Departmental Juggling

University never fails to surprise me.

I am paying an extortionate amount every year - £3070 to be exact - to get an education, or so I thought.

Since last year, I have changed from one department at my university to another and already the difference is obvious.
Lets call them department A (awful) and department B.

Within less than one day of changing courses (to department B), I was assigned a personal tutor, all my modules were registered correctly and every piece of documentation was spelt correctly, available and with the correct e-mail addresses.

Last year, one term in, I still had not been assigned a personal tutor, despite bringing it to attention on more than one occassion, my modules were incorrectly registered, and there were clashes on my timetable for compulsory modules, little documentation was available and what there was was incorrectly spelt and with invalid e-mail addresses.

Yesterday I managed to change a module in one day! A process unheard of under department A.

Quite what I was thinking when I opted to study a module this year in department A I do not know.

As I have missed a week of the module and because I actually want to learn something in return for my money. I sent an e-mail to the module lecturer asking which textbook and work I needed to catch up on before the seminar the next day.

She very helpfully replied telling me that I needed a certain textbook - which is not available in any of the bookshops in Canterbury - for the module and that I also needed to photocopy chapter 1 before the seminar. Very helpful, so a book I can't buy, that I need to photocopy, when I hadn't even seen anyone on my module let alone talk to. Yep, easy peasy... what is so difficult about that.

Hmm..

But, it gets better, unlike my lecturer I had spotted a small flaw in that plan *disengages sarcasm mode* and sent another e-mail asking what the chapter was about, so I could try and read another book to grasp the basic idea. My e-mail is then sent onto the course convenor who in his ineptness replies to the lecturer by pressing reply to all, so I get his reply aswell.

It turns out that the entire department is unable to read corectly. So an e-mail reading:

"Can I be a pain and ask what was Chapter 1 about as I can't get the book to see for myself?"

(...The e-mail being sent in response to an e-mail telling me I won't be able to get a copy of the book...)

Obtained the response of :

"It's his responsibility to ask someone for a copy. No private lessons otherwise......"

Now, call me stupid, but my name (for those of you who know me) is hardly a masculine one, and where on Earth was I supposed to get a copy from as I hadn't started the course yet and therefore knew of no one who had a textbook (which is shown in the correspondence of the forwarded e-mail which he obvioulsy didn't even look at). This annoys me for a few reasons, the ineptitude of member of staff who is incapable of being able to send an e-mail, not actually reading an e-mail before casting a judgement and because it is effectively discouraging a student who is actually trying to do well.

Where exactly did I request a private lesson or to borrow a copy of the book??

The plot thickens however. It turns out that less than half the class (of about 30) have the required text. Probably about 11 of them have it. Now, the assignments are questions in the book, quite how the lecturer expects people to be able to obtain a book from someone who has one, to photocopy entire chapters, not just pages *cough* copyright *cough* at our own expense, because the department couldnt make sure that there were enough copies of the book (or atleast more than one copy in the library) and at the very least, to make sure that that copy was on short loan.

Which links back to my last question. Quite frankly, if she expects other students to lend their books to be copied, why shouldn't students be able to borrow hers - when it is not in use of course - briefly to photocopy it. Double standards don't work very well when everyone in question is supposedly treated equally.

Now, the question is, do I reply to the inept course convenor. Do I explain to him what the word all on that reply button means? Shall I explain to him that to read a text thoroughly-which is a trait he should inspire in his students - is a trait which in his hipocrisy he should try and follow? Or shall I detail to him that gender reassignment operations take a little longer than the time it takes for me to enter his office, obtain a signature and then walk across campus.

Oh well, fun and games, maybe I should ask for some money back...