i don't know about that.

Universities did rely on China for much of their boom, which i don't really get.

may be a time for government to adopt reform that helps save money on sectors, such as humanities.

My experience is that much of the resources towards the humanities are wasted. Yes, it is just my opinion, but i sincerely believe that much of the university research and was hardly worth the taxpayer resources spent on it.

In fact, my best work, if i can say so, was done for a nothing where it was not dumbed down by rubbish research aims which bored me to tears.

Having said i loved the easy money, which sure beats the cleaning job i am doing at the moment for the minimum wage.

Of course, there is some really good humanities stuff, but this comprises a minority.

We really don't need such a large humanities sector, as the Internet era provides ample opportunity to keep this important tradition alive, at a much smaller cost to the taxpayer

Go to university and become a cleaner. Nothing wrong with being a cleaner, a barista or any of the necessary menial jobs that seem to be filled by humanities graduate these days. But it would be much more efficient and less costly for taxpayers if the university bit was skipped.

What me or the entire number of graduates doing university?

it would be pretty stupid not to have a humanities sector at all, would it not ttbn?

What i am suggesting is that reform occurs to streamline sector, hopefully forcing universities to produce much better scholars and subjects which are more in line with liberal democratic questions to highlight strengths and weaknesses rather than merely slam everything or expand with many silly subjects.

I am not criticising the ideal of humanities. I actually think the humanities are a crucial sector in terms of its potential.

I just don't like the version that exists in many Australian universities

i actually find insult with you comment ttbn, although i would like to say i am thick skinned.

The point you ignore is that any skills i have today, whether u think muuch of them or not, are indeed from my university experience.

the fact i now work as a cleaner does not mean i wasted taxpayer funds. it merely means it did not work out after 7 years in university sector.

wise up buddy.

As is the case with all public money ponds, it's time for the University swamps to be drained also !
COVID-19 is already showing us that we need to get our priorities under control. Need before greed & pragmatism before frivolity !

Chris,

You would "like to say" that you are thick skinned, but you cannot if you are insulted by what I said.

Whatever skills you have clearly do not include English expression: no capitals, texting type 'u' for you. Perhaps it is you who needs to "wise up buddy".

what a pathetic comeback ttbn.

shows your intellect. good work buddy.

A much simpler assessment could be argued here. The difficulty of altering the status quo once established is a monumental task.

The higher up the cherry tree where grow the sweetest berries, such as the banks, private education, health care; all of these have achieved their first class ticket on the gravy train, by sly and underhanded manipulation of a behemoth political system of expedience.

The answer is of course, remove government funding altogether from higher education, and face the reality that the best education, as in all things Capitalist, is to privatise it.

Dan

Well, the asinine reliance on foreign students for funding, is a pigeon coming home to rest as is the ideological imperatives that stripped it and indeed the national broadcaster of essential funding!

And by those same climate change, coal-fired denialists who we must now hold responsible, for the worst historical bleaching event of the reef in history.

Sad commentary that it took a killer pandemic to see much of this idiotic ideology jettisoned?

And likely to resurface and impose its asinine rules and personal freedoms restrictions on us once again? Once the crisis is over?

And yet again trott out endless non-core promises and go the blame game big time to retain their positions of power and privilege.

I mean.take power junkie, Boris Johnson, grimly holding on to power from an ICU bed, and harming his own immune response with the stress that imperative imposes.

D Trump, Now unable to hold those mob psychology rallies that also worked for Hitler, to get/retain power?

As opposed to accepting, the buck stops with him in relation to America's extraordinarily unprepared, (millionaire medicine) American "public health"! And equally problematic education outcomes, not the least of which is their extraordinarily stress-loaded tertiary education and student debt levels! And consequent attrition rate/dropouts.

And our parliament of the far-right, it must be said, have tried manfully to replicate that here and look at carrying the can on that one, as their principal responsibility for rooting it?

Stress and anxiety, harm the immune response! And while young folk are less vulnerable to covid-19, they as a cohort are the most likely to carry it to the most vulnerable.

The one great hope is, the by the rollout of really effective, online learning and thereby reduce the commute and long-entrenched, regional disadvantages?

Given, the long-overdue upgrade of regional and rural NBN/broadband! And download the stress levels and up the immune response in one fell swoop?

Take care and stay safe.
Alan B

When we spend literal billions to put students through expensive tertiary education then employ them hacking cabs or pushing broom? It shows just how dumb our parliaments are, as indeed are the tin-eared, recalcitrant, control freak, power junkies that man them?

While one might expect those style of outcomes in a depression? We are not quite there yet? What will be our reality when we are?

Albeit, we might avoid that outcome if we helicopter money and use it to grow cooperative enterprises that use those expensive skills, far more appropriately?

And given that paradigm, put the entire inoculated population back into income-earning, tax-paying, productive work and become the manufacturing-based, exporter and energy superpower, we need t to become.

To,#1/ leave the place and the economy in better shape in a far more unified and egalitarian society than we found it and able therefore to make significant inroads into the debt we needed to create.

#2/ To get past the present crisis!

#3/ To ensure we use the time and money spent to replace the old business as usual BS! With a far more robust economy/fairer more egalitarian society, as our proudest moment and legacy!

