Griffith University

After my course went from being a blended course to a distant learning course due to COVID, I requested compensation for the gap between what I paid for and what I received. I'm not sure how consumer laws work in this situation but I am not receiving what I paid for and I would not have purchased the service that I am currently being provided. 

In response to bring this up, I feel like I experienced inappropriate, aggressive and unprofessional behaviour from the head people I was dealing with. I tried to deal with their behaviour internally but I don't feel like my concerns have been acknowledged or addressed. I have expressed concern that if I take the route suggested and contact the student Ombudsman to escalate my complaint, Griffith will retaliate creating an even unhealthier learning environment then what I am currently in. I have been encouraged repeatedly, at each level that I have interacted with, to withdraw from the course. I have informed Griffith repeatedly that I am not looking to disadvantage myself and withdraw from the course because they are not providing me what I have paid for or a healthy learning environment. 

I would have looked into going to a different university if I knew this would happen but this experience has made me doubt anywhere else would be any better. I'll be taking the route suggested and get in touch with the Student Ombudsman within the next few weeks if no further contact is received from Griffith in relation to these issues. I really just hope that someone within Griffith will contact and work with me so that we can come to a healthy outcome for both parties. For now, Griffith has left me feeling like I'm on my own and that nothing will be done to address my concerns internally. 

ON THE PLUS SIDE: 2 out of 4 of my course conveners last trimester really seemed to care about the quality of the education they provided and I am very thankful for the efforts they put in. I hope that in my next trimester review I can mention the positives more than the negatives.

Follow up review – After escalating my complaint to the Student Ombudsman the heads of the course increased their attacks against me and I have had no choice but to withdraw while I am dealing with these complaints.

I requested compensation for the gap between what I paid and what I received. Around the same time a female teacher who had tried to build a relationship with me outside of the school was acting unprofessional towards me in my classes with them. I told them we had to stop interacting outside of the class until we had a more professional education relationship. I think the person knew that they had acted out of line and gave a partial account of what happened to the heads of the school. Instead of asking me what happened from my perspective the heads of the school took the teachers word and attacked me about the interactions. I then provided the email history of the interactions in question and the teacher was found to be in the wrong and is no longer working for Griffith.

The thing that bothers me most is that a teacher who was acting inappropriately towards a student complained to the heads of the school about a student. The heads of the school did not look into anything and attacked the student. After it was found out that the teacher was in the wrong and the student requested an apology they then bullied the student out of the university instead of addressing the issue ethically and professionally.

I feel like this would have been addressed very differently if the sexes of the people involved were flipped… Really disappointed with Griffith, I couldn’t stay in a course teaching ethics, professionalism, empathy and how to have a healthy interaction with clients when this is what I experienced dealing with the people running things…