‘Appallingly unethical’: why Australian universities are at breaking point

The floodgates of international students was opened last quarter, and is partially responsible for the huge increase in rental rates.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-04/international-student...

Universities in the UK don't seem much better, I hear similar regarding a lot of experiences. It seems like if you have a pulse then you get your piece of paper, even if you missed most of your seminars (which they are meant to kick you out over, but most don't). Education has become less about actually being educated and more paying the piper to get your piece of paper to assumedly stand out against other candidates for job positions, who likely also have the same sheet of paper anyway.

Sure, for some professions, nothing much has changed, but for a lot, it's become a bit of a joke.

Public universities in Europe might not be high in rankings, but there is no incentive to force student through, because funding primarily goes from government not from student.

Is this true even for elite Australian universities like ANU?

I think you need to go back farther. The problem was already starting in the mid-90s, and I think likely triggered by the Hawke government with the introduction of HECS (think student loans) and the changes that made to university funding. By the late 90s I recall conversations with academics that pretty much mirror the comments in the article. Relatively serious money was coming in from international and other full-fee paying students, and the departments who could pull in the numbers and/or charge higher fees growing. All the other departments frantically trying to work out how they could follow suit before they were amalgamated or dissolved. Full-fee student marks would often get bumped up to the next grade on appeal. And the casual tutor positions really kicked in, because a job needed to be found for every full-fee paying masters or phd who wanted one. And because the lecturers were being squeezed, delivering lectures to larger and larger groups in shiny new double or triple sized auditoriums, and needing three or four tutors to handle tutorials and student support and grading. And those tutors complained about how many hours they were paid vs. how many hours it took. And how the contracts were all casual, and carefully ensured so to avoid the liability of accidentally making them full-time. And the lecturers, taking more load because they were not as lucky as their peers who disappeared into research groups (also money spinners). I left in 2000, having worked in two faculties supporting about 10 different departments, two of which were leaders in pulling international students with new offshore campuses (offices really).

Academic staff don't have access to that info do they? How could she tell them apart?

I have this opinion for any private school, be it in Australia, USA or anywhere else.

In Europe, anyone who studied private school of any sort is considered as somebody who has bought his degree, but ultimately knows nothing. CVs with private schools degrees are going into a bin automatically. Only reason why private universities exists in Europe is when your employee (usually government) really demands a Bc. or Ing/Mgr in front of your name from bureaucratic reasons.

Sometimes it is better to have high school diploma from public school, than having university degree from private school.

What sort of jobs?

As someone without a degree who ended up as a software engineer at CSIRO, my advice is to just start working. Do interesting stuff. Push yourself. Make a name in the community.

I didn't start out by saying "I'm going to become a software engineer at CSIRO", I'm Canadian, so didn't even know what CSIRO was.

I think one of the strange things about people who think they need to get a degree to get a job, is that they often are trying to get the job they might get after having a degree, but without the degree.

You have to start somewhere, but my thinking is that if you were to take the lowliest job, and just start, you'd be far ahead of those who went and got a degree by the time you spent 4 years in the industry.

Just my 2 cents.

Of course, it depends on what you are trying to do. We're currently hiring for a neuroscientist, and of course, that needs a university degree.

If the Universities bent too far surviving COVID and ongoing tensions with China, they may have slaughtered their golden goose. But the underlying issues have been well known for decades. The existential threat has always been that Australian universities will never be as prestigious as the big name British and American institutions, and what the students are really paying for is prestige. You don't study here if you can afford Oxford or Cambridge or Yale or MIT. And with online learning, those brand names are becoming more affordable.

I am speculating here but perhaps international students use the university degrees to get jobs in Australia.