Students have to work hard to get quality education

The first challenge for college students is perhaps to protect their right to receive a quality education in a supportive environment that provides them with fair treatment. 

U-Rights, a network of university students, is a new effort to form a collective force to protect student rights. U-Rights has reported various kinds of abuses that college students have faced on college campuses, and the network has successfully gained exposure through the media because its concerns connect with both students and parents alike.

Students should be able to blossom intellectually during their three- to four-year experience in university or college. However, some students say they have been unfairly treated. During a recent TV programme on which U-Rights representatives appeared, a group of students shared stories of how their rights have been violated. One student claimed she was sexually harassed. Another female student suspected that a particular lecturer had graded students based on their looks. 

Another student spent four years at the faculty of associated medical science at an undisclosed university only to find that the faculty had not yet been accredited. 

One student said he enrolled in a university that claimed to be part of an international English-language college, but the college offered only 30 per cent of the courses in English. 

Another student complained that his classes were too big for the lecturers to pay necessary attention to all students.

These allegations will have to be further investigated because they all affect the learning environment. While educators discuss how to improve the deteriorating quality of our education system, the issues raised by these students should be immediate pointers for those in authority to begin tackling.

The collective action of these students has attracted the attention of the public and of the Office of the Higher Education Commission (OHEC), which has offered to help look into the problems and allegations. At the very least, the OHEC should look into the complaints from students who feel that they have not received a quality education as promised.

These complaints can be categorised into those against individuals and those against particular institutions as a whole. For instance, a number of students have lodged sexual harassment complaints against individual lecturers. If any of these cases are found to be true, those who have violated the rights and dignity of students must be punished to set an example that the university body will no longer tolerate such behaviour.

In addition, there are complaints against institutions, such as the failure to deliver on the quality or content of courses as advertised. Quite a number of students complain about large class sizes and lack of attention from lecturers, as well as the quality of teaching. Some university lecturers have other distractions, such as publishing papers to upgrade their academic status, and this is another problem that students sometimes feel aggrieved about.

These issues need to be well heeded and urgently rectified. The education authorities need to do all in their power to help educational institutes improve their standards because, ultimately, they are accountable for letting below-par education continue unaddressed.

The voices of these disaffected students should be heard, and they should continue to put pressure on the educational institutes that are happy to take their hard-earned fees while providing less than promised in their promotional literature. 

At any rate, U-Rights shows how students can form a forceful body to protect themselves and improve the quality of education. All college and university students should take note, become aware of their rights and speak up for themselves.