back to education and grant scams

Clareh123

Hi guys, Clare here from the BCFE Bulletin. What are your views on people claiming grants or Back to Education Allowance despite rarely (if ever) attending college? Though some people have a genuine reason for being unable to attend, there are also those who are robbing willing students of a place in college. What do you think? Does it happen on your course?

the46gang

hi claire,

just a interesting perspective on your query...

The students claiming the welfare benefit and are not attending college may still doing all the work at home themselves.
They may only come into college sporadically and are getting the lecture notes online or off a college collegue.

I have personal experience of this: my wife did a 4 year degree in computer science and was on the back to education allowance and she achieved a first class honours and came first in the class.
This was a shock to some of her classmates as they barely seen her in class over the 4 years.

Her reason for not going in everyday was she was a mature students and couldnt bear being around the younger students and faculty of DIT (bit of a depressing institution seemingly). she just wanted the notes and assignments and wanted to work on her own initiative.

Peter.

Clareh123

Hi,
The situation on my course is different- the notes are not available online and class sizes are small and very dependent on class participation. Poor attendance means time is often wasted on repeating material for those who were absent, and you can understand how this affects morale. It's different in a massive lecture hall, it makes no difference to anyone whether you're there, and you can do well by working independently and using notes online. Unfortunately that's not how it works on my course.

the46gang

hi c,

fair enough, can't argue with the point you made.

good luck in your course.

P