Sociology students refused feedback for assessed work

Students in the sociology department have been left angry and disappointed after being refused feedback for assessed work last year.

The Boar has learned that students sitting the first-year modules Researching Society and Culture, International Perspectives on Gender, Social Welfare in Britain and Media Sociology did not obtain feedback for coursework when they asked after Easter.

One second-year Sociology student who does not want to be named told the Boar: “I emailed one of my tutors, as did other students, asking why. I was told that the reason we were only given [feedback] for one [out of four modules] is that they are trialling a system to see if they can give constructive feedback on all at a time when obviously there is an intense workload for marking essays.”

“[It’s] annoying. Especially as it was unclear to most students as to the fact that we weren’t going to be getting feedback.”

Miguel Costa Matos, undergraduate social sciences faculty representative at Warwick Student’s Union commented on the issue.

“Departments need to forget the days when they could get away with not giving quality feedback on essays, let alone any at all.I sincerely hope this was all just a big misunderstanding.”

When the Boar contacted the Sociology department, they said no students had complained directly to them and that their policy was within the rights of the Undergraduate Handbook.

Catherine Lambert, director of undergraduate studies in the sociology department said: “We ran the process of giving feedback on assessed work on core modules only as a trial last year with a view to getting efficient systems in place whilst the university is developing the Tabula Coursework Management system, before implementing written electronic feedback on all assessed work from September 2013/2014.”

This policy was made quite clear from the outset in the Undergraduate Student Handbook 2012/13, made available to all students.”

I did not receive any complaints from students, and would have been very happy to hear them and respond to them through the appropriate mechanisms.”

However, the second-year Sociology student believes the department has another reason for refusing feedback.

The student said: “I’ve been informed by a postgrad student/seminar tutor that the number of hours needed to thoroughly mark papers mean that if tutors do so they are effectively earning less than minimum wage per house. Hence why postgraduate tutors are reluctant to sometimes give full feedback.”