|
Hopefully this is one of those instances where my pushing may have done some good in the end. I initially contacted my alma mater (Trinity College Dublin) in later April '98 to inquire about the possibility of getting the names on my degree certificates changed to make life a bit easier when job hunting. After negotiating the maze that is voice mail, I finally talked to a real live person in early May, whereupon I was told that it was not college policy to allow such changes, yes she was aware of previous TS graduates but apparently none had ever sought replacement certificates in their new name. My case was likened to a woman who had married and sought replacement certificates in her new name, I pointed out that I was liable to face considerable difficulty in the workplace with a certificate in a quite obviously different name from what I now had. She suggested putting my request in writing so that it could be carefully considered, along with the names of other universities that already allowed such changes. With the help of fellow members of PFC Forum mailing list I quickly compiled a list of universities in the UK that had positive policies towards TSs and name changes and forwarded it to the college and sat back and waited, and waited... By mid June I had no reply, so I wrote again, with an interim copy of my deed poll (which was still bouncing between here and the High Court). Again I had no reply so in late June I wrote to the two college senators asking for their help and pointing out how isolated TCD was in their policy. I received two very nice replies from Senators Henry and Norris, saying they would look into, and at their suggestion I contacted Cambridge and Oxford Universities to obtain written confirmation of their policies and again I forwarded these to TCD and waited, and waited.... It was now the beginning of September and I still had heard nothing from TCD, at this stage I was particularly irked because the registrars of both Cambridge and Oxford could take the time to reply to my letters, but the college I graduated from couldn't even acknowledge one of my letters. To put it quite mildly I was feeling quite down. In one last act of desperation I wrote directly to the Provost pointing all this out, and Eureka after three weeks I received a reply from the College Secretary apologising for any perceived slight and saying that they would endeavour to facilitate my request. The letter went on to state that they were very concerned about any possibly fraudulent use of qualifications, particularly in professional areas (one of my degrees is in Engineering) and that I was the first person to seek replacement certificates for this particular reason. To allow this to be done they need: |
