Dear Editor,
I was recently awarded a scholarship by GOAL to do a certificate in Wedding Planning and Decoration at the University of West Indies Open Campus. I was very happy at what in my opinion was a life changing opportunity. On July 23, 2021 I received an email from UWI with my student information including student ID and password and a Zoom link to attend a Virtual Orientation Exercise on Monday July 26, 2021. Using the student information provided by UWI I tried to access my student account but to no avail; an error message kept coming up saying that either my student ID or my password was wrong even though the University was very specific as to how to log in to my account and the data to be used to complete same.
Anyway I attended the Virtual Orientation Exercise as scheduled and apparently many of the students, like me, were not getting to access their student accounts. We were advised to contact the Technical Support Services of the University with our login issues to see if they could be resolved. This I subsequently did on July 27, 2021 via email a copy of which I sent to the Program-me, Registration and Course Queries branch of the University. I was informed that I would receive a response in twenty four to forty eight hours. No response was ever received. I sent a follow up email on August 12, 2021 but this time my email was never even acknowledged much less answered. As a result I have never been able to access my student account and as such could not participate in virtual classes which commenced on July 28, 2021.
To add to my woes there was no one I could contact at GOAL for assistance; apparently GOAL does not have a student support department and even if there is one we the students were not informed. I had planned to use the launch of the GOAL programme which was to be held on August 13, 2021 to ventilate my concerns but the launch was postponed indefinitely. On August 27, 2021, I received an email from the UWI Open Campus Student Support Team that I would be deregistered from my course on August 30, 2021 as I had not attended any of my virtual classes since the course commenced in July. I have tried all avenues to have my issue resolved. I even contacted a number I saw on Facebook listed to be that of the office in charge of GOAL scholarship awardees in my region but that number rang out. And be advised that there are many other students like me who have been deregistered due to being unable to access their student accounts. I hope someone at GOAL or UWI Open Campus can offer some clarity on my situation.
Sincerely,
J.Williams
