So basically, our lecturers and tutors aren’t getting a fair deal, so the NTEU have organised for our uni results to be withheld as a form of protest. Gee, thanks NTEU. Don’t hurt the administration who treat you like crap, hurt the students who are without blame and are likely to take your side in the debate.
Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I got an email from my course co-ordinator telling me I needed to apply for an exemption, so that I could get my results and graduate. I applied online, and in the “hardship” section, I told them that I needed my results to get my degree.
Sounds obvious right? Wrong. Despite reading the following statement from Emma on the NTEU website, it seems that having a graduation deadline isn’t a good enough reason. Why? I don’t know. Maybe they just changed their mind.
The exemptions have been offered for students who have due dates for graduation and applications for further study etc.
Of course, the NTEU didn’t bother contacting me to tell me that my application had been rejected. They let me sit around for two weeks thinking that my application was being processed. And why wouldn’t I think that? My course co-ordinators emailed me to tell me that sending proof of enrollment, plus letting the union know that I was due to graduate, would be sufficient.
Today, after hearing that most of my friends had received their exemptions (one of them using the justification “I need to graduate to get a job”), I sent an email. This is what transpired.
“To whom it may concern,
I am an RMIT student, due to graduate at the end of the year. I applied to the NTEU for an examption from the witheld results over a fortnight ago, but have not heard anything from the union, so filled out another application today. I would like to know what is being done about my application, as the University needs my results by next week in order to let me graduate. Please appreciate that this issue is causing me a significant amount of distress, particularly as I have endeavoured to be as organised as possible in applying for an exemption. It is imperative that I receive my results as soon as possible.Patricia Niklas”
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“Your request for an exemption from the NTEU ban on transmission of student results did not outline issues of hardship caused by the ban. Please provide more information on the potential hardship so that the Committee can better consider your request.”
(Note: no greeting, and they don’t say who they are. So rude!)
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“Dear NTEU,
I have submitted a third request online. I thought it might be best to provide you with a copy of the description I have just submitted online:
“Please note that I have applied for an exemption twice before, but have been told that I did not provide enough evidence of hardship. Please see details below:
I require this exemption so that I can graduate in 2009. If I do not graduate, I will be unable to apply for any graduate positions/cadetships that require proof that I have obtained my degree.
Being unable to apply for graduate positions means that I will be, essentially, unemployed. Being unemployed will cause significant hardship over the next year, as it will impact on my ability to pay rent, bills, etc.
On a smaller scale, I have already paid a nonrefundable fee for my graduation ceremony, mortarboard, gown and tickets in 2009, and this fee (around $300) will be lost if I am not allowed to graduate.
Furthermore, I require a transcript of my results so that I may apply for a Golden Key Honours Society grant to go toward my involvement in the 2010 THIMUN delegation. It is a requirement of my election to the role of THIMUN Assistant Director that I attend this conference, and being unable to apply for the grant (and similar grants) will force me to pay for the conference with credit, leaving me with around $2000 debt.
In addition to this, I require my results to be released so that I may be considered for a spot in the RMIT Professional Communication Honours program. I feel that completing an honours year will increase my employability, but being denied this chance leaves me unable to capitalise on my academic success.
Finally, I feel that being unable to graduate will (and already has) caused a significant amount of mental hardship. The stress of having to apply three times to receive the results I have earned, plus the stress of having to explain to friends, family, and potential employers why I am not allowed to graduate on schedule, is at best embarrassing, and at worst totally humiliating.
If my application is rejected again, I would appreciate if I were contacted. It was very frustrating to wait for weeks with no reply from the NTEU, only to contact them today to find out I was not successful.
I am available on 9489 **** or 0400 *** ***. “
Regards,
Patricia Niklas”
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I understand that academic staff have limited ways of negotiating with universities, but I think that this industrial action has been nothing short of a clusterfuck. Why the wildly inconsistent views on what causes a student “hardship”? If my intention to graduate isn’t a good enough reason to have my results released, then why can’t the NTEU publish a list on what real hardship is? I’m sure I’m not the only student upset at this galling lack of transparency.
And what justification for the unprofessional way of dealing with rejected applications? Shouldn’t students be allowed to know if their results won’t be processed, or are we expected to turn up on graduation night, mortarboard in hand, to find that we have to wait another year?
Poor form, NTEU. I’ve actively supported your industrial action in the past – even mentioned a previous strike on my radio show, and urged other students to get involved. But now I see that I’m just a pawn in this political game.
