Glasgow Student not enrolled until a month into her course because of ‘technical difficulties’

Online university has been tough for us all this term, and using Moodle is not always that reliable. But imagine if you weren’t able to properly access your course until a month into term due to ‘technical difficulties’, only to find out you weren’t enrolled at all.

Master’s student Khira MacWatt faced this problem, after deciding to switch her degree from psychology to political communications in late August, and found that she had not been properly registered onto her new course, and therefore could not access anything she needed on Moodle.

She sent out several emails, and after receiving mixed replies and sometimes no replies, she was then removed from the university system, with her accepted psychology offer being deleted. She was not then added to the political communication course and could not get in touch with anyone via email or phone.

She was properly added onto the correct course on week two, but had to register before she could enrol on the specific courses and gain access to the material.  She was sent an email in week two saying that she had still not registered, and after sending a screenshot of proof she was annoyed to find that the incident had been closed, despite not being fixed properly.

Eventually, the university identified that because she had taken a summer course, MyCampus had been using her summer course code, not her Master’s course, for her registration, and therefore it was not allowing her to enrol for her desired courses.

But even though the university had identified that there was a problem, it was still not resolved by them, and Khira was advised to contact the course conveners to inform them she is behind and needs help catching up.

Speaking to The Glasgow Tab, Khira said: “It has been such an awful experience so far and I’ve had zero support from the uni. It’s not worth putting myself into more debt for – I don’t feel like I’m getting an education at all! I’m pretty set on dropping out and saving myself for another year at another university.”

Now, at the start of week five, she cannot access Moodle and still does not even have a student card. This means that she cannot access the library or other buildings on campus and cannot use the printers or scanners the university provides.

With the tight measures in place due to the pandemic, she has not been able to meet any other students as the usual avenues of sport societies and student union events are very limited in what they can offer. This problem is made worse by the fact that she has an assessment in week five worth 20 per cent, which she thought she might not be able to sit, let alone study for.

A University of Glasgow spokesperson told The Glasgow Tab: “We are ensuring this student is not penalised academically as a result of the issue with enrolment and we apologise for the inconvenience caused. We believe this to be a one-off, and we have otherwise seen record numbers of students able to register successfully this year.”