It has been revealed to The Cheese Grater that a number of students at UCL have had their names listed incorrectly on official records — everything ranging from email addresses to degree certificates. UCL has conveniently shifted the blame onto a pesky glitch.
The students most affected are those who have unhyphenated two-part first names, a feature particularly common for students from China and Korea. Despite having over 5790 and 357 students from these countries, respectively, UCL still doesn’t seem to get it.
Working on assumptions
Even though she requested UCL change her name on official records, Xin Yee Su, a second-year psychology student, is frequently addressed in correspondence simply as “Xin”. It is ‘always the assumption’ that Yee is her middle name, and so her name remains incorrect on Portico and Moodle, as well as in general correspondence.
A UCL spokesperson told The Cheese Grater, ‘due to a glitch in our systems, some middle names were not printed on graduation certificates this year.’
Middle names? Interesting. It seems absurd that London’s Global University, with its large Chinese and Korean student population, has failed to grasp these naming conventions.
Perhaps they need a couple more thousand students before they can even start to get their heads around what to call them all.
Sasha Baker and Ollie Dunn
Featured image credit: UCL Digital Media
This article appeared in CG Issue 63.