Nottingham.ac.ukReviews 1

I would like to say upfront that this is a review of the summer pre-sessional course which Nottingham University run from June to September each year. I had the misfortune to work on this course over the summer of 2024. The reason I say this is because the Language Centre is highly exclusive, despite the University of Nottingham proclaiming at its website that "Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) are vital for our student and staff community". Nothing could be further from the truth. I was a new teacher and very quickly realised that things weren't working as well as they could be and started to voice my concerns. One area that was of particular concern was the fact that many students had extremely poor English skills (most students came from China) and the department was turning a blind eye to this fact. As a consequence of voicing my legitimate concerns, I started to feel excluded. Furthermore, the two managers who run this sorry show called me in for a private meeting and threw unfounded charges at me. As a result of these trumped up charges and where they might lead, I immediately made an appointment with HR. HR listened to my concerns but did nothing, preferring instead to side with the Language Centre Managers. (Don't for one minute ever think that HR is impartial and unbiased because they are paid by the University and are expected to uphold the party line and ensure that no bad publicity is leaked to the wider public. Put simply, they are gatekeepers.) Once word got out that I was a troublemaker, this is when the bullying began and attempts were made to coerce me into behaving a certain way. So much for inclusion and diversity. There are reasons why the Language Centre Managers are behaving in this appalling manner and it is because the international student market has dried up and there is a real possibility that the Language Centre will be closed down. It has been widely reported in the press that the Language Centre will haemorrhage hundreds of jobs because of "financial pressures and the need to prioritise core academic services". The only way, therefore, for the Language Centre to justify its (financial) worth is to feed as many students as it can through its pathway program with the its Chinese partners. This is fine but the issue is that many of these students are unable to complete the assignments without resorting to the use of essay mills or personal tutors who are paid large amounts of money to write papers on their behalf. This is why so many international students are under so much pressure. It is not their fault but the fault of money-hungry universities such as the University of Nottingham who are using a for-profit model to fill their ever dwindling coffers. I for one one would never consider working at the University of Nottingham again. It was a truly dreadful experience. I urge other experienced teachers who are thinking about working there to look elsewhere.