A cunning path to full-fees?
Yesterday, Melbourne University announced that it would adopt a 10-year plan to Americanise its degree system.
The new course structure would involve students taking a general three-year degree such as science, arts or commerce and then specialising in a two or three-year graduate program.
A medical student would therefore gain a science degree before taking a graduate medicine course.
The professional graduate system already operates in the US, and Europe plans to adopt it from 2010.
Both Melbourne University Student Union and the National Union of Students have condemned this move as a means for squeezing more money out of students, in the form of full-fees for specialist courses.
David McDonald of the Melbourne University Student Union said culling student numbers by 10,000 would put study there “even further out of reach”.
“This will have a broader social impact, which the community should be worried about,” he said.
The move to US-style degree structures was a “cunning way to force students wanting to obtain specialist skills and knowledge into a full-fee paying place.”
National Union of Students president Felix Eldridge said that although adopting a US-style structure might have merit, the proposal would allow the university to introduce full fees by stealth.
“This is not an academic idea, this is another commercial idea by Melbourne University,” Mr Eldridge said.
Is this a catch 22? With Federal funding at its lowest point in Australia’s history, where can Universities find funding without going down the road of massive corporate sponsorship? Is this a symptom of inequalities in secondary education? How can Universities decrease class sizes without having fewer students overall (given that there are no funds to increase the number of teachers)?
Joel Parsons (not verified) wrote:
How can Universities decrease class sizes without having fewer students overall (given that there are no funds to increase the number of teachers)?
If we assume there is now way to raise revenue at all (either through private funding or public funding) then the only options for cutting class sizes would be to cut the salaries they pay staff so that they can afford to hire more; or to sack some non-academic staff.
That all said, the University has lots of opportunities to raise new revenue with more full fees places. After all, given many students come from schools where their parents paid $10,000 or more a year up front, it can’t hurt them to continue paying that for a few more years, and the more they pay, the more money there will be in the kitty for scholarships for the bright students who actually make this University become a worthwhile place to study.
Liam wrote:
Joel, with all due respect, those students whose parents paid $10,000 a year for private schools up front can go and fuck themselves if they want to buy their way into uni as well. They should earn their places on merit in exams like the rest of us (and pay more income tax if they can afford it).
Armies and navies in the eighteenth century had similar revenue-raising systems where rich families bought their sons ‘commissions’ as officers, a system now dispensed with, mostly because rich, stupid officers weren’t any good.
…
An American system of generalist degrees is a good idea, especially if it means that students in subjects like Law and Medicine are more mature when they start and actually want to study them, rather than simply want to do something with a high TER (or whatever it’s called these days). The argument for making specialist degrees postgraduate-only is good but totally separate from fees arguments.
anonymous (not verified) wrote:
how did he get to be NUS president. talk about the hopeless led by the talentless.
EvilPundit wrote:
University fees bad!
Student union fees good!
dibo wrote:
a democratically determined and controlled system of student representation, taxation and service - good!
paying fees for something you’ll pay tax for anyway - bad!
jason wrote:
University fees bad!
Student union fees good!
Spot the person who can’t distinguish between $100,000 and $400.
Clearly you did not pay enough for your education, or you are to rich to care about $99,600 in loose change?
alex white wrote:
University fees bad!
Student union fees good!
Wait… so $250 student union fees bad and $10,000 University fees good?
You know, the Federal Government under Menzies used to fund student unions directly. Part of that “public good” malarky.
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