Hey,
What do you think my chances of getting a phD are after lodging a formal complaint against my dept re: academic standards at the end of my undergrad years, taking it as far as I could - and losing?!!! The field is small, the academics I complained about are wellknown and respected and although the dept has agreed to supply a reference this is a very clever way of always knowing where I am trying to get into. I am still willing to give it a go but wondered what you all thought...

If your work was good, they cannot imply otherwise in a reference. You might find they just issue a neutral reference that wont stand out as being either good or bad. Go for it and good luck :)

Thanks Stu - yes,I got a first and was awarded an independent research scholarship as an undergrad so my experience is pretty solid but I also burst into tears, lost my temper with the dept at the end and referred to them at a bunch of grade-fixing 'b#@$ards' so wondered whether they could get away with writing things like "has anger management issues", "interpersonal skills needing working on", etc. You know, the kind of things that are also looked for when deciding on a student.

Sorry KC - could have sworn I read stu!!! Must have just read his name on another thread...

I took it as far the OIA but they wouldn't consider many of the issues because they were either matters of academic judgement or I couldn't prove that I had been adversely affected. Yes, it was largely about grade inflation, giving the students exam questions in advance of the exam but that wasn't the only issue. I also challenged them re: the appointment of a member of staff who taught us in the final year of the course and about the judicious use of teamwork to mask the weaknesses of some very poor students.