The Final Appeal Rejection 25.06.2025
Before you read, pause. Breathe. Let these affirmations guide your energy:
I am part of an education system that is still becoming — and so am I.
I welcome perspectives that challenge my comfort, but deepen my understanding.
I choose to listen beyond the surface, with both mind and heart.
I recognize that truth wears many forms — and sometimes speaks through those not yet acknowledged.
I honor the courage of those who reflect systems with clarity, not with blame.
Framing the Rejection Beyond Comparisons
“Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal or ideal.” – Earl Nightingale
The final appeal rejection reaffirmed a 2/10 score for prior studies. It cited ‘some relevant courses’ and ‘moderate’ open university credits, but emphasized comparison to other applicants. Yet admissions should measure eligibility, not hierarchy. My learning, spanning over 40 ECTS in master-level studies, was evaluated through a frame that failed to acknowledge interdisciplinary depth or non-linear learning.
🌀 How do we ensure assessment criteria are applied to content, not constrained by applicant comparisons?
The Language of Institutional Softness
“Nothing changes until you change. Everything changes once you change.” – Jim Rohn
Terms like ‘unfortunately,’ ‘moderate,’ and ‘not applicable enough’ feel soft but function as final judgments. Such bureaucratic vocabulary disguises exclusion as neutrality. Without clear criteria for what is considered ‘sufficient,’ applicants navigating interdisciplinary or adult learning paths are quietly filtered out.
🌀 When institutions say ‘not applicable,’ what frameworks and definitions remain unquestioned?
Applicability as a Moving Target
“Your mind is a garden. Your thoughts are the seeds.” – Bob Proctor
Despite strong alignment between my prior studies and ICE thematic areas—ranging from communication and decolonial theory to social justice—the review team chose to fixate on structural framing over substance. Applicability became a moving target, one my independent efforts were never positioned to hit. The real question is: applicable to whom, and how?
🌀 Can interdisciplinary learning ever be fully recognized when evaluation frameworks prefer conformity over context?
The Fallacy of Frozen Scores
“A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.” – Mahatma Gandhi
The appeal response explicitly stated that the original score ‘would not be changed.’ But this fixedness undermines the very spirit of re-evaluation. When feedback loops are closed before input is meaningfully absorbed, appeals become symbolic gestures rather than opportunities for academic growth and accountability.
🌀 What is the purpose of a rectification process if its outcome is predetermined?
Knowledge Without Institution
“You can start with nothing, and out of nothing and no way, a way will be made.” – Michael Bernard Beckwith
The rejection did not halt my journey—it clarified it. My learning now lives beyond institutional corridors. Through Hoa Rompasaari and Be Bold Harmony, I mentor, write, teach, and build. My thesis already exists in practice. It evolves in public, not in waiting rooms. The system declined me, but the path continues in wider, wilder spaces.
🌀 How can knowledge outside institutions reclaim credibility, authority, and reach?
🪞 To the Reader — and to Myself
To the learner
You are not a number.
You are not an omission.
You are a living body of work.
When you are told you are not applicable, return to your purpose.Reflect: What makes your learning sacred — even when it is unseen?
To the evaluator
A threshold should be a place of care, not closure. What happens when assessment forgets reflection? May this rejection spark deeper questions: How do you evaluate potential across differences? What does justice look like in silent procedures?
And to myself:
You are already what you hoped to become.
Not admitted, but not erased.
Not approved, but not denied by life.
You are here.
Keep teaching. Keep loving.
Keep publishing the wisdom they missed.
I walk in truth, even when truth is not rewarded.
I offer my learning as a gift, not a transaction.
I belong in the future I am helping to build.
Every rejection that clarifies my path is not a loss — it is redirection.
My story is not missing — it is unfolding.
🔍 References
- Ahmed, Sara. On Being Included: Racism and Diversity in Institutional Life. Duke University Press.
- Santos, Boaventura de Sousa. Epistemologies of the South: Justice Against Epistemicide. Routledge.
- Bourdieu, Pierre. (1986). “The Forms of Capital.” In Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education.
- Marginson, Simon. (2006). “Dynamics of national and global competition in higher education.” Higher Education, 52(1), 1–39.
- Peters, Michael A. (2005). “The new prudentialism in education.” Educational Theory, 55(2), 123–137.
- University of Helsinki Admissions Criteria (2025). ICE Master’s Programme. https://www.helsinki.fi/en/degree-programmes/intercultural-encounters-masters-programme/studying