If you are lucky, most of you will go through your university life without ever experiencing any form of internal university procedure.
You will never have cause to appeal an academic grade/mark, you will never need to defend yourself when the university accuses you of academic misconduct, your university will never attempt to throw you off the course because they deem you unfit, and you will never need the university to give you some leeway because something significant has happened in your life. You will never have to complain and will plod along at university just fine.
Unfortunately, for a number of you life is just not going to be that simple. When internal procedures occur, the balance of power can be heavily weighted in favour of the university. This can result in a student feeling pressured to accept the decision of the university.
Rules, regulations, policy… Blah, blah, blah
Should you be thrust into the world of internal university procedures, you will get a crash course in university rules, regulations and policies, all there to make life just that little more complicated. The various rules and policies governing the submission of academic appeals, academic misconduct appeals, extenuating/mitigating circumstances, or complaints can be pretty complex.
That, together with short deadlines, set by the university, to submit such appeals can make even the savviest of students feel overwhelmed. Imagine then, if you are an international student and English is not even your first language? It does not make for a pleasant process to be caught up in.
On your own?
For example, if you get accused of plagiarism, you have a deadline of about ten days to submit your appeal and note that plagiarism can occur in so many forms and on occasion, without the student even knowing… If you are left to your own devices, you have to sift through evidence against you, understand the various different regulations governing academic misconduct, and then draft an appeal that is relevant to the grounds set out in the regulations.
Simultaneously, you are expected to attend (and concentrate) on lecturers, seminars and tutorials. Students are often left feeling vulnerable and reluctant to fight the university. That is absolutely the wrong approach to take. There is this myth that challenging the university will only make things worse, that is wholly untrue. If you do not fight for your education, who will?
Hearings
What about the students that go before the various internal appeals panels (hearings set up by universities for students to argue their case)? Let’s not forget the internal hearings themselves: “Sure, your legal advisor can come,” says the panel secretary three days prior to the hearing.
“Oh no sorry, the chair of the panel hearing says your legal advisor is not allowed in the room,” says the panel secretary on the day of the hearing.
“You will have to represent yourself,” she says, as she thrusts the bewildered student into the room, only to be greeted by a panel of five senior academics and lecturers from five different faculties. How does that sound for internal university procedures that can potentially impact your academic future?
Be aware
Seriously, the examples above happen all too often during internal university procedures, and not just with plagiarism cases. We are talking academic misconduct, mitigating/extenuating circumstances, academic appeals, fitness to practice and general student complaints.
It is important for students to feel empowered and knowledgeable enough to fight if they ever find themselves in such situations. If you ever find yourself in this situation, get advice quickly from somebody outside of the university, and from somebody that knows what they are doing.
Did you find this advice helpful? Let us know in the comments below.
Photo: Eduardo / Flickr
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