What on earth can I do?

[Stacey]

I really need some advice right now.

I was meant to be starting teacher training in September 2005. However, so was my rapist, on the same course in the same place. I told the university what was going on, they said that I could defer without penalty til 2006, or if he withdrew from the course voluntarily they would let me know. They couldn't remove him from the course as yet obviously since there is no conviction. He's just had his bail extended so I won't know what's going on for another 8 weeks or so.

Basically, I've been told that if I defer my teacher training year, I will fall under a system that states I have taken a gap year, and so will be liable for the full tuition fees of ?3000. I think this is disgustingly unfair. It isn't my fault I may have to take a gap year. It isn't my fault that this happened to me. Am I being unreasonable?

I'm writing a letter to the admissions people in the hope I can sway it, should I write to my MP too? I'm prepared to kick up the biggest fuss about this - teaching is so important to me and it seems so unfair I might not get to do it because of this *******. God, I'm so angry. I'd appreciate any advice about action I can take.

[diana_holbourn]

If he wants to work with children or young girls, I think the implications are horrifying and I think it's even more important that he gets convicted, so I hope all the more that you succeed!

I hope the admissions people will change their minds about the tuition fee. But I hope you don't make yourself miserable over it if they don't. I don't think you have to pay it all at once, do you? Isn't it the rules that you don't have to pay any of it until you've left university and have got a job, and then you only have to pay in instalments as much as you can afford? Or is that something else?

Maybe if you do take a gap year, you can get a job where you're earning anyway, and then you might be able to save quite a bit.

I know you say you really want to go into teaching, but I've heard it can be very stressful nowadays; I know I wouldn't fancy it myself; there was a television programme on recently about someone who taught some time ago working as a supply teacher, taking a hidden camera into the schools where she went to find out if the behaviour of children had changed, and they were talking and messing around all through her lessons, not paying her much attention and not doing what she told them to a lot of the time. Maybe they behaved better with their regular teachers. But it might be worth taking some time to talk to teachers about the stresses of their jobs before committing yourself. A gap year would give you more time to do that. There's a Channel 4 report on the stresses suffered by teachers Here. It's a few years old, so things might have improved a bit since then. It talks about proposed improvements at the end and gives contact details for places where teachers can get support. One website it links to is one where students can also get advice. But if it does give you second thoughts, a gap year might be a very positive thing, since it will give you more time to contemplate the matter. And it could give you time to try something else you'd quite fancy doing as well.