Monday 13 July 2015
The degree farm really IS a businesss...not an ethical one...but a business...
Well, so long as you know the right people. For instance, if your close relative is a dean, and you yourself are employed by the university, it doesn't stop you from making a bunch of extra money! You, too, can start a student recruitment business in a country from which we get the vast majority of our foreign students. Basically, at the degree farm, departments have no say on the quality of the students that get accepted to our courses; that's handled in another section of the degree farm. This section works with foreign recruiters who get the students to pay them to find them a course in the UK. Since you also work at the degree farm, you place them at the degree farm...and then the degree farm ALSO then pays your company a fee per student for FINDING them! This, all on top of the salary you're earning from the degree farm, AND all with the approval of a dean. Who says that economics and entrepreneurship aren't alive and well in academia! Besides, who does it hurt if these students aren't actually academically qualified...your disgruntled lecturer will make sure they pass...we have to.
Friday 26 December 2014
We don't need your stinkin' employment data rules, either!
Wow! People suspect that it goes on, but when the disgruntled lecturer(s) actually get things like this 'confirmed', it still shocks us. What shocks us you ask? The fact that the degree farm has an extremely high success rate regarding students finding employment or going on to further education? That's good, right? Depends on what you mean by 'further education'. Because that isn't it. It's the fact that the degree farm apparently helps it's employment stats by paying graduated students who haven't found work or have gone into further education £200 to sign up for a 'course' at the degree farm (what 'course' pays YOU £200 to join, we wonder), so that they can be counted as 'successes' for the degree farm's statistics. Meaning, that a high percentage of graduates have either found work or are continuing education within 6 months of graduation. So parents, you, too, can pay up to £9,000/year on your child's education in return for a £200 return for your now-educated, unemployed progeny. We'll have to ask a finance lecturer to figure out those returns, but it seems that the only positive benefit we see is would be for the degree farm.
Saturday 20 December 2014
When a 'teaching' Uni, isn't.
Some universities extol the virtues of their being 'teaching' universities, and how that is far superior to the evil 'research university' where they tell you that your child will have somewhat limited contact with a real 'professor'. Ok, outside of the fact that most teaching universities don't actually have readers (associate professors), much less professors teaching your kids (so your kids won't have ANY contact with esteemed and established academics, not limited). But lest you don't really see a problem with this, allow me to explain. An MSc student came to visit a lecturer at the degree farm a few weeks ago. They were concerned because they had learned regression analysis (let's call it calculus for the sake of ease) in their degree, but didn't want to go to their module leader because they were still a little insecure about their ability. However, they really wanted to try and use what they had learned for their MSc dissertation. So, they came to me, and I agreed to help. Well, they told their dissertation supervisor what they wanted to do, and this person 'strongly discouraged' the student from using regression analysis because 'they didn't understand it and wouldn't be able to mark their work appropriately' (read: you'll get a crap grade because I, your supervisor, don't know what you've done). HUH?!?!? THIS IS SOMETHING THAT THEY TEACH IN THE MSc DEGREE! But the supervisor doesn't understand it? Now, here is the ironic thing...this supervisor/lecturer's qualifications are that they passed the same degree that the student is getting, from the same university. So they took the same module, but clearly didn't understand it. And, as a paid lecturer/supervisors, do they take the time to try and learn? Do they expand their knowledge so that your kids can grow? Er, no. They tell them to do ratio analysis. So basically, they're telling your kids to do fractions when they're trying to do calculus. Calculus...because your kids WANT to...and the people being paid to educate them are stopping them. By the way, the student in question was upset because, though it was more difficult, they wanted to attempt to apply what they'd actually learned and test themselves. Instead, those who are supposed to educate them actually tell them that in doing so, they'd be attempting something that they don't understand and will make no attempt to understand. I don't know about you, but is this worth your tuition? People teaching your kids who know less than your kids? Not exactly value for money, is it.
Thursday 18 December 2014
Like pawns in a game of chess
Your disgruntled lecturer thought (s)he couldn't be surprised by Degree Farm anymore. Naive and wishful thinking. They always find a way to take it to another level.
Imagine you have worked somewhere for several years which you've spent in your office and your chair. "Your" is the keyword here. We all know that the place is not our property but we grow accustomed to it, fill it with personal belongings and eventually create our comfort zone. This makes sense - feeling safe and comfortable in your office is vital for your productivity (plus emotional and mental health).
Now imagine that one day you come to work and find out it's not your office anymore. Your line manager has decided to move you into another office, another floor, with complete strangers and they never informed you about that! Yes, after your years of service, it didn't occur to them to ask how you'd feel about the move, let alone inform you that it was decided, although they see you on a regular basis and the whole thing had been planned well in advance! Instead you find out from your office mate who tells you that something is up because the estate people are checking your desk and brought boxes to "pack you up".
