So I go into the graduate students' office and ask for this letter. "One week", the secretary said. One week to get a letter saying I'm a student at the university and that I need an extension for my visa to study. Why does it take one week? In the time it took for her to explain that they've so busy with work these days, and that in the many, many emails they send out telling students that they need one week's notice to process requests, she could have printed out the document I need and I would have walked away happy.
But no. It takes one week for some reason. Even though I knew that all it takes is for the secretary to copy and paste my name on some official template. That takes one week. But she said she'll try to get it to me sooner, so I was somewhat assured.
An hour later I received an email from the secretary. Sorry, no letter until I submit a so-called "Tracking Form". The tracking form must indicate a report of my progress and timeline of different stages in the completion of my thesis:
with confirmation from the supervisor that there have been regular meetings, that appropriate progress has been made, and that the next session is required in order to develop the thesis in order to reach submission quality.What it is is an idiotic piece of bureaucracy that keeps secretaries like her busy over nothing. It's supposed to (as the name suggests) keep track of student's progress with their studies. And everyone's supposed to fill one in so the administration knows what we're up to.
Why do I need to fill one in, I asked. A few months ago I had expressly mailed the administration to let them know that I have not been making much progress lately because of my mum's situation. They mailed back, acknowledging my situation, and even expressing sympathy. I thought that was the end of it, and that I don't have to deal with them anymore...
And now suddenly I need to fill this "tracking form" in so that I can extend my student visa? What should I write under reason's for failing to achieve the objectives I set out last year? That my mum is doing chemo and that I've been shuttling back and forth between places? That I'm often so depressed I don't feel like working or going out at all? Why do they have to know this... they know this already. I told them. Why do they have to have all this in writing?
I fail to see why it is so important to the administration, who do nothing but keep our files in order, to know how far I am progressing. I have three years to finish my degree, and it's only been half that time. I can use all the time I want, and I'm sure that I can finish in time. But by the way they keep on asking students like me for tracking forms, it's as if they want to get rid of me.
I spoke to my supervisor about this before, and he too thought it was a ludicrous extra invented by people who have nothing better to do than bother students (and professors) with signatures. A waste of time writing up all the things that have been accomplished and drawing up sham timetables and deadlines which do not have any significance whatsoever. Where do these tracking forms go? Who looks at them? Who actually cares, except the people in the student administration who seem to have a fit if the tracking forms are not submitted on time?
So now I have to fill in this ridiculous form just to please those people in administration. Without it, I can't get my letter proving I'm a student at the university, and without the letter I cannot get my visa. Who gave these administrators so much power to dictate whether I can stay in the country? Are they going to expel me if I do not complete such a form?
Utterly ridiculous lot of Kafkaesque bureaucracy...
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