No breaks, unfair grading and ignorance. Several students feel slighted by a teacher at the University. Now both the Students’ Union and the headmaster at the centre have been contacted in order to sort out and solve the problem.
The problem started last term. One of the students started his Master’s studies and thought that the teacher of the course often went overtime at the lectures. Sometimes the teacher could hold a lecture of two hours without giving the students a break. When two students made comments on this, the teacher suggested they should remind him when they wanted a break.
“When I raise my hand the following lecture to ask for a break I was completely ignored by the teacher,” says the student, who would like to be anonymous.
Henceforward the student experienced that the teacher continued being ignorant at lectures, and that students were graded according to the teacher’s liking and not according to how well they had done on assignments and exams.
Ignores the students’ rights
The slighted student also feels that the teacher ignores the students’ right to have influence and opinions on the teaching.
“The teacher has no knowledge about the students’ rights at the University, and when I brought this up I got the answer that “the academy is not democratic,” the student says.
Last week, the affected students had a meeting with the Board at the institution and told them about the problems they experience with the teacher. The reason is that there is a rumour that the teacher might become permanently employed, which the affected students oppose. Hanna Stenfelt is Vice President with special responsibility for educational questions at the Student Union of Humanities and Theology, HTS. She is now investigating the situation together with the student representatives and the Director of Studies of the centre.
“As a student union we try to be there for the students. We are right now having a dialogue between employees at the centre and the students, in order to reach the best solution to the problem with the teacher,” Hanna Stenfelt says.
Different opinions
Leif Stenberg, who is the director at the centre, says that the criticism against the teacher exists among some students, but that opinion is split.
“As far as I know, some students are dissatisfied, while others are not. We are right now trying to solve the problem with the teacher together with the students and the Students’ Union,” he says.
After the meeting last week the institution was given attention due to the problems how the student and classmates experience the teacher. So far the headmaster, Leif Stenberg, thinks that the criticism has not been heavy enough and is expecting documentation after a meeting between those students that disagreed about the teacher and the Student Union.
“I think it is troublesome that the criticism is vague. The criticism the teacher knows about is that some lectures have passed scheduled time, and that doesn’t seem too bad,” he says.
Lundagård has tried to contact the responsible teacher for a comment without success.
Text: Tove Nordén
Translation: Charlotte Fransson
