I am looking to connect with prospective Roehampton University students. I am currently finishing my M.A. there, and have had SO MANY problems that I've decided to reach out myself and warn others. This school REALLY does not have its act together, particularly for postgrads and for international students (though the undergrads don't have it very good, either). It's a young university, so I tried to excuse its faults, but frankly my year has been terrible, and the uni has cared NOT AT ALL and there is no real forum for students to complain.

We're talking things from substandard housing and underhanded housing agreements to professors taking vacations while students are finishing dissertations to a serious substance problem on campus which makes it a pretty terrible place to live. Roehampton is more interested in moneymaking schemes (international students, renting out housing while students are still living in it, asking crazy fees to attend one's own graduation), and faculty research over student learning (certainly in the dance department), that I am just furious and frustrated and looking for some change.

If you are thinking about attending Roehampton, or you work for Roehampton, I am pretty desperately seeking out anyone I can talk to to either resolve some problems for future students or help them avoid the place altogether.

Whoa, you sound really frustrated. I am sorry to hear that you are facing so many problems and I can empathize as I am a former Roehampton student. Initially, I disliked it immensely but I eventually settled down and developed a fondness for it. Regarding accommodation, I chose to live off-campus so I really can't comment on that. However, I agree that professors do take off on vacation while their students are struggling to complete their dissertations and this was a very frustrating experience. I am glad to say I was able to prevent my supervisor from taking off until the end. Even then, he took a few weeks off but as I had completed my work till then, it was manageable. To be honest, I am not really all that surprised to hear about the substance problem because the University is around the projects and I do recall guys hanging around outside selling suspicious looking packets to interested clients. So yeah, I do understand your concern. Yeah and I totally agree with you regarding the ridiculous fees you have to pay for your own graduation! It can be very disheartening and annoying, but at the end of the day, I guess there isn't much we can do about it unless a large number of students voice their demands and insist on some changes. All I can say is that I do feel for you Epicadventurer and I do hope it will work out for you. Good luck!

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I admit I know very little about the place and I even had to look it up on the internet to find out where it was.  That said, it doesn't have the most comprehensive set of courses and I wonder if it should be a University College (thus degree issuing controlled by another University and thus standards it has to reach theoretically set elsewhere).

I guess you feel you've got to warn people of poor standards and conditions, so fair enough and you've got guts doing so.  However, be careful as actually naming a place or a person can attract unwanted attention or even legal action (i.e. gagging order).  You do notice where each of us study or have studied (or been a post-grad researcher) is not named?  There are things said on this forum in such a way as to get things off our chest or to air our frustrations.  Not naming names allows us to do that without any repercussions (though admit the chances are remote).  That said, I'd love to name a senior professor at an established University (not my PhD University) who during my second post-doc period gave me a hard time, but I don't for obvious reasons.

If you have genuine grievances, I would try this place - the University Ombudsman.

http://www.oiahe.org.uk/

If enough people do it, then perhaps things can change.  A better approach would have been to discretely ask other attendees of the said University then organise a joint complaint off-forum.

In the meanwhile, I've a website link here more to cheer you up and I'm sure no parallels can be drawn to any University, in the UK or elsewhere.  Smile, it could be worse!!!

http://www.cynicalbastards.com/ubs/

:-)

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Just to point out that for the OIAHE to look at your case you have to have completed the complaints process at Roehampton. There's normally 2 or 3 stages of internal complaint procedure to go through first. Look in your student handbook or do a search for complaint procedure on the university website to find out how you make a formal complaint. I assume you've already followed the usual first step of the staff-student committee, students union, HoD etc and put the complaints in writing and are not happy with the response?

From what you are saying it is the housing that is the issue where you have the most substantive complaints (assuming the substance abuse issue is also housing related). You might want to check your own housing contract to see if it's been broken in which case you have a fairly straightforward complaint.

Tbh your complaint about international students and staff doing research will be rejected unless you can show concretely how this impacted on your degree - research and the education of international students are after all legitimate activities for a university to pursue.

Oh and on behalf of your supervisor who had the temerity to go on holiday - at all the universities I've attended or worked at, they are supervising u/g or MA dissertations pretty much 52 weeks of the year - when are they meant to go on holiday? Surely for supervision to be effective you need it at the beginning and middle more than at the end?

I just want to clarify -- I am not just out to gripe or hurt Roehampton's reputation, but have had real problems with this university. I cannot figure out the university's organization (example: I am an international student, but am pretty sure there is not international student office. I have no idea who I talk to, and after meeting a helpful admin person in person in February with some of my complaints, she actually disappeared from campus and has not bee contactable since. The disorganization is actually now a running joke among my classmates).

I truly don't know how to go about voicing dissatisfaction within the school's own processes, which is why I'm openly inviting Roehampton administrators to contact me if they happen to see this. I'm grateful for the warnings to watch what I say, I totally understand -- no one wants their reputation sullied. I am just at a loss because after an entire year at this school, I don't even know who to talk to.

Have you tried the Student Welfare Officer? They may be able to help with some of your concerns...

http://www.roehampton.ac.uk/universitysecretariat/StudentComplaintsProcedure.pdf
http://studentzone.roehampton.ac.uk/accommodation/complaints/
Here you go - first two results from the homepage search engine - these seem pretty clear to me and the first names people you can ask for help if needed.

I really appreciate the help -- unfortunately, I have tried to go to a Student Welfare Officer, and actually had an interaction where he was so rude to me (he assumed I was asking about something else, and instead of asking me for clarification got annoyed because he didn't like what he thought I was asking about) that he apologized later. The initial response to needing help was so harsh, it's really put me off the system.

The student government system is really disorganized, and is only for the undergrads (all officers are elected the previous spring, so the postgrads who are only there for one year have no representation). There is also almost no communication from them all year, and the events they host are for the undergrads. Also, there was apparently an international student rep who was suposed to organize events and help us get settled in, but she literally did not a thing (us foreigners had no meetings, no social events, no intro to the city... I am really glad I at least speak English well, because I felt terrible for some students who didn't).

I know, it all sounds improbable, like I must just not care to involve myself. But it REALLY is this hands-off -- Roehampton expects you to just take care of yourself. Some foreign students and postgrads and I have been actively looking for a forum to talk about these things, and have found nowhere to go. Anyway, at this point I am really not looking for suggestions on how to complain, though I appreciate the effort!

I am really sorry to hear you are having such a hard time. Although the Student Union is primarily run by undergrads, they can actually help or at least provide support in certain cases to postgraduates as well. I did my Master's there and had contacted the Student Union President in person for an issue so I do know that they extend their assistance and support to postgraduates as well. Perhaps you can PM me if you would like to discuss this or any other issue further.

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I did my undergrad there, and I felt really looked after and had a great 3 years. I have friends who stayed on for MAs and even PhDs and they seem to have the same general problems what I encountered at a Russel Group university. I guess it depends on what department you are in as well. I was in the Social Science department then and had a personal tutor who basically looked out for me (same with friends who did an MA there, they get a personal tutor who they can go to with any problems they have. I think they all kept their undergrad personal tutors).



(Btw, there is an International Student House. When I was there it was located in Erasmus House, maybe ask them whether they can give you some advice.)