Complaints

[Chloe]

If I am unhappy about my course and the way it was run/the tutors, how do I go about speaking to someone about it?? I feel as though the level of teaching this year was appalling and that the people on my course were at an unfair disadvantage because we had to teach ourselves!!!

[lozzy]

Hi i feel the same about my college and tutors, which college did you attend?

[alleycat]

Hi all <BR><BR>Just to join in on this one we have had the same experience this year too with a tutor that was off more than they were present and the only ones on our course that have seemed to do well were those that did a lot of home study.<BR><BR>I wonder if this is a general trend or just that some of us have just fallen unlucky in our choice of college. I can tell you that at the end of the year our class had dropped to just 8 people who eventually took the exam.<BR><BR>I do know though that it is worth bringing this to the attention of AAT as they are always keen to make sure that the standards in colleges is maintained. Maybe an e mail just to voice your concerns would be well worth it especially in veiw of the fact that more students will be signing up for the same course again and may have to endure what you have had to go through.<BR><BR>The only down side is it looks like we will have the same tutor for Intermediate.....oh well back to the books I guess.......well providing I pass Foundation !<BR><BR>alley<BR>xxxxxx

[karl]

same here chloe. Our tutor has already been stopped from teaching year 2 because she is not competent. Perhaps I'm old fashioned, but i believe a tutor should actually teach and not just supply relevant information to get the job done. There was also favouritism big time at our college, where the tutor got very clique with a few select students. She would spend half an hour with them showing them how something was done and spend about 2 minutes with our group. She also rang one of the students to ask her to put a letter of recommendation in to our college that she teaches year 2 and 3. Its been an absolute disgrace. If you feel strong enough on this issue, talk to your fellow students and put a complaint in to the college. It may seem harsh but remember you have invested a lot of time and effort into the course, and its only fair that the college and its tutors should do the same. We complained, and the tutor was reprimanded, and we will not have to suffer her next year.

[Frankymo1e]

It's amazing what a huge difference an interested tutor makes. For Intermediate, we had a tutor who herself was doing final CIMA exams, and nothing was too much trouble for her to explain. Very enthusiastic, and that prompted me to continue to Technician. By the time we started Technician, my employer (a large Government department) had contracted to a new (presumably cheaper) college, so we lost her great teaching. One of the new tutors was very inefficient and seemed to resent the job, so it was a very stressful time and many in the class lost motivation. Results were down on the previous year too. Luckily my employer had a &quot;what went wrong&quot; meeting with the new college, to ensure this year's intake fared better. As well as contacting the AAT, it might be worth seeing what your employer says (if you are being sponsored by an employer).

[bryan]

Complaining about a course can be both difficult and embarassing. In the first instance talk to the course coordinator/leader, who will be a lecturer. If the person you want to complain about is the leader, or the first approach does not work, go to the lecturers line manager. If that fails, go to the college quality control department or write to the principal. Speaking from personal experience of both ends of complaints, I would be more impressed by a student telling me personally that there was a problem. Most lecturers could 'blag' their way out of trouble by blaming the students!<BR>Do you have a student rep in the class?<BR>Is there anything in your course booklet on complaints?<BR><BR>

[Frankymo1e]

Perhaps we were spoiled, but the first college (the good one) included a blank complaints form in the induction pack for the course. That said, we had a separate tutorial from our lectures, so we had a tutor specifically for student concerns who was not involved in the lessons. Finally, I wrote a critique of the course (including both good and bad poinhts, with practical suggestions for improvements) which was discussed and the college said they were addressing the students' concerns - I never heard any more but I hope that this year's intake are not having the same problems we did. certainly my employer now has the ammunition to ensure the college/contractor gives &quot;value for money&quot; because they have demonstrably been made aware of our concerns.

[clivesmith999]

Chloe<BR><BR>Different tutors have different styles and some will be better than others. However, some subjects take more getting to grips with than others and it is down to the student to put in the necessary study. It is easy to blame the tutors, but it is usually the case that the student has not put the necessary effort via study. You would do better to look at how you can improve your study plan rather than blame others.<BR><BR>Clive

[Chloe]

Clive,<BR><BR>I think it is very unfair of you to assume that it was my fault that I did not get what I paid for out of the course. My whole class feels the same and I have been elected to find out the best way to deal with the matter. If we fail this year we may need to return to the college next year if we are unable to find another suitable college and we are trying to safeguard ourselves against a repeat performance. <BR>My tutor basically came to the class and read out of the BPP text, which we all could have done (and did do) at home, without actually explaining what any of it meant. We didnt even start learning the 3 central subjects until April and only had a few lessons on each (DF/PAR/MCV)<BR>I, myself was totally dedicated to the course and read each of the BPP texts from cover to cover and re-wrote every page in my own words (Yes every page!!). I put my life on hold from September to June and only went out twice socially in this period because I had to work so hard to teach myself the course because my teacher wasn't. During exam week I covered my walls in posters to help me and spent EVERY hour studying, day and night on past papers and questions from various texts, not just the text set by the college. All this as well as holding down a full time job. <BR>I came on this site for some help/advice after a very stressful and upsetting 9 months and not to be criticised. <BR>Thankyou to everyone else who have provided constructive comments they are much appreciated, it is comforting to know that we are not alone in what we have had to put up with. I did not go to the college the previous year but my class mates did and apparently they approached the college last year about the same tutor. Given this, my class has decided to meet in a couple of weeks to put together a letter of complaint. We are going to send it to the AAT and copy in the college. We feel these courses are hard enough and a dedicated and competent teacher, as well as a bit of support wouldnt go amiss!!!

