News

The University of Otago has been caught in an embarrassing situation after it incorrectly calculated the points a student required to graduate.

Fifth-year BCom/BSc student Oscar Harvey was told by an Advisor of Studies at the start of the year that he needed to take four papers to graduate, and was duly marked as a finalist. Acting on this advice Harvey scheduled two papers for each semester, which meant that he was ineligible for the Student Loan.
However, last week Harvey received a call from the University telling him that a mistake had been made and that he needed to take a further four 100-level papers from any discpline to complete his double degree. Since Harvey had planned to travel over the summer this would require taking six papers in the second semester, a loading over the maximum allowed by the University.
Critic contacted the University asking how such an oversight could happen, and whether Harvey would be required to complete all four extra papers. Director of Academic Service John Price replied that “Verifying that a student has met the requirements for a degree can be complicated, and the checking is particularly complex when a double degree is involved – as is the case in this current incident. Information given to students makes it clear that students must accept responsibility for their own course.”
He did however concede that “whenever a student is checked-off by an Adviser of Studies as a finalist, but is subsequently found not to be on track to complete, the issue is taken very seriously indeed by the University.” Adding that “possible ways of mitigating the issue from the student’s perspective are always considered, but this must be balanced against the University’s responsibility to protect the integrity of its academic programmes.”
Harvey informed Critic that, subsequent to Critic’s investigation beginning, the University had rung him and informed that he would only be required to complete three of the 100-level papers to graduate in order to make finishing this semester possible.
“I was stoked that the Uni compromised and is making me only do only three papers now,” Harvey says. “It would have been ideal though to do four papers each semester rather than two the first semester and five in the second semester.”