forkboy84 posted:

Aberdeen FC's stadium, Pittodrie, is Gaelic for a dung heap.

PST posted:

And then went on to claim that 13 year olds could 'groom' adults and a whole other host of victim blaming.

PST posted:

Jeza posted:

Couldn't really find what seemed like an apropos thread for this, but on the off-chance there are any UK goons who are familiar with uni administration/student activism in here, I'm looking for some advice. I'm not sure how specific I should be so as not to immediately make it clear where and what I'm talking about - hell I don't even know if it matters, but whatever.

I'm currently finishing off an MA in a foreign language. The course shares some content in its first year with a bunch of BA students on the undergraduate course and then diverges, and because of that I have a bunch of friends in said BA course.

Their four year course has the entire third year spent abroad to learn the language in situ. It's not an exaggeration to say that this course structure is the biggest draw by far for the course, as this uni has excellent links to all the top unis in that country, and learning a language in the country can't really be compared to a few hours in classrooms here in the UK.

With COVID, some but not all of their placement universities have halted that process temporarily. They were all due to go over in September. As it stands, the UK uni has come down and cancelled their entire year abroad. They are offering no alternatives - despite some of these placement unis offering 6 month courses from a Spring Entry next year and some still open to continue from September.

The Uni's solution, rather than folding their entry with the next year's cohort, or basically any other potential solution, is that their course will be cut to three years long, with extra 'intensive' language learning credits next year based in the UK. For reference, other language courses at the same Uni based in the same region, seem to have managed perfectly fine to allow them to do their year abroad as a joint cohort with the year below.

From where I'm sitting, it looks like the Uni is just writing their entire year off and trying to shuffle them out of the way. I'm looking at a WhatsApp chat of confused 19-20 year olds being sent an email presenting this as a fait accompli with no alternative. Their Zoom chat with the course convenor seems to have resulted in a politely phrased "Sorry, you're SOL, see you in class!".

I know in the grand scheme of things, this seems like a tiny drop in a sea of bullshit out there, but it really feels like there ought to be some method of recourse against this. I expect that the administration staff will just string them along with "maybes" and "potentially" until August at which point it will be too late to arrange anything and they can just throw up their hands.

I want to say that something like the threat of a mass co-ordinated year-long leave of absence to basically join the year below's cohort might achieve something, but I don't know if that's just totally moronic. I can't even tell from the Uni's own page on leaves of absence whether taking that leave before term starts will cost money or not. Not to mention many of the undergrads are from abroad and not exactly in a position to take a year off, plus, the whole 'an entire year of your life spent kicking a can'.

Basically, I don't know (and they don't know) what extra-uni or intra-uni bodies they can appeal to, what threats they can realistically make and so on. And they are on a clock to find out. Appreciate any experiences/advice UK goons might have. I can probably offer more specifics via PM if it's needed.

PST posted:

And then went on to claim that 13 year olds could 'groom' adults and a whole other host of victim blaming.

peanut- posted:

https://twitter.com/CNBC/status/1278680754864689152

Randy Andy must be getting a bit sweaty

Jose posted:

his meltdown here before the election was something to behold

Guavanaut posted:

He looks like a second hand car salesman who once did time for attempting to bribe the Mayor of Lambeth.

thespaceinvader posted:

I honestly can't picture what the heck the reaction to something like this would have been in any of the departments I worked in, ufortunately, but depending on the size of the course, a threat of concentrated, collective action would be very meaningful.

Do they still pay fees during the year abroad?

ThomasPaine posted:

Crazy that this guy turned out to be a giant racist

kecske posted:

the rival fudge baron is on to you

Goldskull posted:

I don't get what you're on about, nothing about what you said was dickish in the slightest. And LLC are US things no? Essentially matey, just apply for UC and see what they say.

^^For Bobby Deluxe

Guavanaut posted:

Cool 3D model of the current novel coronavirus plus other info.

So in his world are 'grooming gangs' groups of teen girls that go around tempting innocent business owners or do only white guys get that defence?

I wish we'd stop the whole "invite on racists to have racist opinions so there's a variety of viewpoints" and just not platform them.

quote:

He called on schools to teach English history to ethnic minorities so that "they are ... first and foremost English citizens and English men."

quote:

the historian said the gang's actions were evidence of "what happens when [a country like Britain] has no sense of common identity". "Nobody ever explained [to these men] that the history of women in Britain was once rather similar to that in Pakistan and it had changed,"

Camrath posted:

So that was odd. Was out buying preliminary fudge supplies at my local Budgens, and just had some nutter try and get into a fight with me. Was screaming at the security guard and pushing him as I walked out, then tried to start on a passing dominos driver, and then got a couple of inches from my face screaming at me (mask down, natch) because I was holding my phone?

Gave the guy a shove in the sternum that threw him a good couple of meters back and bounced him off the wall (I look fat as gently caress, but that’s down to a lot of muscle mass with basically no definition) and he seemed to reconsider his life choices in that department, but now I’m panicking that the fucker has given me something. Washed my hands four times since getting home and am alternating between mystification at what his problem was, feeling shaken and anxious as gently caress and (I’m ashamed to admit) somewhat smug that I was able to shut him down so hard.

Weird loving times.

Jeza posted:

I'm fairly sure they pay a much reduced fee that year. I think it operates as an exchange with the unis in that country, but I don't really know the ins and outs of it.

PST posted:

I forgot that one, guess what...


and


Obviously his history of unrepetent misogyny and racism are just because he's a white englishman and that makes him better

Guavanaut posted:

What does he think schools teach BAME students presently?

Jeza posted:

I'm fairly sure they pay a much reduced fee that year. I think it operates as an exchange with the unis in that country, but I don't really know the ins and outs of it.

Jaeluni Asjil posted:

Language students chat:

Will brexit affect the ability for students to do exchanges next year at all?

kecske posted:

the rival fudge baron is on to you

Pesky Splinter posted:

Just imagining the rival fudge mafia or Fudge Bureau Investigation trying to scope out Camrath's illicit fudge distillary

Gonzo McFee posted:

https://twitter.com/Nadine_Writes/status/1278714901100363776?s=19

All the celebration of Labour membership numbers that turned out to be numbers under Corbyn and this makes me think that people are leaving the party at faster pace than they realised.