Dear College, dear Friends,
I am writing this open letter due to a situation that has panned out during my stay in Trinity Business School as a Masters in Finance batch of 2020-2021. I am aware that it is long, but I request you all to fully read it.
I am going to explain my situation as clearly as possible so that anyone can understand exactly what I am being put through and how my case is being handled.
So, in the first semester, September 2021, my module lecturer for one of my modules decided to fail me (open book, online assignment) on the grounds of not enough words and plagiarism. This module was shared between MSc Finance as well as MSc FRM, where 150-200 odd students were present. We were all given a standard question paper which was theory for 3 questions and a practical excel based sum for the final question. Now, since 200 people wrote the same answer as definitions and other stuff cannot be changed completely, obviously there was plagiarism. I submitted it earlier than when people submitted, and my plagiarism was low and therefore, I thought it was okay and moved on. Little did I know that Turnitin (plagiarism checker) will not consider people submitting early and therefore when everyone submitted, my plagiarism went up. After the results, I was not given any feedback which was constructive and just said not enough words and plagiarism. I wrote 2000 words, with the maximum being 3000, and I failed, despite my friends having written the same amount and they passed. However, in FRM, for another module, the lecturer emailed the person saying Turnitin takes into account everything which is not required and that he will personally correct the paper without keeping what plagiarism was shown by the checker. Why was this not done for me?
Anyway, naturally I had to sit the paper again. The professor failed me again. When I approached him to get approval for an appeal, he said it won’t go through, but it did eventually, and he was forced to give me another paper. It clearly hurt his ego I feel. He played his next card by saying that I will take the exam only in December 2021 with the next batch and naturally I escalated it. The appeals were made on the grounds asking him to treat me on par with other students which was won by me. The college authorities asked him to issue me a paper immediately and I won again which I feel further hurt his ego.
Here comes the interesting part. The professor decided to conduct an in person, closed book examination in an examination hall when the entire time at Trinity I was taught online and told that the assessments were online. When I asked why he is asking me to write in person, he mailed me saying that it has been a year since I studied the module and Covid-19 is almost over. If Covid-19 is almost over like he claims, why are the batch of 2021-2022 having their examinations online? Despite that, I took it as a challenge, but I asked him through emails saying how many words he expects for a 15- or 20-marks answer but that email was ignored as well. I also did not have access to class recordings and when I communicated this with him, I received an email saying Blackboard was reset. No effort was taken to provide me with the resources I needed to prepare for the re-take of my exam
The Director of Postgraduate Teaching and Learning was the mediator in setting up the examination which took place on 8th October 2021. He mailed me about the rules of the examination and said I was allowed to bring a non-programmable calculator. During the day of the examination, he took my calculator and provided me with a new one. I did not know how to work with the new calculator as I am not used to it.
I still wrote the exam, despite everything. I was asked an out of syllabus question, but I studied everything outside because I knew he was planning to fail me. It was gut feeling. I knew they were planning to fail me no matter what. The professor, like I imagined, gave me 43 marks and as feedback, got an explanation saying that my work is not up to mark.
My question to him and to those reading this open letter is: what is the standard? I asked through email, but it was ignored. How can a student who was groomed to write an online examination in Trinity know the standard of a closed book exam in trinity? Why was I discriminated against despite winning the appeal on the basis of treating me on par with other students?
Why are my other marks not being considered for this case? I am getting a 2.1 despite this situation and without them allowing me to submit my dissertation which has been ready since July.
It does not stop here, Trinity has also messed up one of my other marks and despite constant emails from me and my course director, the mark has not been updated yet.
I have had a very bad experience and I am in a position where I lost a job despite clearing the interviews because I cannot apply for a visa without my marksheet.
It is awful that an international student is being treated like this and believe me I am not the only one who is experiencing situations like this.
I am extremely grateful to Giséle (President GSU) and Abiswetha (GSU Vice-President) for their assistance and I request you all to help me in any way possible so that my issue is resolved and more importantly, so that another student doesn’t get affected like me.
I have proof for everything I have said above and none of it is made up.
Yours truly,
Ck. Athreya
A completely frustrated International Student