Well, at this point you definetely feel like a valued member of staff (sarcasm alert!).
The sad point is that to our managers we are nothing more than pawns in a game of chess. They think that they can tell us to do whatever they want and move us to wherever and whenever they wish. They don't care about our opinions or wellbeing, or for that matter our job satisfaction. You'd think that one of manager's duties is to create an atmosphere conducive to productive work - not at the Degree Farm. Here the thinking goes: the more the staff are fragmented and the less informed, the easier it is to manipulate them. But most importantly, they are less likely to question the managements' decisions and incompetence.
Imagine you have worked somewhere for several years which you've spent in your office and your chair. "Your" is the keyword here. We all know that the place is not our property but we grow accustomed to it, fill it with personal belongings and eventually create our comfort zone. This makes sense - feeling safe and comfortable in your office is vital for your productivity (plus emotional and mental health).
Now imagine that one day you come to work and find out it's not your office anymore. Your line manager has decided to move you into another office, another floor, with complete strangers and they never informed you about that! Yes, after your years of service, it didn't occur to them to ask how you'd feel about the move, let alone inform you that it was decided, although they see you on a regular basis and the whole thing had been planned well in advance! Instead you find out from your office mate who tells you that something is up because the estate people are checking your desk and brought boxes to "pack you up".
Well, at this point you definetely feel like a valued member of staff (sarcasm alert!).
The sad point is that to our managers we are nothing more than pawns in a game of chess. They think that they can tell us to do whatever they want and move us to wherever and whenever they wish. They don't care about our opinions or wellbeing, or for that matter our job satisfaction. You'd think that one of manager's duties is to create an atmosphere conducive to productive work - not at the Degree Farm. Here the thinking goes: the more the staff are fragmented and the less informed, the easier it is to manipulate them. But most importantly, they are less likely to question the managements' decisions and incompetence.
Wednesday 17 December 2014
It's Away Day!
You probably have heard of away days - days when firms take their staff away from the workplace to clear their heads, do something different, interesting, have nice time, but overall it's a team-building activity. Sounds good, doesn't it?
The Degree Farm has its own take on away days. Going away from the workplace means going to just another university building (literally, sometimes it's just across the street, a building in which many of us teach on daily basis...). Doing something different? Getting involved in team building activities? Positive experiences to remember and increase creativity? Rather not!
Our management's approach to away days can be summarised in the following way: make staff go to another university building which is no further than 5 minutes walk away. Remember to ensure that everyone acts as if they were in some far-away leafy place. Keep them busy for 5 hours - seat them down in a room and have 5 hours of presentations and training.
In each open day there's a good dose of propaganda so we don't forget how great the Degree Farm is and that it's all thank to our amazing deanery. The highlight is when one of the deans comes forward and points out that we are lucky to have our jobs and should be grateful. Good times!
Then we are briefed on changes and suggested changes. Obviously our feedback is appreciated and taken into account by the managers when making their decisions (sarcasm). The typical scenario looks like this: the head of department informs us of a change dreamt up by one of the deanery gurus. Then we are asked what we think about it, after all it's the lecturers who do the work. We express our concerns and say it won't work, it's impractical, impossible etc. Then the head of department says that there's nothing we can do about it because the dean is passionate about his idea. Within two days we all receive an email from the dean informing us that feedback was overwhelmingly positive and he has decided to implement the changes. As you can see the lecturers' input is very valued at Degree Farm!
Then there is some technical training - how to do things online, use virtual learning environment, fill in forms, write up exam papers and all that stuff.
Then we need to think how to improve the student satisfaction to get a good NSS score. How could we do that? Let's brain storm for ideas how to bribe or scare our students into giving us the highest marks. To one of the away days the managers invited a person from another department who told us how to perfect the NSS score. How do they do it at their department? They take third year students away to a resort for 5 days and make them fill in the online survey out there! Unethical? Immoral? Simply wrong? You'd think! Well our line managers don't see such a problem. The only reason why our department didn't do the same are its size and the student numbers. It's simply logistically too difficult to send hundreds of students away for 5 days along with necessary staff. This may still change because Degree Farm decided to create new posts whose holders will be responsible for organising such trips. More happy times ahead!
At the end of the time all staff are energised, motivated, their creativity is overfilling the place - that's what a normal person would expect after a normal away day. At Degree Farm the overwhelming feelings are tiredness, powerlessness and frustration. But nobody will say a word out loud because they have been reminded how lucky their are to have their jobs. The brave ones who tried ended up without pay increments, were denied promotions and mistreated terribly by the management. Critical thinking and honesty are an enemy at Degree Farm (and it's supposed to be a university...).
