage surely that could indicate that he has a case? Supervisors can dictate the subject, the content and the purvey of a thesis to a very considerable degree and can be very inconsistent with what they want with respect to each.

I can't really see how someone can change supervisors since other supervisors will already have a bunch of students and won't want another one. Colleges can be very rigid with respect to things like this since allowing changes make things less fair and more complicated.

Of course we're just shooting in the dark since we don't actually know his circumstances. I'm just saying that he might be justified in suing although I don't think it is the most constructive of actions.

Well you don't know the circumstances either so we're even. You can go to the department and tell them you have a problem and they will help you out in some way. Some people don't realise this is possible but it is.

Cake Man

Hahaha I used to work with the fella in question, couldn't believe it when I read it, really is something he'd do tbh!

Mr. CooL ICE

LZ5by5 wrote: »

It might not be a simple case of that though. The fact that we're talking about a supervisor in itself indicates that we're talking about a research project or a thesis. If that is the case, anyone who has written a thesis will tell you how much of a significant role their supervisor played in the result they got. So if this bloke was writing a thesis and his supervisor's contribution was non existent then I would sympathise with his situation.

I met with my supervisor twice at the beginning of my thesis, and he was as helpful as claustrophobic sardine. I didn't meet him until 5.5 months later for the presentation where I got a B1. Not bad for no supervision.

Aswerty

brianthebard wrote: »

Well you don't know the circumstances either so we're even. You can go to the department and tell them you have a problem and they will help you out in some way. Some people don't realise this is possible but it is.

That's why I said "we" don't know the circumstances.

ScissorPaperRock

Naikon wrote: »

but I would take a 2.2 in engineering or computer science over a 1.1 Arts student anyday.

This makes no sense. I did a combination of Computer Science modules includong Signal Processing and Speech Processing which basically involved a lot of engineering-type maths, as well as Geography - strange combination, I know, but that's not the point.

It was much easier to get higher grades in Computer Science where answers tend to be definitively right or wrong, whereas within Geography, like most arts subjects, answers are subjective, and people rarely get higher than 70%.

I also found that Geography had a much heavier workload than my Computer Science modules.

QuiteInterestin

I thought it was generally accepted that no matter how good or bad you did in your project/thesis you were always awarded a similar mark in your project to that which you acheived in your written assignments/exams in your final year? We were told in college that while a good project could push you up or down if you were boarderline between grades e.g. averaging a high 2.2, a good project mark could push you into a 2.1, it would never allow you to jump from a 2.2 to a first no matter how good it was, or vice verse. This is to allow for the differences students will experience during their project, e.g. a fantastic student with an supervisor who doesn't give a damn and gives them no help/guidance whatsoever or a weaker student who gets a great supervisor/team to work with who practiacally write the project up for them and so hands up a project far superior to anything they have previously submitted or been capable of. Thats what we were told anyways and this has been the experience of others I know

parker kent

Naikon wrote: »

I know. I should proably remove that comment. Pretty stupid statement on my behalf. I won't try to argue this idiocy further. Apologies. Just try to ignore the fact I left a big gaping hole:o

You had posted your correction to your original just as I posted mine so it is OK!

brianthebard

brianthebard wrote: »

Well you don't know the circumstances either so we're even. You can go to the department and tell them you have a problem and they will help you out in some way. Some people don't realise this is possible but it is.

And often, they just tell you there's f**k all they can do about it. I got screwed over with my undergrad supervisor, a guy who never turned up to our arranged meetings. I went to see the head of dept about it and was told there was nobody else who could take on my dissertation. A similar thing happened to my boyfriend. When I did my MA thesis, my supervisor went out sick and nobody told me. I spent weeks going to her office, emailing her and contacting other lecturers before I bumped into someone who told me what had happened. A lot of academics are really completely useless.

c_man

Don't know the circumstances but it could be a legit complaint. If for instance, he's claiming lack of supervisor input on an engineering FYP.

I had a terrible supervisor for mine. A new guy, advised badly and was rarely willing to help in the slightest. Looking back on it I could have done much better. I'm in a research Masters now and my supervisor is great. It makes a hell of a difference.