coolaboola
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Question: What recourse do students have if a college changes graduation requirements mid-course?
A student is attending a course at a college. The college has recently announced that the graduation requirements for this course have changed. The new requirements are much more onerous than the originally-stated requirements when the student sign up for the course.
Background: For everyone's privacy, I'll keep this as anonymous as possible, so this description is for illustration. Let's call this a diploma in sports massage (it's not). It's a one-year course. On graduation most students progress to a Masters in fitness instruction. Graduation from the diploma is a requirement for entry into the Masters.
When students were signing up for the course last September, the college explained that students would need to complete 10 sports massage case studies in order to graduate from the diploma. In February, they contacted students to say that to graduate they are now required to complete 50 sports massage case studies.
This change is so onerous this student (and many of their classmates) are wondering whether it is possible to complete 50 case studies in the time available. They are also, naturally, very angry that the goalposts have changed mid-course.
There is an added complication that the college's sports massage diploma and the Masters is accredited by an external accreditation body.
It is unclear whether the new requirements come from the accrediting body or the college. Or whether the college mis-communicated the requirements in their original course documents and this is a correction.
Preferred Outcome: Ideally, the student would like the college to honour the original requirements for which they signed up.
In any case, what are the students' options?
A student is attending a course at a college. The college has recently announced that the graduation requirements for this course have changed. The new requirements are much more onerous than the originally-stated requirements when the student sign up for the course.
Background: For everyone's privacy, I'll keep this as anonymous as possible, so this description is for illustration. Let's call this a diploma in sports massage (it's not). It's a one-year course. On graduation most students progress to a Masters in fitness instruction. Graduation from the diploma is a requirement for entry into the Masters.
When students were signing up for the course last September, the college explained that students would need to complete 10 sports massage case studies in order to graduate from the diploma. In February, they contacted students to say that to graduate they are now required to complete 50 sports massage case studies.
This change is so onerous this student (and many of their classmates) are wondering whether it is possible to complete 50 case studies in the time available. They are also, naturally, very angry that the goalposts have changed mid-course.
There is an added complication that the college's sports massage diploma and the Masters is accredited by an external accreditation body.
It is unclear whether the new requirements come from the accrediting body or the college. Or whether the college mis-communicated the requirements in their original course documents and this is a correction.
Preferred Outcome: Ideally, the student would like the college to honour the original requirements for which they signed up.
In any case, what are the students' options?