ALUMNUS SUES OXFORD VARSITY, SAYS TEACHING WAS ‘BORING’

SIDDIQUI BELIEVES HE COULD HAVE HAD A HIGH-FLYING CAREER AS AN INTERNATIONAL COMMERCIAL LAWYER IF HE HAD NOT GOT LOWER GRADES

LONDON: An Indian-origin former student of Oxford University has sued the institute for “boring” teaching, saying that he suffered a loss of earnings in his career as a lawyer after he received the second-class degree from the varsity.

Faiz Siddiqui studied modern history at Brasenose College at the university and accuses its staff of “negligent” teaching of his specialist subject course on Indian imperial history, which led to him getting a 2:1 back in 2000, the high court in London heard this week.

A judgement is expected later this month. Siddiqui’s barrister Roger Mallalieu told the judge that the problem came down to four of the seven staff teaching Asian history being on sabbatical leave at the same time during the 1999-2000 academic year, The Sunday Times reported.

Siddiqui believes he could have had a high-flying career as an international commercial lawyer if he had not got lower grades.

He singled out the “boring” standard of tuition that Siddiqui had received from David Washbrook, an expert on the history of southern India between the 18th and 20th centuries. Mallalieu claimed that the eminent historian’s teaching had suffered from the “intolerable” pressure of the staff shortages on the course.