Can anybody help me?!

exasperated!

I graduated in England in 1990 with an English and History Honours Degree. I have provided the Teaching Council of Ireland with as much info as I can ie: stamped scripts of modules studied and a university stamped certificate. However as I graduated so long ago there is no info on the date base of my university, indeed the actual course no longer exists.

The Teaching Council will not recognise my Degree as they say I have not studied a sufficient level to enable me to teach English. How can this be when I have studied to an Honours Degree Level?

I have paid 200.00e and put in an awful lot of effort to be bluntly refused and told I can appeal for another 75.00.

Can anyone share any similar experience or offer any advise as to how I can get around this problem? Many thanks!

mtoutlemonde

exasperated! wrote: »

I graduated in England in 1990 with an English and History Honours Degree. I have provided the Teaching Council of Ireland with as much info as I can ie: stamped scripts of modules studied and a university stamped certificate. However as I graduated so long ago there is no info on the date base of my university, indeed the actual course no longer exists.

The Teaching Council will not recognise my Degree as they say I have not studied a sufficient level to enable me to teach English. How can this be when I have studied to an Honours Degree Level?

I have paid 200.00e and put in an awful lot of effort to be bluntly refused and told I can appeal for another 75.00.

Can anyone share any similar experience or offer any advise as to how I can get around this problem? Many thanks!

Let me start by saying I feel your pain! Have serious problems with the teaching council. Have they told you what you need to make up the shortfall or do they not recognise any part of your degree? Have you been teaching previously and registered as a teacher in another country? Have you tried to register in England? If you did register in England you could get conditional registration here - as far as I know there's some directive for people registered in other countries. A degree is still a degree no matter when or where you did it and it should be recognised and there should be a way to get the information about your degree. If your degree is no longer offered is it offered with a different name i.e. same content different degree title?

Chris68

I had a similar problem with the teaching council. I graduated in 1990 also from a UK university (Queens Belfast). My degree was a BSc in maths and computers. Since I did the degree the course was changed. The computers moved to the engineering faculty (BEng?) and the maths to the arts faculty (BA?).

The teaching council wanted a lot of documentation. Firstly they wanted the prospectus that advertised the course before I applied for it; i.e. in 1986. I didn't even know if one existed. I certainly never saw one. Anyhow, Queens didn't have one and recommended I try my old secondary school careers library. They had just refurbished. No luck there.

Secondly they wanted a transcript of my results for each of the 4 years of my course. It took some convincing that there were only 3 years in my course. Queens don't give a breakdown of your final year results. Just a final grade, i.e. 1, 2-1, etc. Teaching council wouldn't accept this. I had to get a certified letter from Queens refusing to give a break down for the final year.

Next they wanted a certified statement of the academic standing of the university as of 1990 when my degree was awarded. I had no idea where to look for that one!

They then asked for a break down of every module on the degree - whether I took that module or not. :eek: They wanted detailed syllabii, no. of hours in lecture halls, no. of hours in practicals, no. of hours in tutorials, no. of hours in computer labs, no. of hours of independent study. They also wanted to know how each module was assessed, the break down between continuous assessment and exam and the pass mark of the exam and the marks I had achieved in each. No-one had this information. I was sure the teaching council had finally won.

Then an email to one of my past lecturers paid off. He had a Phd student working with him and he tasked this student with doing some research for me. Before I knew it I had received this parcel in the post with literally 1000s of computer pages with all the detail asked for. The student had even took a highlighter to all the pages and picked out the relevant stuff. I cried, buckets.

I sent all this info off to the Teaching Council and they finally gave their stamp of approval. (None of it was returned BTW. :mad:)

OP don't give up hope. The Teaching Council will make you jump through hoops but just keep on jumping best you can.

trihead

See can you track down the course handbook. This is what they want to see. Descriptions of the modules taken/ amount of credits / hrs breakdown per module. Can you track down any fellow students who might have it kept with their notes in the attic? Or try and get in touch with university archives or past course heads/ teachers on the course.

exasperated!

mtoutlemonde wrote: »

Let me start by saying I feel your pain! Have serious problems with the teaching council. Have they told you what you need to make up the shortfall or do they not recognise any part of your degree? Have you been teaching previously and registered as a teacher in another country? Have you tried to register in England? If you did register in England you could get conditional registration here - as far as I know there's some directive for people registered in other countries. A degree is still a degree no matter when or where you did it and it should be recognised and there should be a way to get the information about your degree. If your degree is no longer offered is it offered with a different name i.e. same content different degree title?

Thanks for your reply.:) Yes I have been told what I need to make up a shortfall but am reluctant to go down that route. I have been a Resource/Learning Support teacher in Ireland for the last 10 years but as I am not registered with the teaching council I am told I can no longer teach. I am therefore hoping to do my H.Dip to become registered but can't do this until my degree has been recognised!:(

exasperated!

Chris68 wrote: »

I had a similar problem with the teaching council. I graduated in 1990 also from a UK university (Queens Belfast). My degree was a BSc in maths and computers. Since I did the degree the course was changed. The computers moved to the engineering faculty (BEng?) and the maths to the arts faculty (BA?).

The teaching council wanted a lot of documentation. Firstly they wanted the prospectus that advertised the course before I applied for it; i.e. in 1986. I didn't even know if one existed. I certainly never saw one. Anyhow, Queens didn't have one and recommended I try my old secondary school careers library. They had just refurbished. No luck there.

Secondly they wanted a transcript of my results for each of the 4 years of my course. It took some convincing that there were only 3 years in my course. Queens don't give a breakdown of your final year results. Just a final grade, i.e. 1, 2-1, etc. Teaching council wouldn't accept this. I had to get a certified letter from Queens refusing to give a break down for the final year.

Next they wanted a certified statement of the academic standing of the university as of 1990 when my degree was awarded. I had no idea where to look for that one!

They then asked for a break down of every module on the degree - whether I took that module or not. :eek: They wanted detailed syllabii, no. of hours in lecture halls, no. of hours in practicals, no. of hours in tutorials, no. of hours in computer labs, no. of hours of independent study. They also wanted to know how each module was assessed, the break down between continuous assessment and exam and the pass mark of the exam and the marks I had achieved in each. No-one had this information. I was sure the teaching council had finally won.

Then an email to one of my past lecturers paid off. He had a Phd student working with him and he tasked this student with doing some research for me. Before I knew it I had received this parcel in the post with literally 1000s of computer pages with all the detail asked for. The student had even took a highlighter to all the pages and picked out the relevant stuff. I cried, buckets.

I sent all this info off to the Teaching Council and they finally gave their stamp of approval. (None of it was returned BTW. :mad:)

OP don't give up hope. The Teaching Council will make you jump through hoops but just keep on jumping best you can.

Hey thanks for your reply also Glad your story had a happy ending! I have now written to the CnAA in England as an alternative route for information so fingers crossed! I am no about to give up but feel so annoyed that the T.C are being allowed to make decisions which prevent people from progressing with their lives! :mad:

Chris68

Have you tried to get registered under section 5? As I understand it, you can register under section 5 with any level 7 or 8 degree and no HDip at all but only until about March 2013. After that it must be level 8 and a version of the HDip. Section 5 doesn't mean that you are qualified to teach secondary but at least you will be registered.