NDU: A bad fall for Fall 09
“I feel that the university has betrayed me !!” (A CS student)
As the new semester starts at NDU, students line up to register their courses, eager to pick a schedule that would fit most of their time. However if you have been signing up to FALL09 one big disappointment awaits you. I do understand that teachers are limited and have their times, and I do understand that one cannot have too many sections for a class of a small group of people. However there has been a lot of inconsistencies with the offerings this semester, that upset a lot of students, this article tend to show such inconsistencies. After I heard too many bad feedback from my friends, and having experienced the whole process myself, I would like just to put things clear, because such things , and for the sake of professionalism, require an explanation. I would like to point out too that this inconsistency seams to be unique to this time only, and so is not a general habit.
Inconsistency in the CS offerings
Some CS courses (since I am a CS student) offerings, more importantly major courses are only given on a basis of one section, which really narrows down the choice of the students, and these courses are given on a different time basis some are TTH and others MWF, two courses stand out, two important CS courses, CSC 218 and CSC 313 have been suggested to be taken by students in the beginning of second FALL semester, however CSC 313 which is taken by most CCE, CS, CIS and CGA students only has one section and that section has been filled before the students that are designated to be taking second Fall semester had the chance to even begin registering. Moreover CSC 313 and CSC 218 are given at exactly the same time (MWF 9-10) which does not make sense, if NDU really suggested the program for CS/CIS/CGA students to take the two courses together then why is there such inconsistency?
“Having chosen what fits right to their timing and schedule over the students better understanding of the curricula system , i feel that the university only cares about making money , instead of putting a schedule that helps the students with their times and make their semester more enjoyable !” (CS Student)
“There is plenty of courses that aren’t in the offerings or found at very strange times [...] How come there is only one CSC 313 and has only 20 seats?” (CS student)
Changes in the FBAE (Faculty of Business Administration and Economics) offerings
After hearing a lot of changes in the offerings in the FBAE, I decided to look them up, two students confirmed that the timing of their courses had changes after they had confirmed their registration, and hence have conflicted with their schedule, since I have been frustrated by the fact, that students get disrespected. These changes were described as “unfair” by a student in the faculty. I decided to look further the following are screenshots taken from the site (which was updated lastly on the 22nd of September) and the SIS (Student Information Services) at 20:26 Sept 24 (GMT +3), and I got shocked by the results, highlighted below are the time changes (use site as reference):
Management 201 Courses on SIS
Management 201 Course on site
Other FBAE Courses on SIS
FBAE other courses on site
Notice the changes in the MRK 201 which is a very basic course that new students that are doing a business-related field have to take, and since new students cannot access the SIS how can they know the change of time before signing up, since they are using the site as reference?
Last minute changes isn’t really professional either.
Most of the students now have to wait for the add and drop period to fix their schedule. I find it really strange that the add/drop should be used to fix mistakes that have been done in the registration and offerings, and especially since the students will be subject to the add/drop policies limiting course changes.
It is most definably a big blow to the students that I know have registered and hopefully an official explanation would be mailed to students, because such behavior really doubts the professionalism of a university, and more importantly disrespects the students.
Filed under Education, Lebanon | Tags: NDU, Offerings, Registration, University | Comments (12)12 Responses to “NDU: A bad fall for Fall 09”
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Personally, my life will be ruined!! and i will loose a whole year if i don’t take CSC313 this Fall since it is a prerequisite to almost every remaining course in my contract sheet.
Honestly I’m pissed as fuck because I was only allowed to register 2 courses for the entire semester which is hell for me but you know whatever I love this blog mate well done good work on it
I say get a good lawyer and sue the university for damages. and if they try to play tough, sue them again. thats just how i tend to deal with assholes these days
i would pay to sue the university and i am sure i can find people who will too!!
They actually changed the time of the course yesterday or the day before and it’s a major course CSC 277 that I NEED to take now.. And wtf, one section of CSC 313?? That is just bullshit.. I don’t want to spend my semester taking GERs…
This is really wrong , im basically living on GER’s :/
Sigh a petition, or even protest…
As an Australian our system is very different, but regardless of this no university should be centering themselves around being a money-making scheme. It is wrong that they aren’t taking any student requirements into consideration as this is not benefiting anybody, and I believe as a uni their primary aim should be to meet the needs of the students’ as best as they can, in terms of both the education they provide and the opportunities/access to this. Changing the times at the last minute does give them a very unprofessional and unorganized image – one that you would assume they would wish to prevent – however if it unpreventable, then I believe that the students should not be restricted by add/drop policies as it is not like they simply changed their minds, or had adequate warning about the time changes and did not take them into consideration. It seems as if the students are being punished by the uni’s actions, and this is not right.
I totally agree with all what you have said in this article.
Some new students that I met during my registration yesterday got only 3 courses (9 credits), since all the other courses were full…
But unfortunately, NDU doesn’t care…:)
3eyb…
I am no lawyer but i know lebanese law a bit.
Here’s my take on this.
The type of relation you have got as a student in a university is called according to COL (Contract and obligations Law) Contrat D’adhésion ( عقد الإذعان). Its when your role (as a student in this case) is just to accept some type of contract that is already drafted by the other party (in this case the university)without being able to negotiate its articles. This is similar to your relation for example to Electricite du Liban as a consumer.
Now after reviewing what the conditions that are preset are, discuss with a lawyer whether you are able (and preferably as a group), to sue the university under the pretext of
سوء استعمال الحق, سوء النية أو “الغبن
If that is possible, signing a petition where you specifically ask the university to change its ways and mention that you have occurred damages (notice that damages according to law can be material or mental), will become a prerequisite as it will serve as a notice (انذار) which is required by law if you wanna sue for damages later on.
Also you don’t want to sue the university alone, you’ll probably get fried if you plan to stay in it and don’t have the option to go anywhere else.
Better do it as a group.
The trick is to find a lawyer that really knows what he is doing.
The point is you do have rights according to law, why not fight for them.
@zerolando
Woa, thank you for your detailed follow-up on the issue, I do not think this needs more than a petition, I do not think they are doing this deliberately but like many Lebanese they tend to get lazy and unprofessional (sorry for stereotyping), they just need a little heads up that we are getting annoyed, I do not think anyone filed a petition before so they just kept on getting worse and worse.
But thanks again for supplying the basic frame so that we are in the loop for what we can and cannot do ^^ appreciated. I am sure your advice will benefit the people who would need to go with suing the university