I looked around Stevenson College Photographic Unit and spoke with one or two of the tutors there and it looked astounding. five stars for facilities, award winning and first impressions. Now Stevenson has amalgumated with Telford College and Jewel and Esk to form Edinburgh College. I suggest you make yourselves aware of how things work with education, standards, marking and qualifications with regard to the SQA, before you start your education. The facts revealed
HOW AND WHY THE GOVERNMENT AND THE SPSO TURN A BLIND EYE TO COMPLAINTS OF POOR STANDARDS AND MARK FIXING IN COLLEGES.
TELFORD COLLEGE (Assessors changing students work, mark fixing, blundered external assessment and absolutely no authority in authority to do to anything about it, not even the Scottish Government)
Telford College, Stevenson College and Jewel and Esk have now
amalumated to form Edinburgh College. I suggest you make yourselves
aware of how things work with education, standards, marking and
qualifications with regard to the SQA, before you start your education. The facts revealed -
I gave one star to Telford College because zero is not given as an
option. I give this course no rating what so ever. Unless you're up
for a relaxed box ticking couple of years. I spent two years
complaining about the teaching standards along with other students. Day in, day out, sitting or
standing around doing nothing. You could have phoned me for five
minutes to keep me up to date. I warned the head of the department that
my complaints about the tutors/College assessors was going to seriously
effect their marking of my HND.
I was right. Two years top of the class, then within 48 hours down to the very bottom of the class for the HND. I returned my HND qualification to the (Scottish Qualifications Authority) SQA
and when they sent it back to me I tore it up and returned it a second
time. Complaints about this course every single year, but they are
dealt with internally and never see the light of day. Self regulating
and answerable to no outside authority what so ever. How dare you
complain about us ! We'll show you !
But now it seems all Colleges, including the new Edinburgh College
have the authority to sit beyond the reach of public regulatory body's,
the law and even beyond the politicies of Government and 'pass', or
destroy, completely unchecked.
The Scottish Public Service Ombudsman has just responded to my having had my HND
Graded Unit proposal introduction taken from me by my tutor, reworded,
rephrased and rewritten, who then gave me half marks for what he himself
had written, described as 'ambiguous, broad, insular and vague' and
then removed all 40 photographs from my project, and reselected 20
photographs of his own choice and changing the presentation in the
process. All on the day before the submission. All evidenced on
written record and audio recorded meeting. Here's the crazy thing
Your tutor, is the College Assessor, marking his own students.
Submissions and pass rates can be assured by the College, directly. But
here's the interesting part the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) have told me that it was MY fault for letting my tutor/College assessor change my project and for doing what I was told !
Quote
'You should not have submitted a piece of work which you felt had
been subject to undue influence and / or lacked integrity'.
Perhaps when I realised that all HND photoshop is sourced from ONE
book by Scott Kelby, I should have stopped listening due to lack of
integrity. Or when half the lectures were spent watching Youtube, or
when a whole day was spent listening to the classes favourite music
tracks on Youtube, I think the SPSO are right, I shouldn't have submitted any work throughout the entire course, due to lack of integrity.
So, it's official folks. Students (aged 16 to 99) should NOT
listen to their tutors. If what your tutors tell you doesn't sound
right then, on the advice of the Scottish Public Service Ombudsman, it
is your responsibility to ignore them. Your tutors are the College
Assessors who will (in my case, the very next day) be marking the work
they have just changed. But the message is If you think you know
better than your College Assessors, and what they say sound as though it
lacks integrity (which in most cases refers to most of you, most of the
time) then walk away.
Suffer the consequences if you listen to
them. and suffer the consequences if you don't. Perhaps better to just
not give them the chance to even see your work in the first place and
stay at home. That's not a mixed message is it ?
Here is the list
of reasons sent to me in response to my complaint going to the Scottish
Minister for Education with regard to the complaint about cheating and
result fixing at Telford (not permitted to use their email directly,
because it's not for publicity?) No investigation has been carried
out, because Ministers have: 'no legal power', 'no educational read more