Indian-origin student sues Oxford varsity for boring teaching

LONDON: An Indian-origin student has sued Oxford University for “boring” teaching which allegedly resulted in him getting a second class degree and in turn led to loss of earnings in his career as a lawyer.

Faiz Siddiqui studied modern history at Brasenose College at the university and accused 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 judgment 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 highflying 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. “There is no personal criticism of Washbrook. Our target is on the university’s back for allowing this to happen,” Mallalieu told the court.

Siddiqui, who trained as a solicitor after college, suffers from depression and insomnia, which he links to his “disappointing examination results”, and has said he has a “fundamental inability to hold down any professional day job for any significant length of time”.

Oxford University argues that the claim is baseless and should be struck out. THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Opposition Congress in Kerala on Sunday demanded that the state government carry out an inquiry into the recent death of a tribal woman who gave birth to a stillborn child in a forest bordering Kerala and Karnataka.

The 20-year-old woman and her girl child died for want of medical attention inside Makoottam forest on December two.

Opposition leader in the assembly Ramesh Chennithala said it was shocking that though Kerala and Karnataka police were informed about the incident, nobody had provided them any help. “The woman and child had died due to lack of medical aid and their bodies remained unattended in the forest for over 20 hours. This was an insult to Kerala,” he said here in a release.

The tragedy occurred at a time when the government was claiming that it has been implementing various development initiatives worth crores of rupees, he said.

“It is the responsibility of any civilised society to protect the weaker and marginalised sections like tribals by giving them special care. An inquiry should be carried out on how such an incident had happened in the state,” he said.

He also urged the government to take action against police and forest officials who did not provide them help and sought the to give the family financial assistance.

According to police, the mother and child had died due to lack of timely medical care during delivery.

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