#4/ because we know we will all be judged on outcomes and no harm in having/creating a modest few, we can be truly proud to personally own along with the responses we brought to the table!?

Take care and stay safe.
Alan B.

Chris,

Calling me pathetic only highlights your own ignorance and inability to communicate without abuse. I don't think you would ever be used as an example of the benefits of tertiary education. Enjoy your cleaning.

Hmmm, I took up a " new Blood lectureship " in 1987 and then moved to Oz, by 1992 I had seen enough, and frustrated by the stale attitudes, moved to industry and later government. Still published and supervised students held Adjunct Prof in the mid 2000's.. Still glad I lef. The University are failing due to greed and mismanagement. The students are now just material for their sausage factories. It be bemuses me that overseas students still come here to be fleeced, I would recommend it, for education, but it is a pathway to citizenship and family reconciliations, particularly India and Chaina.

If bailoutrs happen, then why not Virgin (manly chineese owned these days) and hey anyone else, Holden, Ford.... This COVID-19/96gg crisis might be ghe best think to shake up those sheltered work shops giving out degrees for hair dressing and sex toy design (Melbourne uni has courses on dildo design.

Shake them up, return to the principles of "reading for a degree", rather than this spoon feeding/no one fails crap! When an adjunct prof in an engineering faculy, I was disgusted that you could get a engrg degree without Maths!.. Crazy stuff.

many useless arts degrees, totally failed economic models, totally fraudulent climate models and now hopelessly failed Coronavirus modelling. Maybe we just ain't that smart pouring money into hotbeds of Marxism.

Chris would you please explain how much your 7 year of games with the university sector cost the public.

Would you then please tell us just what we are now getting in return for funding your games

With any luck the virus just might cause a complete failure of the current system to be replaced by a student fully funded system, that leaves the poor bloody tax payer out of the loop.

It might also spare us the hundreds of so called experts, mostly yabbering idiots, filling our radio waves & TV screens.

Chris Lewis,

Arts (or humanities if you prefer) is and has always been the heart of a university. The basic degree in medieval universities was the Bachelor of Arts, followed by a Master of Arts awarded for completion of seven years study.

I separate degrees into two areas: scholarly degrees and vocational degrees. Scholarly degrees cover the Arts and the Sciences, which people study to discover the world in which they live, regardless of whether it will provide them with a livelihood.

Vocational degrees are the work-related degrees like engineering, architecture, law, medicine, accountancy, teaching, etc., which train people to perform functions required by a society such as healing the sick, building roads, educating children, etc.

Most people of course do vocational degrees because they want to earn a livelihood which will allow them to marry, have a family, build a house, and have a comfortable life. I started out with an engineering degree because I wanted to make some money. But later I decided to pursue the Arts because I also wanted to be smart.

Some of the most stupid people I had come in contact with were also some of the most educated & vice versa !
The former have cost the taxpayer millions in money & time wasted & opportunities denied for others ! Education for Education's has resulted in exactly the opposite of what's desired !

individual,

You probably think that way because you are just a worker.

just a worker.
Mr Opinion,
Yes, one who frequently solved the problems that the educated couldn't !
Only basic education & two Trades.

Hasbeen, not sure what the total cost would be.

Entered university in 1995 before the Howard govt raised fees in 1996.

I only paid $7200 for a four year degree as I paid my fees upfront by working throughout the period to get the 25% discount, including my Honours year.

Yes, I took advantage of the system through merit and hard work to achieve First Class Honours and a Commonwealth funded PhD scholarship. I think my PhD was $18,000 tax free a year for 3.5 years and all school fees paid. Easily over $100,000 in 1990s money terms.

So what did I contribute?

You will have to ask those who paid for my services, including a federal Labor politician, the liberal party thinktanks that paid for my services on a couple of occasions, and the many universities that employed me as a tutor, research fellow and research assistant, especially from 2008 to 2015. They were Monash, Melbourne, the ANU, Canberra, Latrobe and Charles Sturt. We are talking hundreds of thousands of dollars here over a seven year period.

Since my dispute with the ANU from 2014 to 2019, which culminated in the Federal Circuit Court action in 2019 which I lost but avoided legal costs, I have hardly been eager to work at any university again. https://jade.io/article/677823?at.hl=lewis+v+anu

I also got published in Quadrant magazine on four occasions under the editorship of Paddy McGuiness (late 2007 to Jan. 2008), a conservative forum.

My paid work also made it to a Liberal government initiated Royal Commission. See footnote 3 of the Home Insulation inquiry.
https://apo.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2014-08/apo-nid41087.pdf

Cheers Hasbeen, and thanks for supporting me with your tax dollars over the years

Yes, Mr Opinion.

i do love the Arts. i actually think they of crucial importance to any decent liberal democracy

If you are that young Chris, it must have been your father who paid for my flying training, & a couple of extensive ocean cruises on a big ship with it's own landing place, with flying around enjoying the views most days.

So I guess I should thank the tax payer too.

Of course I was prepared to put my life on the line for them, if anything nasty happened.

no, not that young, but I certainly don't feel old.

went back to school as a 33 year old who had worked in factories since age of 17.

so you can blame the govt and society for allowing me to do that.