“We recognise the course selection process can be frustrating, and apologise for this,” an LSE Spokesperson has told The Beaver, in response to ‘Graduate Course Selection Chaos’, published last week. “The School is reviewing the course selection process for both undergraduates and postgraduates” they continued, stating that it particularly aimed at identifying “the specific points of difficult for students and how each stage can be improved”.
“This review will seek to find short-term alleviation as well as longer-term structural solutions.” This, the LSE spokesperson said, “has already led to some recent positive changes, including the introduction of Course Finder – making courses easier to find and compare.”
It has also led to “better guidance about the methods by which departments allocate places on controlled access courses.” As of yet, however, there has been no word on the rationale behind the vastly different approaches to course selection by the different academic departments, the provision of adequate information to students about the process, or the causes of the IT issues that plagued key elements of the Graduate Course Choice online infrastructure.
This has provided little comfort for affected students, for some of whom the frustration continues. A few students have reported gaining admission into “first choice subjects” even after the Monday 9th October deadline for Graduate Course Choice. “The system has cut off any changes I’d like to make,” said one student, who has had to attempt to get their department coordinator to manually make the required change. “With this efficiency, I can only pray that I can accept my module,” they continued.
Other students have confirmed their intentions to communicate their experiences and complaints on to their Degree Representatives, who will then present these issues at Department-wide meetings, which are to be held throughout Michaelmas Term. This is the School’s formal mechanism for gathering information about student opinions and concerns, which can then be acted on at a higher level by Departmental staff.
Students with concerns or comments about the process that they would like to pass on to their Department are encouraged to contact their Degree Representatives as soon as possible, as Departmental meetings are starting as early as this week.
