University of Guyana should have high standards

Jul 02, 2019 Letters

---

DEAR EDITOR,

It was a privilege to attend the University of Guyana as a step towards attaining a Bachelor of Laws (LLB), however, my experience in the Department of Law was bitter-sweet.
The Department facilitates both learning and fun; for recreational purposes students are allowed to take part in Law Week (a week of competitive fun activities) which is planned by the University of Guyana Law Society (UGLS). Another anticipated event in the Department is, the Law Social; which is hosted by the Final Year law students to welcome the first year students and to bid farewell.
These events as well as other class-planned events ease the tension and frustration that come with studying law. Personally, studying law was not a walk in the park, but with the support system of the students, great lecturers and determination, I made it through.
In this letter I’ll like to speak on a few issues that contributed to my bitter experience in the law department, which goes beyond the Department to the University itself. The University of Guyana being Guyana’s renowned Tertiary Educational Institution should have extremely high standards in terms of facilities, services offered, and professionalism. After all, Guyanese are not the only ones who attend the University.
Law students are paying one of the highest fees at the University of Guyana; looking back at old receipts for my three years in the law department I paid over GY$1.2M. Despite paying this amount of money, law students have to attend classes in the grey and white building located on the Turkeyen Campus with ‘Department of Law’ written on it, that we were told ‘is not our building’; instead, we were just ‘begging a lodge’ so we will have to share the building with others.
Apart from this, the three-storey building has one washroom facility which is used by Department of Law staff only. During class sessions or in between classes, law students have to be running around campus looking for a clean washroom to use. This was the experience of not only Guyanese law students, but the foreign students as well. Is this the experience the University of Guyana wants its foreign students to relate to persons when they go back to their country?
Moreover, when I first entered the Law Department the classrooms were hot, there were fans that we couldn’t use (it was alleged that the building had a faulty electricity system), and windows were missing. Over time things progressed; the second floor lecture room was renovated into an air conditioned room with a polished floor. However, to uphold a high standard, more still needs to be done to the other two lecture rooms.
The major issue I have with the University of Guyana is receiving grades late. For the Department of Law, before a grade is released to the student’s profile it has to go through a process (marked by lecturer, sent to Barbados to be second marked, when returned it has to be accepted before finally being released).
Throughout my three years in the Department, I can’t recall ever receiving all my grades during the holiday, before I started a new semester. Even as I write this letter, I’m still awaiting all my grades from my Third Year-Second Semester, which ended in May 2019. Also, the Second Year students are still awaiting their grade for Real Property 2, which was done since First Semester, in December 2018.
This issue bothers me more now, because, having completed my Final Year, the next step is to attend the Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad, and I can only embark on this step if I’m in the Top 25. Every year a list is provided by the University of Guyana Law Department with the Top 25 students. This list is only given when all the grades (normal, supplemental and resits) are released.
This is frustrating because final grades (normal) aren’t released at this point and we’re in the month of July. At this pace when will the list be released? When will the students get time to prepare for Law School for the new academic year which commences in September?
It is my plea that the students are paying a lot of money, thus the least the University can do is provide efficient, effective services and release the grades early, especially for the final year students. If it is that lecturers aren’t submitting grades on time, then the penalty agreed by the University in 2016 should be implemented. If it is that persons from the department aren’t attending the meetings when the grades are back; I plead that you have consideration for the students. Whatever it is, please try to remedy this. The anxiety that comes when awaiting grades is great.
In summation, the high standards that the University of Guyana should have being a Tertiary Educational Institution should be reflected in its facilities and its services to the students. The Department of Law is in a degraded state and needs improvements/renovation. Also, the University of Guyana needs to release grades early.
Anonymous

---

---