Posts Tagged ‘investigation’

KCLSU president Chris Mullan will face a motion of no confidence from the college’s African Caribbean Society (ACS) in an attempt to drive him from office. Read the rest of this entry »

The British Council has still not made an official apology to last year’s Erasmus students.

Read the rest of this entry »

British students abroad were left struggling to make ends meet after a series of errors by the British Council caused severe delays to the payment of maintenance grants.

Erasmus grants are worth £2,375 over an academic year. Some students were forced to return home early or miss out on trips because of the late payments.

And they were disgusted to learn that the British Council had decsribed the delays to London Student as ‘slight’.

The first payment was due in September 2007 but didn’t arrive until November. The second instalment was due in mid-April, but did not reach students’ accounts until the end of June.

Many students from UL colleges had already returned home before they received the money.

The money is paid to UK students studying on the continent as part of the European Commission’s Lifelong Learning Program.

In 2006, The British Council, a non-departmental government body, won the contract to process these patments from the Commission on behalf of all UK Higher Education institutions.

University Study Abroad Offices across the UK have slammed the British Council for not employing enough staff to process the payments on time.

London Student also understands that the staff employed by the British Council were not suitably qualified for the job.

There has been criticism of the British Council’s communication with individual institutions. University of London colleges were unable to provide struggling students with a fixed date for the payments, with UCL’s year abroad office informing worried students that they “should probably reckon on it being at least another month.”

UCL said it had lodged a strongly worded complaint with the British Council stating that the delays were causing “anxiety, worry and financial hardship” to many of its students.

Hit for six

The body that claims to represent ‘the very best of the Modern UK’ appears to have been caught napping by a planned increase in the number of Erasmus students, despite having been given 10 months warning by the European Commission.

Responding to London Student inquiries, the British Council seemed to be completely out of touch with the financial problems of the majority of students, claiming that they should be more relaxed about £2,500 and not include that money in their financial planning, recommending them to use it to cover “extra travel costs.”

They also described the delays as “slight”, which has outraged students hit by the errors. Matt Hann, a language and culture student from Durham University, who was studying in Germany said: “It’s quite a stretch to label up to two months as ‘slight’, especially if you’re relying on that money to live off, and you’re living in a foreign country for the first time.”

A spokesperson refused to apologise, stating only that: “The British Council regrets any hardship or inconvenience caused to students whose grants were delayed.”

They also flatly denied that the first payment was late – a lie that sits uneasily against the Council’s founding motto of “truth will triumph.”

They also suggested that students would be better off in Europe than the UK even without the grant: “Living costs in many European cities can actually be cheaper for many students and if eligible students go for a full year their UK tuition fees are waived.”

Somewhat bizarrely, they cite the example of the Czech Republic, a “decidedly cheaper county” where “cinema tickets are only £2”.

Sadly for students at LSE, King’s, Royal Holloway and Queen Mary, there is only one Czech Language course, taught at SSEES, within the entire University of London.

As a result of the delay in payments Britain was underrepresented on Erasmus Society trips organized by host institutions. Such trips are designed to foster cultural understanding between young Europeans.

The Università Roma Tre in Italy had organized a trip to Sicily in May, for all visiting Erasmus students. Student representatives from France, The Netherlands, Spain and Romania, who had received their Erasmus grants on schedule, were able to attend whilst representatives from the University of London were left at home, trying to scrape together some euro-cents to buy pasta.

Criss Class, an economics student from Romania bemoaned the lack of British representation on the trip: “I was looking forward to getting to know more about Britain and British students in Sicily, Erasmus is all about building understanding, it is sad none of them had the money to go.”

The British Council has assured London Student that the problem will not be repeated: “We now have staff who are all now fully trained and knowledgeable about the new programme.”

High and Dry

University of London Students also felt abandoned by their individual Colleges. UCL, Imperial College and Kings College all have turnovers in excess of £400m, yet all refused to stump up a few hundred thousand pounds to temporarily cover the payments.

Established methods of financial assistance also appear to have failed the most vulnerable students. UCL’s hardship fund proved particularly ineffectual in this situation. French and German Student Rachel Maguire was left penniless by the British Council error and applied for help.

“I arranged to get an emergency loan from UCL of 250 quid. I explained that there were lots of people in the same situation as me but the woman explained that to get the money you have to have a meeting in person in London. Which is useless if you are broke and in another country.”

Case Studies:

 

It seems that – in calling the failure ‘slight’ – the British Council are not looking at their failure in terms real people. Many students were left in serious trouble by the lack of funds.

UCL French and Italian student, Matthew Reza, was reduced to eating one bowl of plain pasta a day because money was so short.

“It took a while for my metabolism to get used to it, and I felt quite tired. It’s not a particularly pleasant experience when you’re on your year abroad. It is difficult enough being at a foreign university; I really didn’t need this.”Warwick University was also affected by the delays. While German student, Leah Browne, was still able to eat, she did had to take out a loan from her bank, and now is being hit by repayments of £100 per month.“I was pretty desperate and needed cash quickly. Now I’m back in Britain I’m really struggling to meet payments, and the bank isn’t being flexible.”An inflexible bank wasn’t the only problem for an anonymous UCL student, who faced aggression from his live-in landlord for his delay in paying rent. “It was pretty nasty. I tried to explain the situation, but as the date of payment kept getting put back [the British councils weren’t very good at communicating with the universities] I kept giving him different dates of when the money was due. He refused to believe me and got quite angry – he threw a glass at me; thankfully it hit the wall. Our relationship suffered massively and I had to move out. I don’t think I’ll remember my year abroad as a particularly happy time.”While many students faced returning home early, others couldn’t rely on that as an option. Lorna Harper is a student of French and Scandinavian Studies at UCL. At one stage she doubted if she’d be able to get home on the small amount money she had left.“I had no idea when the money would reach me. I had to sit and watch as flights increased in price which made me furious. The most annoying thing was not receiving any kind of explanation. If I had known why the money was delayed, I could maybe have been a little more understanding.”All the students report feeling let down by the British Council, with Harper voicing the view of many: “I thought it was disgraceful that students were left in foreign countries, miles from home without the money that was promised to them.”<!–[if !supportEmptyParas]–> <!–[endif]–><!–[if !supportEmptyParas]–> <!–[endif]–>