International Office has caused problems, students complain

A number of students on the Erasmus scheme have claimed that the International Office at Warwick has caused problems for them concerning their year abroad, it has been revealed.

Students have come forward to complain about many problems.

One story concerned severe problems with the application process: “I was supposed to spend my summer abroad, and made the office aware of this before I bought flights, in case it would clash with my application.

“I was assured that the process should be finalised before I left, but unfortunately had to drop out of the scheme as I was later told that it might not take place till summer.

“As it turned out, the agreement hadn’t been received by my host university (although I was told it had been sent and lost in the process), which wasn’t picked up on until August.”

One of the biggest problems that students have had with the office was paperwork. The Learning Agreement was unavailable till mid-July, and an e-mail sent mere days before many students were scheduled to leave revealed that the original agreement was now invalid.

Several students found the lack of communication from the University particularly galling. Students changing location met with extreme confusion as a result.

Charlotte Titcombe, a second-year Italian and French student, said: “We were not informed of a crucial administrative error in the registration process with our new host university, so we were unsure about the status of our applications, or which university we would be attending.”

Cory Clayton, a second-year Italian student, has claimed that there have been multiple times that e-mails he had sent have gone unanswered, and that they took so long to respond on the Facebook group that students often knew the answers before the office has provided them with one.

Furthermore, Eleanor Rafe, a second-year Italian and Classics student, complained that the staff were often unhelpful and hard to reach, and when someone was available, they were usually unable to help. Students called into question the helpfulness of the International Office’s drop-in sessions.

There have been other complaints about the speed with which applications were processed. One student, who wishes to remain anonymous, has said that the office only managed to process her application for her host university after the official deadline posted on the website.

This led to worries over whether she would be able to go. Luckily, she was still able to attend her chosen university.

The University responded to the complaints: “The International Office is disappointed to learn that some of our students have experienced problems with the year abroad. We work with over 230 partners to ensure Warwick students have the best opportunities available.

“It is difficult for us to respond to all of the points raised in your article as each student has very different circumstances. Sometimes the administration of the Erasmus programme can be heavy and we are aware this can lead to delays.”

They explained the inconvenience with the new Learning Agreements: “… During the move to Erasmus+ (the new programme), the new Learning Agreements were not available from the European Commission until mid-July.

“We thought this had been explained in the accompanying email, but if students felt this was not clear then we apologise and we will try and explain the administration more clearly in the future.”

They also responded to complaints on the lack of communication of the International Office:”We do aim to respond to emails as soon as possible, but there are peaks in the process and we will try and make sure student emails are dealt with more efficiently.

“The Facebook page is a way we can share general information with our students and it is also a forum for students to talk to each other. We do review the Facebook page on a daily basis, but we would not respond to more personal or individual messages through Facebook. For these kinds of queries we will use email.

“Our drop-in sessions can be very busy at the start of the year and students use them to receive and provide information on a wide range of topics. We cannot possibly know all the answers but would hope to sign-post students to the help they require.”

The international office added: “Each department also has an academic co-ordinator who works with students to support their study abroad, and for academic matters we will always coordinate with the relevant department.

“We work hard to minimise disruption if there are any changes to placements, however, we also rely on the partner institutions to provide relevant information so we can process paperwork in a timely manner. If students have any concerns, we would be happy to look into individual cases.”