Wǒ bù nûlì, wǒ shi nán guò

After my Bachelor thesis, I thought I would have grasped how you write a decent paper in some sort of a scientific sense (this is not to say that the thesis indeed met this standard, prob rather not), but here at SMU, things seem subtly different.
You give a presentation about a topic and try to structure it in a sense which reveals your reflections as well as it is factually rooted. But the ppl considered it as too dense/complicated. How come?
Somehow, the dysfunctional team managed to finish the slides of the presentation 30min after it should have started, instead of starting at 12am, the class watched a movie (beause the prof was late from another meeting) about an ancient Thai princess (Suryothai or so) which enabled us to put together the last slides. We then started to present at 12.47, but things still have been screwed up in almost any sense.
An now, a week later, we didn't manage to come up with the follo-up summary of our presentation as scheduled (funny is that here you can be late with delivering things, just say you would not be able to meet the deadline and you are granted some excess days; at the University of St. Gallen, we're kind of much more strict on this...). somebody and I of 5 in my group did deliver on time. However, 2/3 of my part (which was clearly defined until 2 days before the presentation, where I had to change due to others wishes; we had huge overlaps in our topic assignments) have been cut away. Now the paper is even more superficial than ever, with less sources, less differentiated discussion of our question. But it "looks" nicer, with fewer paragraphs (but a simplified cartoonization of the topic) and probably finds a better reception.
Are we at university or in kindergarten (with some fairy tales)?

Another nuisance:
Never apply for a PRC visa from Singapore, if you're US citizen. They rip you off with the highest fees (155 Sing-$)! But I have no other choice...