[Katemarie36]

Chloe, <BR><BR>I cannot see how you have been disadvantaged by teaching yourself, all of us who do not attend college but study at home teach ourselves the whole course. If there was a problem with the tutor/college really you should have dealt with this in the first few months of the course, not wait untill after the exams when it is too late. When studying further education you should rely on yourself and no one else to be fully prepared.<BR><BR><BR>Kate

[Steph]

dido chloe!!!!!!!!!<BR>:)

[NeilH]

Id just like to show my support for Chloe.<BR><BR>I've been a student and taught further education students, and it is up to the student to take responsibility for their learning BUT it's up to the course provider to provide proper education and support, not just read from books! My manager at work had a lecturer when he did AAT who didnt even know how a VAT report should be completed.<BR><BR>Its all very well people saying they had to teach themselves at home when studying via distance learning, but thats what you pay for with home study, not the case with a college attendance course (how would home study students feel if their books were incomplete?)<BR><BR>All in all college &quot;quality&quot; for AAT seems to be fading and im considering going straight to ACCA from intermediate rather than to tech and get the exmptions as Ive heard much better reports of the ACCA colleges available to me.

[NeilH]

P.S.<BR><BR>When i put &quot;quality&quot; above, I'm refering to AAT college courses.<BR><BR>N

[Katemarie36]

Neil,<BR><BR>I am not sure quite what you mean by getting what you pay for in home study, I went to WHS smith got the BPP book, which the majority of student (college & home study) use and entered myself for the exam. Therefore teaching myself.<BR><BR>I really do believe that if you want to learn and understand and get good qualifications then it is soley down to the student. I just suprises me that so many people go through the courses then only after the exams try to complain, when it is too late. A previous AAT student at my workplace had the same problem naff course and failed the exams, tried to complain to the college, their manager and AAT and they said that they should have done something about it before, not wasted a year by relying on the useless tutor, then tried to sit the exams when they were not prepared.<BR><BR>I hope we have all passed, regardless of the problems etc. that each of us have encountered. Roll on 20th August !!<BR><BR>Kate

[LER]

If people can learn from just using the books alone, then you should definately be very proud of yourselves, but I know from experience that I can learn better from being shown how to work through things and being able to discuss things that I don't understand with other people. That's the reason why I would pay more money for a college course (complete with tutors) rather than just learn from home. In which case I would expect that the tutors should know what they are talking about and be able to help you out when you are stuck. Over the last two years doing intermediate and technician levels, we have had a couple of really good tutors as well as one who really didn't like us asking questions and one who just didn't want to be there. The problem seems to be that there is a lack of suitable tutors so unfortunately you just have to put up with the bad ones.

[NeilH]

Kate<BR><BR>I totally agree that any concerns or complaints must be raised ASAP, but as a previous student and college tutor I feel that that any college should provide proper teaching and support.<BR><BR>What I mean by you get what you pay for with home study is that by doing a home study course, or by texts separately as I did, you expect to have to teach yourself, although you do expect the texts to be adequate. However, if you enrol on an attendance course, you expect to receive quality teaching and related support. If you fail to receive proper tuition its rather like buying text books or a home study pack that has pages missing or doesnâ??t cover the subject matter sufficiently.<BR><BR>Complaining when itâ??s to late isn't really appropriate, but neither is setting up a course with sub-standard staff and offering it when it fails to adequately cover the syllabus. Also, just as a college makes an effort to inform the students of its disciplinary procedures relating to the conduct of students, a college should also make such an effort to inform students of how they may raise complaints and concerns relating to the college and make appropriate channels available to do so. At the end of the day it comes down to good or bad customer service.<BR><BR>Unfortunately, the occurrence of poor teaching staff seems a common occurrence to AAT college courses, and isnâ??t something Iâ??ve heard from colleagues regarding CIMA or ACCA.<BR>

[clivesmith999]

Chloe<BR><BR>Sorry if I came across more harsh than intended. We are all wondering whether we have passed the exams or not and it can be a worrying time. Clearly you studied as hard as anybody and you deserve good tuition in return at evening classes, but as Kate points out, it may have been best to have taken action earlier rather than after the event. Having a sub standard tutor can be a major drawback, but the AAT cannot help, it would be more appropriate for the course manager at your college to investiage - even if your fellow students had complained in the previous year.<BR><BR>Regards Clive

[Mandy001]

Sorry I have to add my twopenneth, and will be repeating more or less what everyone else has said :(<BR><BR>I think I went to the same college as Karl as our tutor had his favourites! I complained/mentioned this directly to the tutor during the course, about Christmastime which it stopped for some time.. eventually he went back to his favourites, but then if they were discussing the year above, for example, I would pipe up &quot;why are we wasting time on this now? cant we get this year over with first?&quot; which seemed to bring them back (I said it in a nice/jokey kind of way, of course). <BR><BR>A friend and I came to the conclusion, in foundation level, that we have to do outside reading and teach ourselves as well as attending the classes. I too learn better from audio then visual, i.e being taught rather than just reading.<BR><BR>So I would go with what people are saying, as I have been practising this one since foundation level - be taught in class but make sure you read up on it too, dont leave it all to the tutor. I found that getting a couple of different text books helps too (bpp and faulks lynch).<BR><BR>My husband really doesn't rate my tutor's teaching techniques and said that he approaches complex subjects awkwardly - on reciprocal apportioning our tutor taught us some mathematical equation rather than the David Cox way (why?) . Hubby did accounting as part of his first degree so has a bit of inside knowledge, so I often sit down with him and get his version of a difficult subject too. I find that getting other people's opinions or versions of things helps me build my own understanding of it.<BR><BR>Sorry if this has not been helpful to you Chloe :(<BR><BR>Mandy