The Degree Farm has its own take on away days. Going away from the workplace means going to just another university building (literally, sometimes it's just across the street, a building in which many of us teach on daily basis...). Doing something different? Getting involved in team building activities? Positive experiences to remember and increase creativity? Rather not!
Our management's approach to away days can be summarised in the following way: make staff go to another university building which is no further than 5 minutes walk away. Remember to ensure that everyone acts as if they were in some far-away leafy place. Keep them busy for 5 hours - seat them down in a room and have 5 hours of presentations and training.
In each open day there's a good dose of propaganda so we don't forget how great the Degree Farm is and that it's all thank to our amazing deanery. The highlight is when one of the deans comes forward and points out that we are lucky to have our jobs and should be grateful. Good times!
Then we are briefed on changes and suggested changes. Obviously our feedback is appreciated and taken into account by the managers when making their decisions (sarcasm). The typical scenario looks like this: the head of department informs us of a change dreamt up by one of the deanery gurus. Then we are asked what we think about it, after all it's the lecturers who do the work. We express our concerns and say it won't work, it's impractical, impossible etc. Then the head of department says that there's nothing we can do about it because the dean is passionate about his idea. Within two days we all receive an email from the dean informing us that feedback was overwhelmingly positive and he has decided to implement the changes. As you can see the lecturers' input is very valued at Degree Farm!
Then there is some technical training - how to do things online, use virtual learning environment, fill in forms, write up exam papers and all that stuff.
Then we need to think how to improve the student satisfaction to get a good NSS score. How could we do that? Let's brain storm for ideas how to bribe or scare our students into giving us the highest marks. To one of the away days the managers invited a person from another department who told us how to perfect the NSS score. How do they do it at their department? They take third year students away to a resort for 5 days and make them fill in the online survey out there! Unethical? Immoral? Simply wrong? You'd think! Well our line managers don't see such a problem. The only reason why our department didn't do the same are its size and the student numbers. It's simply logistically too difficult to send hundreds of students away for 5 days along with necessary staff. This may still change because Degree Farm decided to create new posts whose holders will be responsible for organising such trips. More happy times ahead!
At the end of the time all staff are energised, motivated, their creativity is overfilling the place - that's what a normal person would expect after a normal away day. At Degree Farm the overwhelming feelings are tiredness, powerlessness and frustration. But nobody will say a word out loud because they have been reminded how lucky their are to have their jobs. The brave ones who tried ended up without pay increments, were denied promotions and mistreated terribly by the management. Critical thinking and honesty are an enemy at Degree Farm (and it's supposed to be a university...).
Friday 12 December 2014
Student / staff ratio and incentive to cheat
The game is on: the game to manipulate statistics and climb up in the league tables. One of the factors taken into account by the ranking makers is the student / staff ratio. This is supposed to reflect the amount of attention individual students should expect to get from lecturers. The Degree Farm used to do well in this category by counting all possible members of staff, including admin and estate personnel (maintenance, cleaners, etc.). For example our student / lecturer ratio is somewhere around 30/1 but the tables give a figure in mid teens. The ranking makers realised that universities played dirty and decided to tighten the rules: in order to count a member of staff in, that person must have a teaching qualification or appropriate teaching experience. What to do? How to keep our place in the rankings? Should we hire more lecturers? Wait, the rules say that a person must have a teaching qualification but they don't say that the person must actually teach. EUREKA! Let's make our admin staff take a PG certificate in teaching in higher education! We run it in house anyway so it won't cost much and we'll save our sweet spot in the league tables. Pure Degree Farm genius!
Not everything is bad at the Degree Farm
The posts in this blog are overwhelmingly negative, yet there are some positive experiences and good people at Degree Farm. In spite of the ridiculous and disconnected management, many lecturers are able to put their frustration aside and deliver outstanding experience to students. The same lecturers are very friendly and make an effort to create as positive atmosphere to work in as possible. On many occasions people go to extra lengths to help and support their colleagues. They will go out for drinks together and enjoy each other's company. Some really good friendships are established. In short, there's a proper "community" spirit. Paradoxically, the terrible management may help some of us to come together - having the same complaints and ridiculousness to fight against each and every day brings people closer. Your Disgruntled Lecturer knows that whenever (s)he needs some help, someone to cover teaching, invigilate, moderate, feedback on research, etc., it's enough to ask and there will be a number of colleagues ready to help.
To add to that, working with students can be very rewarding. Yes, there are far too many "passengers", lazy students and those who's attitude can be summed up by "l pay, l demand to pass". But there are also bright sparks who are thirsty for knowledge and work hard and they go to succeed in life after the Degree Farm.
To add to that, working with students can be very rewarding. Yes, there are far too many "passengers", lazy students and those who's attitude can be summed up by "l pay, l demand to pass". But there are also bright sparks who are thirsty for knowledge and work hard and they go to succeed in life after the Degree Farm.
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