Please Stop Enouraging Me...

... to vote for the Liberal Party at the next election.

Why would I, as someone who aspires to be socially progressive, who has little time for the radical conservatism of neoliberals and who sees well-funded public education as ideal, be starting to consider the Liberal Party?

Well, simply put, incompetence.

So there was the Education Revolution that isn't. Laptops in schools are a waste of money, especially if the schools don't even have the infrastructure to maintain and use them (mostly for the very productive purpose of watching videos and otherwise wasting time).

Not to mention the whole abolition of Domestic Undergraduate Full Fees which has taken $27 million straight out of the University of Melbourne.

And at a State level, we have a transport minister who isn't interested in transport. As someone who nearly got doored while riding my bike today I say, "Thanks for nothing Labor."

There was Rudd's rather silly response to the whole Henson affair.

And now there is this (via Hoyden About Town) rather sorry affair on how same-sex couples will get short-changed by Labor's attempts to end discrimination against them.

So, I'd rather have a competent government that I can occasionally win concessions from rather than an incompetent government that undermines progressive social causes through clumsiness.

Review your curriculum...

Close your books...

How About That

Yale Daily News - Peru Sues Yale Over Artifacts.

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Balanced Comparison

One of the University's 'Back for Seconds' bloggers, Suzanne, has an excellent post up comparing New Generation and Heritage/Continuing degrees. Her analysis is balanced and fair, pointing out both the advantages and disadvantages faced by students under both models.

The only point that causes me some confusion is her reference to scholarship money. The National Scholarship has, for a long time, funded both HECS and provided an allowance ($5000 for Victorians and $10,000 for interstate students). The maintenance of such an excellent scholarship program in the face of economic downturn and fickle governance and regulation is to be applauded.

Her last point was also quite amusing:

"Student centres! Whose brilliant idea was it to make Music share a student centre with Arts, and to put the whole thing ages away in Old Arts, replacing the perfectly functional administrative centre at the front office inside the Music building?"

The merger between Music and Arts Faculty Offices/Student Centres looks to be both a cost-cutting measure and a bureaucratic cleaning job. Considering how underresourced the Student Centre is, imagine if the same resources were split over two faculties?

Sometimes I wish I was a few years older or younger, so I could have done my degree(s) and gotten out before all of this or come in after the dust has settled.

Review your curriculum...

Close your books...

From VSU to SSF

So there is talk about the government permitting universities to charge a compulsory non-academic fee of up to $250 for the purpose of funding student services and amenities.

Student unions might or might not get any of the money. It seems likely that the intention is that they will, but at unimelb, most of the services are run by the university, rather than a student association. However, a student association itself is a kind of service or amenity. Student unions, sports associations and student clubs lend themselves very much to the university in its marketing and educational goals. The university would be behind its competition if all it could say in its marketing was, "We provide classes... and if you get upset we have counsellors. There is nothing else to do on campus except study." Students would look at another university who was saying, "We provide classes and when you're not in class we have clubs and societies where you can meet other interesting students and do things that are fun and exciting. Many of our graduates keep in contact with the networks they establish at university as friends or business partners."

This is the campus culture argument. For VSU, there are things like the self-interest argument (why should I pay for things I don't use), the responsible management argument (student unions waste money), the anti-political argument (student unions spend money on political campaigns) and the freedom of association argument. The self-interest argument is knocked down by the taxation argument (let's stop paying for hospitals because we don't get sick) and the anti-political argument is challenged by the fact that student representatives are elected.

The responsible management argument crops up from time to time because student reps waste money or are corrupt, as if that never happens in big business, government or universities.

The freedom of association argument is also flawed because VSU legislation did not cover all institutions in higher education and requiring students to be members of a student organisation is not the same thing as charging a compulsory non-academic fee. For example, a services and amenities fee could be used to provide services and amenities completely independent of any student association.

For me it boils down to a matter of whether the university is expected to be a mere degree shop or if there is supposed to be life outside the classroom. If it is the former, then we should give up our student unions, sports associations, counselling, health, disability and volunteering services and spend all of the money on books and online lecture slides.

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Close your books...

Commerce Student Subject Choice Drops 18.6%

A comparison of the subjects offered to Commerce students in 2007 and 2009 reveals that Commerce students have lost 40 of the 140 subjects offered in 2007. This accompanies the creation of just 14 new subjects leaving a net loss of 26 subjects. The worst hit areas are Economics, which had a net loss of 8 subjects and Management and Marketing which had a net loss of 9 subjects. Business Law is no longer offered to Commerce students, resulting in a loss of 4 subjects.

To suffer a net loss of 26 subjects, represents a reduction in student subject choice of 18.6%, which means that students in 2009 have had their subject choice reduced by nearly one fifth. It is rather sad that the Commerce, which has the highest proportion of full fee international students, has made such drastic cuts to its offerings. The education of the University of Melbourne's Commerce students has clearly been compromised.

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Update:
See comments, a commerce student points out the flaws in the comparison which bring the net loss of subjects much lower.
Update 2: Of 117 subjects in 2007, 9 were lost, a decrease of 7.7%.

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Close your books...