Complaining about teaching at university

Rosie75

You say you know what the university's complaints policy is? This is what you need to follow. Usually they will require you to have raised the issue with the Head of Department or course convenor before making a formal complaint, so that he/she can address this with the member of staff (ask them to maintain confidentiality if you don't want your tutor knowing it's you that's complaining). You are better off following the complaints procedure to the letter than going to the students' union (which is often more interested in pursuing its own agenda than your problems). If you don't follow due process, the university / Head of Dept is entitled to ignore the complaint, so make sure you do things by the book.
Boycotting the session isn't an answer - how does that make things better? I'm amazed that a lecturer would suggest that.

TDQO

We had a serious problem with a lecturer last year and so we got our student rep to write a complaint letter then 20-30 of us signed it and sent it to the ehad of school...

dieselhead

My experience of complaining about poor teaching has unfortunatly been not a productive one, we complained to the head of school but he closed ranks with our tutors and we didn't get anywhere, we tried to take it further, support from other students dropped off afraid that their grades would be affected if they upset the tutor, so we gave up and just put up with it, sad as most of the year went on to fail and even then very few managed to pass the re-sit.

ames100

go to your tutor and collectivly complain the the student board who should have direct ties to the staff committee- if not try head of school. Not sure about your uni but our department is very seperate from the union but yours may not be. I had the same thing last year and this year i have nothing against forgein tutors but when you have no idea what they are saying and they just read of a hand out the teaching quality was appauling.

speak up this is your degree, you pay for it and why should you and others professionally suffer?

[Deleted User]

Out of curiosity which university are you at? I ask because the situation sounds a little familiar to something I went through in 2003. At 18 I started a nursing degree at a supposedly prestigious university in northern England. The teaching quality as well as support we received on placement from our tutors was diabolical, I left after 1 term as I was so disgusted with the quality of the course, I was bullied by a lecturer too. This put me off nursing completely and I am now looking to working towards becoming a social worker.
On the note of complaining about a lecturer a friend of mine along with his class mass complained about a tutor who took them for a seminar because she was letting her own opinions and bias take over her teaching methods. For example if a person had an opinion which could be easily backed up with core social theory (they were on a sociology degree) and the opinion was different from her own she would tell them they were wrong, when a tutor is not supposed to let their own opinions influence their teaching. After they complained she no longer taught that group and was eventually sacked. Complaining does work, but as people have said you should get advice from the union and get them to back you up, after all it is what they are there for not just cheap beer

fuzzybear01

It's a university in London, so not the same one as you. The university seems to have a bad reputation with people locally, but I applied before moving down here and didn't want to travel into central London every day. I'm going to have another look at the univeristy guide and familiarise myself with the complaints procedure again. Will keep the thread updated as it may possibly help someone else in future.