Uni Wars (1 Viewer)

[braindrainedAsh]

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/09/26/1064083186894.html?from=storyrhs


Why now, when I'm going to be going to uni!!!

I think the reforms suck. It's going to make university based on elitism and money rather than academic ability (well, it already is to some extent, but it will go further in this direction). Regional unis help the economy by creating employment and bringing money in to regional areas. The government should be supporting them, not strangling them!!!

 

[Newbie]

i agree with you

i've said my bit in the other thread so.....yeah

 

[routemarker]

i think they will combine acedemic ability + financial prowess to an extent in the future so you will have to be both smart and loaded.

 

[White Rabbit]

Exaclty... we're not America and don't want to become it..

 

[braindrainedAsh]

Hmmm... that's pretty unfair for those that are smart and work hard but are far from loaded!

 

[saladsurgery]

education reforms... booo!
get out there and protest! rah rah rah.

seriously, if those things get implemented, i'll have to pay full fees for my last year at uni (design/international studies is a 6 year degree), and that's assuming i don't fail anything... if i do, then it's full fees, again.

they're pretty scary, if you ask me.

from the article above
It [the howard government's higher ed. reform plan] tells students what subjects they can do and how long they will be allowed to do them. The education minister can determine what courses a university will teach. It allows universities to charge higher fees and the Government to charge real rates of interest on student loans. And it ties hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to workplace changes aimed at breaking the influence of the academic and university staff union.

........

The chair of the Senate committee investigating the proposal, Labor's Kim Carr, calls the bill the most draconian legislation since Menzies tried to ban the Communist Party. "This is telling you what you can study, what you can teach and what you can think."

 

[braindrainedAsh]

Why do you have to pay full fee for the last year? I wanna do Communications/Int Stud and that's a five year, would that apply to me? Eeeek!

 

[SoFTuaRiaL]

i assume it applies to ur last yr too .... luckily i'd get out of uni JUST before then

 

[saladsurgery]

Originally posted by SoFTuaRiaL
i assume it applies to ur last yr too ....

i don't think so. something about the maximum time you can spend studying an undergraduate degree (paying HECS) before they start making you pay full fees upfront, which from what i can gather is 5 years. b. design (visual communication) / b. arts (international studies) is six years, which tips me over by 2 semesters, assuming i don't do any extra subjects or fail anything, which would most likely mean i'd be at uni for over 6 years. hmmph.

 

[Generator]

There has been an alteraton to that, supposedly, with people taking longer degrees getting an extra year on top of their minimum timeframe... although why someone taking a double degree of 5 years should only have 6 years to complete it while a person taking a 3 year degree gets 5 is beyond me...

 

[saladsurgery]

nastiest. reforms. ever.
that and gulf war II have given me reason enough to finally enrol to vote.

 

[SoFTuaRiaL]

so if i decide to do an honours yr for actuarial, i'd have to pay full fees? =/

 

[emily]

wow, this sucks - so now i really can't do arts and then law without paying for a yr (or two) of law?!!!??!!

 

[Generator]

I would say not (with regards to the honours question). That is going beyond your degree, although it is still part of the undergraduate course.
Besides, most, if not all, people who take an honours year do so without having to redo subjects, so they would be under the new cap in any case...

It's a stupid idea. It makes sense to get some of the career undergrads out of uni and into the workforce (although to me they seem to be found only in fiction and not in nsw), although it just creates a confusing situation for everyone else, especially when you consider the fact that a 3 year degree is far from standard yet it has been used as the base for a proposed change...

 

[braindrainedAsh]

There needs to be more leverage for changes... what if you hate the degree that you pick? Should you be forced essentually to keep on doing it??

I think it will increase the rate of drop outs if they are putting in to place things to prevent people changing degrees, because if people hate their degree, they will just drop out!

 

[saladsurgery]

Originally posted by melbournian
Its very expensive for tax payers to fund education that won't end in qualification, so it does need to be detered.

does it matter if you don't walk out the other end with a bit of paper with your name on it? there is such a thing as learning for the sake of learning, you know.

 

[Generator]

I thought that it was per degree, not per student?

 

[karl]

I'll be voting labor
With any luck, Howard's pissed off enough people that he'll be thrown out on his arse, and labor will un-do the changes.

That said. I'm not too optimistic

 

[dirty dave]

i would be voting labour not becuase of their policies but rather becuase of the lack of options

 

[karl]

From the ALP website

Labor and Labour

During the early years of the ALP, the Party was referred to by various titles differing from colony to colony. It was at the 1908 Interstate (federal) Conference that the name "Australian Labour Party" was adopted. In its shortened form the Party was frequently referred to as both 'Labor' and 'Labour', however the former spelling was adopted from 1912 onwards, due to the influence of the American labor movement.