2012 University Complaints (England & Wales) in 2012

I kid you not. The title highlights a rise of 25% in complaints lodged to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator from academic institutions in England and Wales.

Numerous academics, journalists and opinionated individuals ally this increase with the inaugural year of the £9,000 fee tariff. One has to consider the possibility that this is a cop-out. You might even choose to lament the fact that some people are insistent on interlinking money and cost with education. Some postulate that rising student antagonism has spawned from the myopia of the coalition Government, who choose to view third level education as a hindrance rather than a help.

69% of complaints, as cited by The Huffington Post, related to academic status, originating principally from Business students and those aligned with medical faculties More than half of these (59%) were deemed ‘unjustified’ by the OIA. The seventh successive annual increase was attributed to challenges related to the professionalism of students and staff regarding misconduct and plagiarism.

I believe students... feel undervalued, merely ushered through the system

The subtleties of the statistics prove most intriguing. In my opinion fees are only one component of the matter. Granted, the media coverage of fee hikes awarded legitimacy and even acted as a vehicle for student antagonism and (as seen on London streets a couple of years ago) acted as tinder for the fire. It signified the Government’s off-loading of responsibility (of their own volition) for providing a technically and intellectually adept proletariat in the trivial pursuit of a doomed policy of fiscal austerity.

TO WHAT END? All they have produced is an unhealthy competition between prospective students, whereby a flawless set of A-Level (or equivalent) grades may not guarantee their place at university. Furthermore a more anxious, apprehensive student body has evolved from the wreckage, preoccupied with examinations as the end-product of their studies rather than the value of the education they received. This has set the tempo for the exponentially morphing grade inflation whereby a 2-1 just doesn’t cut it. Arguably we are already there.

London South Bank University was, forgive me, named and shamed by the OIA for failing to comply with recommendations regarding the handling of complaints and the associated mechanisms of compensation. To quote a Mr. Behrens of the OIA, “We go through quite a rigorous process of alerting Universities to what they have to do to avoid being named for non-compliance”.

Avoid? AVOID? Here is a prime example of the crux of current student antagonism. All the rhetoric coming from both the Government and its associated bodies is negative and debasing, conveying that the student body is a nuisance that must be managed rather than engaged.

I believe students as a whole (across England and Wales) feel undervalued, merely ushered through the system, like cattle to the abattoir. If the Government were to wholeheartedly proclaim academia as a cornerstone of economic recovery (with conviction), a national bastion of confidence in its bright young minds, those complaints might just recede in future years. It may just pass down from the level of governance into the grass roots.