By Gavin Mackintosh-
Cambridge University has been told not to evade accountability after a first class Turkish pupil was unfairly forced to drop out of his course.
The university is said to have a bad reputation for ill treating complaining students deserving of mitigating circumstances, and refusing to be held to account .
The student who insisted on anonymity to protect their identity and save himself further embarrassment, obtained a first class in all other papers was denied permission to continue their their studies owing to a technical difficulties in the submission of an online exam.
Due to an apparent glitch, the files of their last two exams were not accessible by the Faculty. After being told to discontinue their studies, the aggrieved student appealed the decision and was later allowed to continue. That decision was soon overturned because the reasons for hindering the submission of exams were not “grave”, and it was concluded that the original decision to penalise the student was reasonable “given the nature of the evidence”.
Yet, the student had been assured by a senior member of the college administration that the Examination Access and Mitigation Committee (EAMC) that it was worth the student still sitting the exams.
However, all other avenues of complaint by the student were rejected, and the university appears to have evaded accountability after the student eventually brought the complaint to the attention of the university student paper, Varsity, after the publication contacted the university to examine the case.
The university said it does not comment on individual cases- a polite way of refusing to justify their position. Organisations that use this excuse are as a mater of process copying all others doing the wrong thing after the Information Commissioner’s Office(ICO) confirmed to this publication that Data Protection does not prohibit them from responding to queries about individuals, if they have the permission of the individual in question.
The story was brought to the attention of The Eye Of Media.Com by reliable contacts at the University who have relatives on board our team.
Student paper, Varsity, only report and investigates issues of this nature where they feel there is a case to answer for. They have reported and investigated a number of issues relating to the university and the Student’s Union in the past, but are not always successful in getting appropriate responses.
This publication has communicated with the editor of the student paper this evening about the matter, and also written the university to respond to the inquiry and not try to escape the necessary accountability.
The student paper has been advised to pursue the matter and establish whether the university is being insensitive to some of the legitimate needs of its students in order to prevent this kind of bad conduct from continuing.
Cambridge University has been contacted for comment on this matter late on Friday, and the issue is expected to be revisited in due course.