Where is the expertise in sports therapy?

It's really about nepotism. I think one former lecturer had it right when he called it "academic incest". Let's see, Tim taught Pete for his MSc in sports science at Luton, Tim and Pete taught Mark for his BSc at Luton (I still don't get why it  took him 3 YEARS to finish an undergrad dissy, all the time he's telling us that we need better time management skills), then Tim and Pete and Mark taught Sam Barry-Wilson and Emma Langham. 

So where is the knowledge base coming from? Reading books? Sucking up to Tim? 

Is this what qualifies you to be a university lecturer at Bedfordshire?

Just great that none of them have ever had to compete for a  job in the working world.  Also great for us that none of them have ANY real world experience in sports injuries or in rehab. And how about Tim's good friend JJ, teaching us about assessments and first aid when he works in a clinic for the county. There's not a whole lot of pitch side injury evaluation or treatment there I suppose.

Oh yeah, and Pete is supposedly writing a book on rehab: That's why he didn't use a book in rehab, because, as he said,  he hasn't written it yet.  D-ONE, D-TWO, PNF. It's going to be a short book

The joke just goes on an on. What's unfortunate is that we are the ones who have to deal with the consequences, with no prospects for related work once we graduate.

Tim - always finding a way to make money off us

Some things just don't change.  

I always like to find a way to make money.  What bugs me is the way we get screwed by the lecturers. Tim in this case.  A couple years ago, Tim managed to keep electrotherapy out of the Sports Therapy course, and then would charge students 500 quid to take his Sports Therapy UK course. After all, the information was so important. Just not important enough to include in a  BSc course. I suppose that's another reason he and Paul never got along, Tim was really upset that Paul had gotten the module introduced to the course, as a result Tim lost income.

Now here we are again. Look at the email that was forwarded to me:

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-----Original Message-----

From: Tim Paine

Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2009 15:02:59
To:  ...............@hotmail.com
Subject: News from The Sports Massage Association
Sports Therapy UK have applied to become approved training providers by The Sports Massage Association and are currently working with them to this end. The SMA have made great progress towards establishing benchmark standards for the profession and gaining recognition by other key governing bodies allied to healthcare in sport. We hope to be able to make a positive announcement soon about our status with The SMA. 

-------------------------------------------------------------

So I bet that when students finish, they will be told how important SMA certification is, and for a few hundred quid, they an take the certifying course from Tim's company. What makes the company so different from the uni course? It's the same people teaching there.  Heck, he even teaches his courses at uni during breaks.

 It's one thing to have a good idea and work hard to get ahead, but to manipulate the system, when we  have been paying thousands of pounds a year to the university, so that he can squeeze us for a few more quid, is just WRONG. 

Why doesn't Tim want the uni course to be SMA certified?

One reason - money in his pocket.

Pete Sherad and his absenteeism

So I hear Pete Sheard is taking a lot of time off again. Here is a summary of his past few years:

Academic Year 2005-6
Pete Sheard was in his office, on the 3rd floor. Somebody was smoking a cigarette, outside on the ground. Pete Sheard first poured a cup of water down at the person, and then when he felt he had been disrespected, he flew into a rage, screamed something out the window and ran downstairs like sh** off a shovel. A verbal confrontation ensued, with the security personnel having to restrain Pete, and prevent a fight. Pete Sheard was not seen for about a month after that. what was that, like 30 feet away, and the smoke upset him so much he wanted to fight somebody? Talk about uncontrolled rage. 

Academic Year 2006-7
The worst was when he took off for 6 weeks because of some supposed blood issues with his diabetes. He then came back for 2 days and then took off for 2 more weeks. I was told that Tim came to the sports therapy room and announced that Pete would not be back because “his blood levels were still off”. My mate and the other 3rd years said it looked like Dr. F was going to have a stroke, but he left the class to talk to Tim and then came back after a couple minutes looking really angry and disgusted. Draw your own conclusions. 6 weeks to stailize blood levels for a diabetic? How stupid do they think we are? 

The research methods module that year was a string of people coming and going. Sam Barry-Wilson taught once or twice but had no idea what was going on. Dr. F came in once and did a good job, I forget who else tried to look like they knew anything. What a waste of time.

I heard rumours that he was remodeling his house the whole time

Academic year 2007-8
This was a real mess. He was coming and going all the time. Yeah, we had the SMS system set up, but sometimes we didn't get an SMS until 10 minutes before lecture, and a few students were driving in from quite a distance. Then he got mad at us for complaining about his absences and he put us in alphabetical order for the lectures. We handed in assignments in November and went through the rest of the year with no feedback, no results. I think in gait we had maybe 7 lectures. Forget practical sessions, he was canceling them right and left at the beginning because he did not like the way the lab was set up.  He and Lynette got into an argument a few times.

And why is he kept around?
How many years will students put up with this?
It's not just an isolated instance, it happens EVERY YEAR.
Why do Tim and Mark keep covering for him?
Why did we pay £3,000/year?

So to all you people thinking about sports therapy - if you chose Bedfordshire, expect this to happen again and again and again and again............