so many places to study so many different coffee shops i will miss it

This year has been extremely difficult and disappointing. I paid £9,500 in tuition fees, yet I felt extremely unsupported. I was being treated as a problem simply for asking for help. Early in the year, I asked to attend an induction session I was not booked onto because I was worried about my clinical routine and wanted more practice before seeing real patients. The supervisor became angry and reported me to my personal tutor. I then had a meeting with my personal tutor, who told me I was not allowed to attend sessions I was not booked onto. I understood and accepted this. However, I was also reported to other supervisors, which made me feel as though I had gained a negative reputation simply for asking for additional support. I repeatedly explained that I was not confident with my clinical routines and had nobody on my course to practise with. In January, I emailed a supervisor asking whether I could attend one of the Friday catch up sessions simply to practise, as she knew I had nobody to practise with and other supervisors were complaining about me and refusing to supervise me. I was genuinely struggling in my routine. I was told no because these sessions were reserved for simulation catch-up. However, another student attended a Friday session for core-skill catch-up, despite it not being simulation catch-up. On one occasion, I asked a supervisor simply for feedback on how I could improve. Instead of answering my question, she became angry and assumed I was asking for another extra session. She said she had already given me one and that I should be grateful because nobody else had received one. However, that session related to a compulsory core skill I had not passed and needed for progression towards pre-registration. I was asking for feedback, not another session. On another occasion, I asked for advice via email because I did not know how to perform a routine and I was sent passive-aggressive response about it being covered in a tutorial I had missed because I was too busy requesting an extra session. On another occasion, after missing a session because I was ill, I asked whether I could attend another session to catch up. The supervisor responded, “you know you’re not supposed to…”, in an extremely emotional tone that sounded as though he was close to tears. I understood the rule, but I was only asking because I had missed the session due to illness. I was also repeatedly told that giving me additional practice was “unfair”. I genuinely struggled to understand this. I was not asking for an advantage over other students; I was asking for help because I did not feel competent with my clinical routines. I had already tried to find people on my course to practise with, but the students were already confident with their routines so I genuinely had nobody to practise with. I am paying £9,500 to be trained as an optometrist, and I do not think it is unreasonable to ask for additional support when I am openly saying that I am struggling. If I do not know how to perform a clinical routine properly, I may not be able to recognise serious or sight-threatening conditions, creating a potential patient-safety risk. Students who are struggling should be supported to become competent rather than made to feel guilty for asking for help. I also had a moment where I asked for feedback on an exam and the feedback was just ' if they ask u for 3 points u should add 3 points not 2 '. I asked if there were any topics u believe I need more revision on and she said she was not allowed to say which I believe is a lie. Overall, I felt extremely isolated, unsupported and discouraged from asking for help. I accept that I could have handled some situations better. However, I do not believe students should be made to feel like a burden or a problem for asking for support.

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Teaching quality could have been improved