I was speaking with a friend yesterday who has encountered something of a problem. She is the dean of a large "college" at a local state university and last week was sent the list of all professorial and teaching staff associated with her college. This was the official list generated by the university's central human resources department, and clearly it has been some time since this was done since she had not received such a list previously. The problem? Roughly 50% of the records were substantively incorrect.
Most of the errors were a lack of recorded Masters and PhD qualifications, and my friend's task was to advise all without a Masters and/or PhD (over 50% of the college's teaching staff representing around 80% of the college's teaching) by October 31 that they would not be offered employment in 2022.
This of course raises three issues. Firstly, she has about two weeks to contact all of these people and confirm their qualifications and for them to obtain satisfactory evidence from their alma maters, to submit that evidence to the university's HR, to have them accept it and then to upload it and to correct their records.
Secondly, this prompts the questions : (1) how did this occur? (b) when did this occur? (c) how did no-one discover this earlier? (d) is this also the case for other colleges within the university? (e) is this also the case with other personnel records, for example administrative staff, any of whom also have advanced degrees?
Thirdly, what if someone (or people!) cannot obtain the required evidence in the required form by the required date?
I was reminded of something that had happened to me, coincidentally at the same university. Many years ago, I had taken the maximum number of PhD-level classes possible without being enrolled in a PhD program so I looked into enrolling. They needed a copy of my BA and transcript and a copy of my Masters and transcript. These were easy to obtain, I needed just to send some forms and checks.
I also have a postgraduate certificate and another postgraduate diploma so I though I would apply for copies of those, "just in case". The diploma was as above, just a form and a check. The certificate was the interesting experience.
In the days when I first gained my teaching certification, you first completed your Bachelor's and then, separately a post-graduate Certificate in Teaching at the College of Education which was a separate entity, and not a part of the university. It was later subsumed by the university so I wrote away for the Certificate - check - and transcript.
Whoa. The transcript was riddled with errors. It included a course I had not taken and lacked courses which I had, and while I do not remember details such as all my grades, I do remember three A grades of which I was particularly proud and which appeared in the transcript as Bs and Cs.
I wrote to the records department about these errors and received a formula reply to the effect that "this is your official permanent record" and incapable of error. I appealed and received "we have conducted a thorough review and the record is correct". Except that it is not.
Of course, for me and career and my stage in life this does not matter, but there is a principle here. So I called the head of the records department. Indirectly, and me putting two and two together. she told me that the former College of Education did not have great records because in those days. the qualification and not the transcript was what mattered so gaps exist. Secondly, when the university took over, records which did exist were manually keyed into the electronic archives which of course added another level of possible errors.
They have had a number of people disputing their transcripts who have original records which can be used to correct the official permanent records. Without that evidence, they would not change my transcript and so my Modern Interpretative Dance disappeared to be replaced by the Metaphysics of Contact-free Underwater Cave Welding, and my A in Counting Angels on Pinheads is now a C+.
Our educational system relies on the accuracy of records, but these two instances show that perhaps we should not.
**Please leave your comments and queries below.**
No comments :
Post a Comment