Kiezo
04-04-2008, 11:14 AM
Pretty sure this should go here... Apologies for the bad wording, trying to remember to include the relevant past info for better clarity D:
Right, my girlfriend's studying dentistry at uni. 99% of the time she's in the Glasgow Dental School practising on patients, very occasionally she's actually at Glasgow Uni (and from what she's told me this is more of an NHS problem then a uni one). Anyway her year seems to be the experimental year in terms of the new course, which is totally fucking most of them over but they've managed to put up with it until now (things like, she'll be doing her written finals in May - the exact same paper her flatmate who is the year above her doing last years course will be doing). Her flatmate has had her interviews over Easter, her jobs lined up, and a whole extra year to study what needs to be studied. On top of that, they were supposed to be getting a week before the exams off to study seeing as they're on clinic duty as well as learning new stuff up until right before that. They decided for some unknown reason to bring the exams forward three weeks, meaning they'll be being taught new stuff mere days before the exam and totally fucking up the study plans everyone had. They only let them know this two weeks ago, and were basically told "Oh well, you'll just need to adapt your study plans". Bear in mind the only other dental school in Scotland is Dundee (who Glasgow are in direct competition with jobs wise and who are on the (comparatively) fair and easy old course), meaning the Glasgow students are at a severe disadvantage from the start for their carreers. Students are constantly finding (valid) faults with this new system, which the people in charge agree with, but are only told "Oh, well we'll have that sorted for next year". These are things that are making students drop vital grades and they aren't getting a chance to redeem themselves. Basically only told to take solice in the fact that the next years students won't have the same problem and they'll be able to sit a fair examination and get accurate grades from it.
Anyway, they've pretty much bent over and took that kind of crap all year, but they got the kicker about a month ago; as part of the new course they're testing, their year is being told they'll be doing a rotational system. Basically, they'll spend two weeks in Glasgow, then be shipped off to places like Stornoway, Orkney, the Borders, Dundee (despite having their own local dental school...) to practise on patients there. They were told travel etc would be reimbursed only after a fuss was kicked up, but now they're withdrawing it. This is a course that leaves very little time for a social life let alone for a job (which causes all the students who don't have rich daddy's to take the NHS bursary, meaning they're indebted to work for the NHS for X amount of years). The NHS bursary however, only really covers living costs like food, rent, bills, books etc, so on top of this they now need to pay for travel to places in the middle of nowhere and accommodation there for two weeks, all while paying rent and bills for their flats back in Glasgow. My girlfriend's one of the 'lucky' ones who has the option to move back in with her parents next year as she wont be able to afford the flat as well (she's pretty sure taking out a loan from the bank - not a student loan - is the only way she's going to be able to pay for all this added crap), even although that's over an hour commute into uni, then the same back. It's the Irish students (who make up a strangely high percentage of her year) who are totally fucked. They have flats in Glasgow because commuting from Ireland to the Glasgow Dental School every day really isn't an option, and they're basically being told tough, they need to pay for this extra shit or they can't do the course.
Basically, what's their options here? The higher ups in the dental school are the ones who are dictating policy on this, so who can they take this to higher up?
EDIT: Oh, another thing on the Irish students; they were never told the costs of this would be reimbursed - that was limited to "Scottish citizens".
Right, my girlfriend's studying dentistry at uni. 99% of the time she's in the Glasgow Dental School practising on patients, very occasionally she's actually at Glasgow Uni (and from what she's told me this is more of an NHS problem then a uni one). Anyway her year seems to be the experimental year in terms of the new course, which is totally fucking most of them over but they've managed to put up with it until now (things like, she'll be doing her written finals in May - the exact same paper her flatmate who is the year above her doing last years course will be doing). Her flatmate has had her interviews over Easter, her jobs lined up, and a whole extra year to study what needs to be studied. On top of that, they were supposed to be getting a week before the exams off to study seeing as they're on clinic duty as well as learning new stuff up until right before that. They decided for some unknown reason to bring the exams forward three weeks, meaning they'll be being taught new stuff mere days before the exam and totally fucking up the study plans everyone had. They only let them know this two weeks ago, and were basically told "Oh well, you'll just need to adapt your study plans". Bear in mind the only other dental school in Scotland is Dundee (who Glasgow are in direct competition with jobs wise and who are on the (comparatively) fair and easy old course), meaning the Glasgow students are at a severe disadvantage from the start for their carreers. Students are constantly finding (valid) faults with this new system, which the people in charge agree with, but are only told "Oh, well we'll have that sorted for next year". These are things that are making students drop vital grades and they aren't getting a chance to redeem themselves. Basically only told to take solice in the fact that the next years students won't have the same problem and they'll be able to sit a fair examination and get accurate grades from it.
Anyway, they've pretty much bent over and took that kind of crap all year, but they got the kicker about a month ago; as part of the new course they're testing, their year is being told they'll be doing a rotational system. Basically, they'll spend two weeks in Glasgow, then be shipped off to places like Stornoway, Orkney, the Borders, Dundee (despite having their own local dental school...) to practise on patients there. They were told travel etc would be reimbursed only after a fuss was kicked up, but now they're withdrawing it. This is a course that leaves very little time for a social life let alone for a job (which causes all the students who don't have rich daddy's to take the NHS bursary, meaning they're indebted to work for the NHS for X amount of years). The NHS bursary however, only really covers living costs like food, rent, bills, books etc, so on top of this they now need to pay for travel to places in the middle of nowhere and accommodation there for two weeks, all while paying rent and bills for their flats back in Glasgow. My girlfriend's one of the 'lucky' ones who has the option to move back in with her parents next year as she wont be able to afford the flat as well (she's pretty sure taking out a loan from the bank - not a student loan - is the only way she's going to be able to pay for all this added crap), even although that's over an hour commute into uni, then the same back. It's the Irish students (who make up a strangely high percentage of her year) who are totally fucked. They have flats in Glasgow because commuting from Ireland to the Glasgow Dental School every day really isn't an option, and they're basically being told tough, they need to pay for this extra shit or they can't do the course.
Basically, what's their options here? The higher ups in the dental school are the ones who are dictating policy on this, so who can they take this to higher up?
EDIT: Oh, another thing on the Irish students; they were never told the costs of this would be reimbursed - that was limited to "Scottish citizens".