My daughter, very conscientious human that she is, signed up to do some extra study during the holidays to prepare herself for her VCE exams that are coming up. She applied to a well known University about 150kms away. She woke early on Monday morning and caught the train, only to get a phonecall on her mobile about an hour before the course was due to start, to say they had overbooked and they didn’t have a spot for her. She had arranged accomodation for herself for the three days in the city and was well organised. The uni have debited the money for this course from the Visa card and although it is three days later, no refund has appeared. She was quite devastated.
I was altogether unsurprised and others I have discussed this with have expressed a similar belief that universities in general are not the best at customer service. As courses become more expensive I find myself wondering if it is all worth it.
Interestingly I read this today:What’s the ROI on an MBA When You’re in the SEO Industry?. I hope people begin to question more, what is the return on the investment.
I have attended uni, tafe, adult education and lots of privately ran courses. I am a bit of a course addict actually, or at least I was until I started blogging:-). I honestly found my uni course to be the least quality or ROI. I guess that peice of paper one needs for many professions, that is only available at a uni, is the edge they have. As far the actual learning though or the growth gained, uni’s didn’t rate for me.
I guess I am just always cranky when people are not treated with respect.
More time please
Right now I would like more time in my day.
I have so much I want to do and feel that I am rushing through from task to task and feeling impatient with things that waste any little second. The meeting schedule at work seems to have doubled this year and I can’t understand why.
I know we have new curriculum to implement but we have better paid ‘servant’ leaders with larger time allowances and they are covering a smaller range than previous curriculum leaders had to, which by rights should save time.
A lot of the meetings are covering information that could be easily distributed in other ways. I find it highly amusing that we expect students to meet deadlines and learn new things yet there seems to be no trust or expectations that teachers can do this.
Often there really isn’t room for imput or consultation and ‘pretending’ that is what a meeting is about is just insulting and annoying.
I should write all this on my work blog I suppose but it’s probably not politically correct and I really haven’t got time to discuss this with anyone right now- I am just having a vent! PS:
I have no photo of that but if you can imagine for a moment a cranky looking woman sitting in a meeting with too many other people to be effective silently grumbling to herself about why people still need to complain about things that are inevitable or explain blow by blow what they do in a classroom as if they are not in a room full (and I mean full) of people who do virtually the same things, yet don’t need to go into detail about it, every chance they get. I mean who are they trying to convince?
Mmm I have gone on and on.
Hump Day
Wednesday is meant to be hump day apparently. You get over Wednesday and then the rest of the week is downhill. So the theory goes. When Tuesday feels like Wednesday though, like mine did yesterday I feel as though it should be over already!
Last night when I looked up the link for Harkaway Primary, I sent off an email to Mr Hess the principal, who is still the principal, to thank him for the great memories we have of our time at that school. It seems it has not lost it’s small family friendly feel because tonight I got an email back along with photo’s and an invite to call in next time we’re passing through. It was a sweet spot in a full on day.
Today has just been busy and annoying mostly. Lots of tempers are fraying out and about and mine is no exception. I feel tired and verging on unwell, but I know this will pass and I intend to have an early night to be sure.