Pros
Academic staff are generally delightful, committed and knowledgeable And a piece of fruit occasionally, as someone else mentioned.
Cons
Where do I start? How about with the fact that a senior leader was parachuted in by HQ in Milan who has never worked in the UK and never worked in Education and who spoke properly to the academic team for the first and only time eight months after joining the School? Oh, who thinks that TEF is optional, by the way... Or another similar appointment with limited UK experience (and that gained in the food retail sector) who has the emotional intelligence of a dishcloth and the empathy of a fire poker? Or the appointment of an academic leader who, similarly, has no UK experience and hasn't even completed a Masters degree, let alone doctoral study? Or that all those appointments happened without any advertisement or transparent appointment process? Or that IM London has the most inept student admissions and recruitment team I have ever come across in a long career in HE, with Agents who arrange for other people to fraudulently take students' English language tests for them so that when they arrive they have to have live translation on their phones in classes? Or that the School can't even manage to operate reliable wifi so that those on campus in hybrid meetings constantly lose connection? Or that they rely on some bogus internal employability survey to bruit 95% graduate employment, when the official figure is actually closer to 60%? Or that the Virtual Learning Environment is managed by HQ in Milan and has failed to come up to 2000 standards, let alone 2025? Or that the number of pieces of assessment submitted which appeared to be largely or wholly written using AI is known and utterly ignored? Or that when students admit to having gained fraudulent English language tests, no disciplinary action is taken, indeed, academic staff are pressured to find ways to enable the students to engage more easily despite the language issue? Or the deeply worryingly high number of students with significant mental health issues who are barely supported? Or, when two students had a physical altercation (albeit off campus), pressure was applied into keeping them in the same class, even the one who was attacked one expressed fear and refused to attend? Or the complete lack of understanding of EDI, not even the legal minimums? Including the lack of any record of students with disabilities apart from those needing assessment variations due to learning differences. Or that a 'workload allocation model' was introduced with very little consultation or discussion which required permanent academics to be teaching in the classroom for 800 hours per year? Which, given four eight-week terms per year, means 25 hours in the classroom every week, leaving only 10 hours to prep, give feedback, meet students, have meetings, do research and everything else that needs done. Or that senior staff have had weekly international travel and their rents paid for them, but no-one else is allowed to travel anywhere even within the UK? Or that the terms and conditions are appalling - no sick pay, no closure days over Christmas and New Year (despite the School actually being closed), suddenly being required to take leave without notice in August, a three day on campus mandate except for those to whom it doesn't apply? Or the complete lack of any training or developmental opportunities for any staff, particularly academic staff? I could go on, but I have lost the will to live.
