Oxford to face trial over Indian student’s ‘bad teaching’ lawsuit

The world-famous university had applied to the High Court in London to dismiss the claim by Faiz Siddiqui but in an 18page judgement by Justice Kerr last week the court ruled that Oxford does have a case to answer, The Sunday Times reported. Siddiqui, who studied modern history at Brasenose College at the university, accuses its staff of “negligent” teaching of his specialist subject course on Indian imperial history, which led to him getting a 2:1 (low grade) back in 2000. The 38-year old’s barrister Roger Mallalieu had told the court that the problem came down to four of the seven staff teaching Asian history being on sabbatical leave at the same time during the 19992000 academic year. 

Siddiqui believes he could have had a high-flying career as an international commercial lawyer if he had not got lower grades and decided to take the legal route, which came to light last month. His legal team had 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 Dr 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”. Oxford University had argued that the claim was baseless and should be struck out because of the over 16 years that had passed since Siddiqui graduated. Oxford University has declined to comment on the latest judgement so far.