Letter i sent to Herald (1 Viewer)

[natrap]

Looking through my Year 12 UAC Guide I noticed how few university courses there are with UAIs below 80 at the 5 Universities in Sydney. Given that there are 60,000 HSC students vying for 45,000 places the bottom third (edit: quarter) of my cohort will unfortunately miss out. I read that only 31% of students earned a UAI of 80 or above so could someone please explain to me what the fate of that middle third of my cohort is? Is the federal governments decreased funding of Universities resulting in a decreased number of places, which in turn results in increased UAIs actually part of a plan to stem the rising population in capital cities by forcing the middle third of the Sydney cohort into universities out of Sydney? If not then are they simply forgotten while the high achievers are put on a lofty pedestal and the low achievers are repeatedly stomped on?

Now I know why they didn't publish it. I just realized that 15000/60000 is not 1/3 but 1/4. Heh and to think Maths was my best subject.

 

[Ashleet]

way to true - i think the main problem is that the unis are too corrupted - taking preference over international students who because of the varying economies can pay their way through regardless of their marks. this is the reason why most of us are going to une is it not? i know so many people that otherwise would be able to go to uni, but cant because of the ridiculous standards of the marks.

 

[natrap]

Don't know if they give priority to international students. They simply have a portion of total places reserved for international students. But yeah it is all about money. 2 Reasons i think. One is because they have to pay fees up front so unis get money from them (though unis do get money from govt for each local student who enrols). But the more important one I think is because it brings paying people into the country. Its good for the local economy (I think it may be dictated by the govt that unis have to reserve a number of places for international students).

But yeah marks are ridiculously high and unis admit that and say its out of their control. The govt tells them how many places they can offer for each course or faculty. Can you imagine if 1/4 of all HSC graduates went and did law. You can imagine how much less tax the govt would earn if that happened.