Students have been left unable to enrol and in turn secure funding due to a lack of communication from the University.
Master’s students report disorganisation and poor communications from the University of Glasgow as they prepare to begin their courses, with some being left in the dark from the University just days before being due to commence their studies.
Several master’s students in various subjects spoke to The Glasgow Guardian regarding enrolment and financial registration problems. They report being left “unsettled” by the University as the start date for their course approaches.
One student, Abby*, told The Glasgow Guardian that after not receiving their Glasgow University Identification number (GUID) by the start of September, with the master’s due to start on 13 September, they got in touch with the University to raise their concerns. Almost two weeks later and still with no response, Abby phoned the enquiry team who reported that there had been a “duplication with my application” which resulted in it being “flagged up, meaning emails could not be sent to me”.
Despite the enquiry team stating that the issue would be resolved and that she would receive their GUID in the next 48 hours, it took another four phone calls over the following week, with Abby explaining they remained unable to enroll, before the problem was fixed. By this point, she had missed her induction week due to not having access to MyCampus. The GUID was finally received on 18 September, two days before classes officially started, with Abby having “one day left to register, enrol and choose all of my modules”. She said: “As a result, all of the optional modules that I really wanted to take were full with no spaces left, so I’m now paying £9,000 for a course to take modules I didn’t even want to do in the first place.”
Another master’s student, Sorcha*, due to start studies in Business and Management, reported problems with enrolment to The Glasgow Guardian. When enrolment opened up mid-August, she described it as “completely messed up”, and subsequently emailed her advisor, to no response. It then turned out was not their advisor at all, with Sorcha commenting: “I don’t even have an advisor now. Currently, there’s only one person in charge of fixing enrollment issues and advising the whole cohort, and due to this she’s likely overworked and can’t help everyone in time.”
After the enrolment process continued presenting issues, the course administrator offered to enrol Sorcha manually in the electives she wished. However, currently, she has still not been enrolled and is facing timetable clashes, with classes due to start on 4 October. “Now I’m not really sure what to do, as [the administrator] is not responding to me anymore and classes will start soon. Everything is so disorganised and I feel quite lost, to be honest.”
One master’s student in Global Security told The Glasgow Guardian about his experience of being ignored by the University after raising financial issues. The dates student loans are distributed to master’s students, and the dates the University requirements payments, are not well aligned. The student tried to bring this up with the finance department but is yet to receive a placeholder email. “I have been ignored for almost 3 weeks now despite multiple attempts to get in contact with them.”
“Friends of mine have experienced similar problems. When my friend’s loan was late coming in, the University emailed him asking for the money ASAP, and yet still had ignored his prior emails that tried to explain the situation. They are quick enough to take our money, but when we are in need of assistance, the student services are nowhere to be seen,” the student told The Glasgow Guardian.
“[I] come from Dundee Uni [and] the complete lack of support from the uni here is astonishing. Lecturers don’t reply to emails or messages, student services don’t reply, or when they do, [they] pass us from department to department, hang up on us, or tell us it is “not their problem”. If I knew it was going to be this bad, I don’t think I’d have applied to come here.”
