UCL Institute of Education — Attraction in London

Perhaps contrary to other peoples' experience, mine was the worst I've ever had at an educational institution. Like another reviewer mentioned, there were issues with enrolment for many in my class and I suspect others doing the PGCE, but for me, the enrolment went quite smoothly; I wish I could say the same about the course.

From the beginning, I was treated strangely. I sent an innocent email enquiring about subject knowledge, and the response was surprisingly aggressive. In an email I was told that if I didn't like what was on the course then there are other people who would gladly take my place, even though I was just enquiring about the course content to ascertain my suitability.

The PGCE Secondary Computing with ICT course leader/subject tutor was also strange. He was argumentative, threatening (he indirectly threatened me with legal action if I mentioned my experience online), demoralising and downright rude. A two-faced character, he would pretend to be supportive and attentive to me and others in front of the class, but alone in his office and in his emails, he was a very different person.

The subject tutor was not very helpful and always negative from the very beginning with me; I think he had a grudge against me and might have been racist as he did mention the country of origin of a former student teacher of his from a foreign country which he may have perceived as a similar or the same ethnicity as mine; who knows. A DfE Premier Plus advisor told me he might have been racist; I guess this is common in education.

The subject tutor would negatively criticise my work and put it down without constructive feedback. After he observed me at the placement, he told me with a questioning tone "do you really want to be a teacher?" and "how do you think this (the course) is going to pan out?" These are not words of a PROFESSIONAL who is paid by the government (at least partially and/or indirectly) to get people prepared to go into the teaching PROFESSION. The ICT HoD at the placement told me that the subject tutor has an interest in getting me to pass; I would think so as this is normally the case, but he didn't give me that impression or one that he even cared. I felt he was setting me up to fail and just wanted me to continue so that the IOE would receive the fees in full.

I mentioned the serious problems at the placement, such as no actual mentoring going on; teachers not writing up observation forms with feedback; subject mentor not caring at all and avoiding engaging with me, not allowing me to teach, changing plans after I had done work and prepared for lessons; teachers not telling me when lessons were cancelled, and many more. The subject mentor shouted at me in front of his colleagues, and the subject tutor at the IOE was far from supportive; in fact, he didn't care whatsoever and was more concerned with my very fair criticisms of the course.

It is not uncommon for subject mentors to have issues, and he definitely did with me, the pupils and other teachers, especially the ICT HoD. The HoD noticed that I had stopped teaching and told me that if this continued, he would intervene. I could mention other things about the subject mentor, but he obviously hated his job and couldn't find another after several interviews. As for how he treated me, I guess he didn't appreciate me adding to his workload and duties, which he would CONSTANTLY complain about as well as complaining about the HoD, the workload, other teachers, the pupils, etc.

At the end, I lost interest in the course because of the way I was treated and the sheer lack of professionalism. Needless to say, I left before the end of the first placement because I felt disillusioned as there was no training going on and the subject mentor and tutor were working against me. I got half my money back, paying only half of the fees initially, . I was one out of at least two others in my class who left the course; who knows how many from the...

While this school may be ranked well in Education and might have some good instructors (so I've heard) the admissions department is the most disorganized department I've encountered at any university. I was accepted to this university and requested deferred entry. The negative issues with admissions was constant. Paperwork mixed up; e-mails were consistently ignored (had to resort to chasing down three or four different people for answers-terrible!), then after my year of deferment was up was told very casually that this hadn't been recorded in their system and they even asked me to provide proof of acceptance!! (You are admissions, aren't you the ones who should be keeping track of student records, not me?!!). They next told me I could then start in January, then was told "oh no, that program isn't taking students in January anymore". No warning, nothing.

I'm actually quite pleased after all since I've now decided to take another offer with a different and much higher ranking/prestigious university in London with more interesting programs,:with admissions staff who actually give a damn, are helpful and communicate; ;and they offer better financial aid scholarships. UCL-Institute of Education might be good at Education, but that is about all. They aren’t ranked on the Times Higher ranking system, which speaks volumes. I DEFINITELY WOULD NOT recommend this university based on my experiences; in fact I'm quite SURE most of the reviews written here are fake and could quite possibly be administrative staff...

A Disturbing Experience at the 3rd Floor Café "Stay there!", "Stand by the window!" Have you ever got your coffee in this way? I did. The woman with curly gray hair slightly dyed light blue spoke to me in a commanding tone with no reason.

When I calmly said: "You've been quite rude." She acted confused: "I don't understand! Come back!". I said: "You know what you did, learn to behave." She replied: "Okay baby girl!", after just joking gracefully with a local elder man.

IOE is a place I love deeply, it is committed to educate human equality, human dignity and moral philosophy. A place that should represent the best of humanity. But the 3rd floor cafe has always been a disgraceful place. It is not just about bad service, it's about the subtle yet sharp violation of the values this...