Please tell me this is a hoax...

[MrLinus]

I ran across the following link/article at another site I frequent. But I cannot find any actual news reports that match up to this so I was wondering if any of our Aussie members might recall this happening?

A university graduate student abandoned the institution in frustration after a marking fiasco during which a lecturer told him to produce "more smarter writing". Former Queensland University of Technology Master of Business Marketing student Rohan Duggan, 38, said his nine-month ordeal included seven meetings and hundreds of pages of correspondence, some farcical. The original marking of a 2000-word paper included a comment from lecturer Edwina Luck advising Mr Duggan to present "more smarter writing".

After Ms Luck graded the paper at 65 per cent, Mr Duggan questioned the grade and Ms Luck passed it to another staffer, Dr Yunus Ali, who downgraded it to 35 per cent. In re-marking, Dr Ali questioned the use of the terms "Yin" and "Yang", a Chinese concept of balance, and said they should have been listed as references in the bibliography (a list of the books used as reference material). Yesterday, Dr Ali admitted he had "no idea" what the terms meant and thought they were references to people's names. "We don't go into the deeper meaning," he said.

In response to further queries, Ms Luck sent Mr Duggan a short e-mail which, because her "s" key was not functioning, read as: "I knew you would be di appointed, o what I have done i taken the middle ground. I am uppo ed to take the econd mark, but I did not want to kill you that much. I do hope that you have learned from thi . Not the point of a king for explanation, but that we a lecturer are not totally illy!! Academic writing i difficult. I hope all our comment can be helpful in the future. Edwina."

Mr Duggan then took his complaint to higher authorities and his original mark was restored. Mr Duggan said the restored mark helped him achieve a distinction in the subject, although when he learned that Dr Ali would have been teaching him in second year he decided to go elsewhere and has now completed a Master of Marketing Managing degree at Griffith University.

QUT registrar Dr Carol Dickenson and Business Dean Professor Peter Little said that both Ms Luck and Dr Ali had been reprimanded and made to attend a seminar on Learning and Teaching Issues. They agreed their conduct was "obviously unacceptable". Professor Little said if due process had been applied, Ms Luck would have given the assignment to her (Luck's) head of department who would have selected a staff member himself to do the re-marking. He insisted Dr Ali was "very well qualified academically". [No evidence to the contrary is allowed, obviously]

[nihil]

Well MsM,

Why don't you just phone the perps and ask them

http://www.bus.qut.edu.au/schools/am...demicstaff.jsp

There are even photographs of them

[dalek]

So this is where the term "dumbing down" comes from, someone should review their qualifications or check to see if they have relatives on the boards..lol

[rcgreen]

I'm voting hoax. A college professor who doesn't
know who Yin and Yang are? Come on! They're
right up there with Ben and Jerry in my book.

[MURACU]

Ben and who?

[nihil]

Hey MURACU , I am sure that rcgreen must mean "Tom & Jerry" ?

They would make much better junior education staff than those two bozos.

As for being "highly academically qualified" that really is total bullcrap. Academic ability and the ability to educate are two very different skillsets. That is why they are distinct qualifications in this country.

I am sure that many of us have encountered the difference? a bit like a talented developer who has the social skills of a garden slug, and couldn't manage a p1$$ up in a brewery? Don't make them a project leader or project manager

[dalek]

Sorry nihil

I believe rcgreen is talking about these guy's?

http://www.benjerry.com/ Not sure who is Yin and who is Yang though, depends on the flavour of the month?

[rapier57]

Well, they are in Marketing. Take a look at newpaper ads, TV ads and magazine ads. Most of those are pretty illiterate. Go figure.