Bloody universities

andy4d, get him back to campus and go and talk to the department his degree is with. They should have a porter or security on entry to ask where to go in the building, and an undergraduate admin office he can physically meet, to ensure he has IT setup (uni email address, login etc) and the course details, whereabouts, course handbook, etc. Just go in office hours and not during lunch.

There will also be some kind of general ‘info point’ place that can help him download the right timetable, and give him help on what to do and where to be (and explain how to get to places around the uni!)

Although they will be absolutely hammered this week, as it’s the first week of term, and (at our place anyway) there are approximately 4578970 students who have not read any of the emails they’ve been sent over the last month, just pitched up on day 1, and consequently don’t know what to do or where to do it (but it’s definitely our fault, ahem)

anecdotally her mate has just gone into halls in Edinburgh and parents had to go straight out to ikea an buy a new mattress as the one in her room was wet and mouldy.

Funnily enough my lad has just met someone in next door flat who also replaced thier mattress as it was so manky…I wonder if they are neighbours.

I’ve told mine to triple check every email and internal message system today in case he has missed something. After that he is to get in touch with course leader and see what is happening.

I’m still just disappointed in Edinburgh Uni..

My wife works for a University that I won’t name.

They’ve just had a derisory pay rise enforced on them. Again. The mood is mutinous.

The lad just finished his second year at Strathclyde — I commute to Glasgow for work three days a week.

Having seen the conditions of the halls in week one, he gave the keys back and moved back home. General commentary was “dull, cell like conditions”. He’ll just commute up several days a week, abusing our ability to provide him with food/electricity/access to a vehicle for his social life / climbing trips…. not sure I blame him…

@matt_outandabout

Red hair, nose ring, called Esme, doing drama.

@andy4d what Uni? There should be a central support hub that can help with the timetabling questions as a starting point. I’d also expect his Dept to put some welcome talks/events on, and he should have a personal tutor who’d be a great starting point (this will be Dept level, probably not supported by the hub).

For Matt, I’ve found info about the hubs at Edinburgh which might be useful (though won’t solve the individual lecture being cancelled – though I have to say sh*t does happen. My sister in law died 45 mins before I was due to meet a bunch of new students in the first week; I did manage to get a member of staff to cover for me just because I knew his diary (he ended up with both mine and his tutorial group at once), so I could get home to p20 and his family).

https://www.ed.ac.uk/students/services-and-support/edhelp

Thanks for the pointers above. He is at UCC in Ireland. I dropped him at the station at 7.30am and not heard anything so far today so I am hoping it’s going better today and he has found some of the people mentioned above and getting himself sorted. He can be his own worst enemy at times. A typical 19 year old really but the sort who opens a box to something new and just expects it work and never reads instructions so this will be a bit of a shock to the system for him. After he deferred last year he was going to defer again this year but then changed his mind at the very last minute (another story, but also part of the reason for not having all the info) so I am just hoping he can settle quickly as I have a fear he may just decide to leave it for another year if he can’t find his feet.

@winston
6’3″, bearded and a thing for redheads…. ?

@andy4d – fingers crossed. I agree that my son is also not the best at life admin, but I’m off the view that can be planned for by uni’s who make a living off young people as they move away from home and start to create a life for themselves…

@ahsat – thank you. I found that too. I think at present we see how the rest of the week pans out, but also he’s 19 and therefore an adult who isn’t going to get this parent standing in his place when communicating with the uni…
I also agree that crap happens at times. But so far it’s about an 80% “that’s shitty” across accomodation, induction and lectures. And some is glaringly obvious it’s not been planned for.

In good news, transpires he does now have access to a secure, indoor bike shed. It’s just the Uni forgot to tell anyone where or what the code was, or ask the summer builders to clear out the crap…

@andy4d Looks like UCC have a similar student hub, though with UCC being relatively small it’s all in one location. If he is feeling lost, this is the best place to start. They don’t have all the answers but they know the people who do. https://www.ucc.ie/en/thehub/insidehub/

For any parents of ‘lost’ first years, almost all Unis have something like this now (exceptions will be college based Uni’s). Get your kid to google ‘xxx Uni student hub/services’ and it will get them at least on the right direction.  The big advantage is they are linked up with all the support units, in a way that individual academics like myself can’t.

Good news on the bike storage Matt.

For anyone due to arrive at Leeds this weekend, you’ll be pleased to hear I’ve just seen a load of new mattresses being delivered on campus.

Thanks for the link ahsat I will pass it on to him.

A very handy thread this, my youngest goes to Bangor in a couple of days. He’s 20 and went to Bournemouth a couple of years ago and hated it and dropped out. He never reached out to anyone- organised everything himself and really blocked us out. Now he’s a bit more self aware, aware of his ADHD, got a councilor, and talks more. Hopefully he will fully immerse himself into uni life, and enjoy himself, as well as seek out all the support the uni has when and if he needs it. Bangor looks ace, I’ll be annoying him when i start visiting CYB again but still.

Hope it goes well @jkomo

Just wanted to reiterate my thanks to you all. Things seem to be going OK now for my son. He seems to of been busy the last couple of days, met his cousin for a few hours who went over various things with him, was at the student hub and has found the gym and thinking of taking up rowing! Met a couple of lads on his course who seemed to have had the same struggles he had (which helped him see he was not the only one struggling) and has met another lad on the train in the mornings. He seems more settled and ‘thinks’ he has his timetable sorted (made it to 3 lectures today) and was excited telling me one of his lecturers has been on TV and he has read his book too.

So a big thanks again to STW.

Great to hear