Never. Blog. When. You. Are. Angry. Ok, that's out the way.

Then, I know that many people work very hard during registration. Thank-you to all those people.

BUT.

I am trying to understand why I keep bumping into irate, frustrated, bemused students who have done their best to follow every twist in the OU(TM) unofficial entrance exam - surviving the registration process. Since many of the students I am talking about are also OU(TM) staff, I won't even listen any more to the superior comments from all and bloody sundry, that students don't follow the right procedures. The procedures are a moving feast in themselves. I'm sure if we started to gather registration stories we'd have a blog overload (including those that are 'bloody students' stories).

My latest irritation has been my own daugher's experience. Having successfully negotiated three other degrees at another university, without a single registration drama, she applied early to OU(TM) with ALL the correct forms (double checked). 10 weeks later she had heard nothing, and needed to resign from her job in order to come down (and I use that term with increasing nuance) to OU(TM). I called the department (this was a post-grad application), yes, they had received the forms, but it was Registration that was holding things up. I phoned registration, no there were no forms. I explained that I hand-delivered them, so that was, um, twaddle. The forms appeared and her letter of offer was in my post box within 5 days. All good. She arrived early, registered (yes, present physically, signed forms with her lecturers signing same forms, all filed and correct) on the early reg date for her p-g qualification. Has her prison ID in her hands, now wants to start attending courses and etc - oops, there is no record of her registration for any courses.

Goes through the run-around from department, to Faculty to lord-knows-where else (including for some unknown reason, being sent to ITS and computer lab managers), stands in Faculty with her student ID in hand, only to be told registration closed yesterday, she can come back next year.

World Class Something, this OU(TM).

No, she says, with remarkable patience (she says she said "bulls&*t"), and explains that she did register, and that her lecturer signed all her forms, and that she has paid all her fees and has a receipt to prove it. Oh, and all her details were on the dreaded PeopleSoft. Right, says the Face of OU(TM) - I'm too busy to help you, but you can go and look in the storeroom through all the forms, if yours is there then "we'll see". Unsurprisingly she finds the forms. Now she is told she must pay a late registration fee!!!! For crying out loud - WHY???? No, she says - your problem, Face of OU(TM), you mislaid the forms - Now she gets sent back to the department. Departmental Face of OU(TM) [DFOU] says: you never sent your academic transcripts. Yes I did (you can imagine from there). Then DFOU triumphantly ends all argument by (without moving an inch) claiming: your forms are not in the file. Yes they are, says daughter - I saw you put them there, and mine were the first forms in the file. (Back to the no they're not, yes they are level of negotation). Daughter then breaks all rules and traditions, goes behind the barriers, opens file, finds transcripts. DFOU's response? Oh, but your surname is a common surname, it's easy to lose.

Staggering. (And that's "popular", DFOU, not "common".) what, I wonder, would have happened if my 1.5m daughter wasn't so damn feisty? Would she have just walked off and lost a year of study?  

And the response we get? Shoulder shrug and "Oh well, welcome to OU(TM)"

This is by no means an isolated experience. (See the current copy of Varsity - and of two courses that I teach on, 19 of 21 of the Masters students have had almost identical experiences, with a different Faculty to that in which my daughter has registered).  I know that this year there are many more students than expected (although why this has surprised everybody given the publicity around the school leaving unpredictability, I am not really sure), and sure this has increased the load for everyone - but wow.

Is it only me, of could there - maybe - be a problem with the systems in place at OU(TM) that "support" (and I use the word loosely) registration? Given the proposed alignment of DVC posts with priorities, could we have a DVC (allowing students access to OU(TM))?