You may call it a rant, I call it constructive criticism.

Don’t get me wrong, throughout my second year of Media and Sociology, I have really enjoyed mentally hurling myself into the course and most things that it represents. By taking part in a joint degree, you’re presented with a vast variation of topic content, covering extremely relatable and relevant subjects. So, it’s quite difficult to become bored, which is a huge bonus. However, there are times when I experience nothing but reoccurring frustration. As a witness to multiple friends reading for straight degree courses at university, I withhold a lot of envy as they seem to have much better course communication and correspondence.

It’s very important to recognise that whilst I am thoroughly enjoying my degree, I also understand that the ‘student voice’ is key in situations such as this.

Due to the fact that I am split across two departments, I find it very confusing when I need to ask questions about my degree and as a result, I struggle to pin down one go-to contact in both of my departments. Now, my personal tutor is very helpful but he is also starved of the same information that I also seem to lack, so he simply becomes another investigator among a pile of confusion. Due to the splitting of departments, at times I feel as if I am tossed between Media and Sociology contacts, resembling a hot potato.

I have come to terms with the fact that my course is particularly bad when it comes to getting grades back on time and correct timetabling. Apparently, this semester some of my sociology grades are still unmarked due to ‘staff illness’. It upsets me that after handing in an essay half way through December, I now won’t receive the finalised grades until February. It angers me even more so, that I sat my recent sociology exam feeling blindfolded as I had no awareness of my current progression due to the lack of assignment marks.

Considering the amount that we students pay now-a-days, I assumed that the standards would at least remain in tact. I understand that our £9000 funds aren’t directly filtering into staff members’ pockets, however you would think that they might attempt to understand how it feels to be those students from time time, ensuring we gain the best tuition and treatment like promised in the first place. The main catalyst of this criticism was the fact that majority of my friends at the University of Leicester seemed to lack in the complaints department when it came to their own course. Thus, it provoked me to get in contact with my department and truly discover what was going on.