"Dirty" Barry Burnham - one of the main reasons why I hate 'Lampyland'Earlier today, I sent this letter to The Western Mail newspaper:
SIR – As a graduate from the University of Wales Lampeter just over two years ago, I have serious doubts about the allegedly high student satisfaction score for this once-great institution. Not only do only a tiny proportion of students ever bother to attempt to reply to these annual surveys, but also the high dropout rate is a better indicator of real levels of student satisfaction.
The main reasons for the high dropout rate can be attributed to the university’s dull rural location (which cannot be helped), the poisonous, vindictive atmosphere within the Students’ Union and the amateurish, incompetent, lazy and mean-spirited leadership of the university’s senior administrators. The Students’ Union, its’ elected officials and management are the mirror images of Uncle Joe Stalin and Hamas, while the most senior university officials quietly collude with the union’s activities in order to protect their own privileges and cover-up their own scandalous misconduct.
C4' B.A. (Hons.)
7 comments:
You are right about Lampeter, unfortunately I made the mistake of complaining while still there so I never finished my degree. After 5 years I am still battling away for a fair hearing for a number of very serious complaints. I have a protest website that can be found by searching for Lampeter corruption. It has attracted a number of others who think the whole system needs reform. This is not a political issue as such, just a matter of having the political will to do something about it!
The high dropout has important causes, none of which are tied to student satisfaction. The principal factors are; geographical isolation, high clearing intake and a misleading prospectus.
From the number of emails I am getting and the traffic from social networking sites, student dissatisfaction is the most important issue. It will blight any merger with another institution as the corruption seems to have got into the paintwork. There also seems to be some kind of organised attack on anyone voicing concerns about Lampeter. However, I agree with the misleading prospectus; students think they are going to a university!
The only answer is a full inquiry.
BloggersBlog,
Student dissatisfaction is not at all the most important issue, it is - quite obviously - a symptom caused by the actual issues.
Do elaborate about the organised attacks though. Given the organisational disability of the UWL management, I find it difficult to believe.
A full enquiry would never cover it, I'm afraid. We've had the QAA and CHEMS inquiries, and the solution is clear: regime change.
Student dissatisfaction is a symptom of the way in which not only Lampeter but also Welsh higher education in general is structured and organised with a total lack of accountability. It’s a case of power tends to corrupt etc.
A regime change without reform is a pointless exercise as the whole system is so corrupt that anyone taking over would also be corrupted by it.
With regard to an organised campaign to discredit those who complain, staff posing as students on forums, threats, false allegations and abusive emails are all part of the tactics. I take your point about UWL management but this is based upon personal contact that cuts across the managerial hierarchy, which is why some managers are subordinate to their subordinates!
However, the use of solicitors at taxpayers expense to make threats to conceal the corruption of officers and staff is a perk that is coming to an end under the Charity Act 2006. The University Council who solicitors should represent do not know what is happening. The good news is that they will be introduced to the truth of what goes on by the Charity Commission who will organise a get together.
We need the inquiry to change the whole system and not just Lampeter.
I agree that the management system has to be changed alongside the emplacement of a new management, but without new management those changes could never be brought about. The management system at Lampeter is uselessly archaic and - as we now see so clearly - almost totally inflexible and unresponsive.
It is not, however, so much about corruption as it is about the difficulty of working in the given framework. A leader with the very highest ideals and unimpeachable integrity could still not reach their potential because the system at Lampeter ensconces the top decisionmakers from the issues they have to respond to, makes it difficult to keep clear lines of communication open and provides no flexibility. Corruption or not, no good can come from this arrangement.
Given that I have a presence on most University-relevant websites, I'm curious to know the name of one where a staff member has masqueraded as a student. I've seen no evidence of this.
Is there some way for me to contact you, perhaps?
I attended Lampeter in the so called « hay day » the late 80’s , i absolutely hated the place a sordid cesspit of larger louts, slobs self righteous totally irrational student politics. I went to University expecting to meet intelligent stimulating people, what i found was drunken louts dropping théier trousers in the union bar, i dread to think what the unreported date rape statistics at Lampeter were. I left that ces point with a good enough paper qualification to go to a real university as. Postgrad and believe me the difference is monumental. I took my second class degré from a third rate university and ceremoniously stuffed it in the rubbish, i did not dignify it with with burning or shredding.
Years later I was kidnapped and held hostage by militants in Africa, if i had to relive either experience Lampeter of the violent beatings and mock executions I would relive the kidnapping, Lampeter is a beautiful bit of country side stained by a farcical dumping ground that d’oies not deserve to be called a university.
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