Career choices and the t-shaped graduate

[first posted Mon 16 April; updated Tue 17, Wed 18, Thu 19, Fri 20 April and Tue 29 May]

Arie Freiberg on why he studied law: “I did articles because my mother wanted to make sure I’d one day have a proper job…” And look what happened — he’s now Dean of Law at Monash University.

My own employer, the University of Melbourne, this week launches its new undergraduate programs, a suite of six bachelor degrees designed to produce ‘t-shaped’ graduates: people with a breadth of experience as well as depth of knowledge in their chosen academic field.

Some of the media coverage:

• Editorial: the very model of a modern university? (The Age)
• A poor start for a radical change: student confusion and protests (The Age)
• New uni model “won’t result in job loss” (Sydney Morning Herald)
• New model could cut academic jobs (The Age)
• National Union of Students says the scholarships plan is elitist (ABC News Online)
• US-style uni eases entry requirements (The Australian)
• Uni to spend $100 million luring top students (The Australian)
• University of Western Australia criticises Melbourne’s “discounted degrees” (ABC News Online)
• Melbourne’s radical model unlikely to be copied (The Age)
• Unis warned on adopting Melbourne model (The West Australian)
• Shift towards diverse model (The Australian) – article by Glyn Davis about the trend towards graduate-only courses in medicine at Australian universities
• US-style uni system for Melbourne causes protest (The World Today, ABC Radio)
• Students protest at VIP launch dinner (The Age)
• Socialist Party takes credit for ‘shutting down’ the VIP dinner
• Melbourne Uni denies lack of funding (AAP report in Sydney Morning Herald)
• Kerry O’Brien interviews Glyn Davis on the 7.30 Report (ABC TV)
• Uni’s $2500 bait for brightest (The Age) – scholarships for Victoria’s top school-leavers
• Melbourne University cash lure (Herald Sun)
• US-style uni eases entry requirements (The Australian)
• Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop backs plan to reallocate HECS (CSP) places to gradaute courses (The Age)
• A matter of degrees: long feature article canvassing opinion from prospective students and from competitor universities, with quotes from Vice-Chancellor Glyn Davis (The Age)
• Scholarship blitz as uni ditches old-school model (The Age)
• Uni to lose students in overhaul (The Age)
• Bishop backs uni’s course cuts (The Australian)

See also:

• Melbourne Uni’s new home page, created by my highly esteemed and valued colleagues Andrew Harris and Michael Poloni and launched on Friday 13 April (lucky for some ;-)
• All about the new Melbourne Model courses
• Growing Esteem, Melbourne Uni’s strategic direction

And bloggers’ comments:

• Undergrad student gneake has some reservations about the Melbourne Model degrees, and thinks thousands of HECS places (aka Commonwealth Supported Place or CSP) will be replaced by full-fee places (not quite accurate)
• After observing the Melbourne Model launch, student Isabella Zhang feels proud to be part of the university’s “legend and excellency”
• PhD student Nana felt a bit teary listening to the ad campaign’s music
• Staff member Resonance doesn’t like the ads but thinks the Melbourne Model degrees are a good move
• Alumnus Norak is “quite impressed” with the Dreamlarge advertisements, though he says he has “no pride for the university” (if the ads really are impressive, then perhaps he’ll change his mind about the second part ;-)
• The “Can you see…” advertisement made first-year student Zoe “feel proud to be a student at the University of Melbourne.”
• Christian McCrea doesn’t explain why he feels an “incandescent rage” about the new curriculum
• Staff member Grey passions thinks the Dream Large TV ads display ‘astounding arrogance — the campaign “…shows images of all these ‘problems’ (like poverty, disease, Aboriginal children (it’s not entirely clear what the ‘problem’ is) …) and basically suggests that Melbourne graduates will solve them.”
• Barclay thinks Melbourne will now start “accepting dumb rich kids and poor geniuses”
• leeyee observes that every student sees Melbourne Uni differently
• Current Melbourne Uni student Tangledfish is unimpressed by the DreamLarge advertising campaign — and thinks the Vice-Chancellor is female (he isn’t)
• Hobbes kitling gets “so much mail and email” at work about the Melbourne Model, and thinks it’s “wank”
• Current Melbourne Uni student Suzanne wonders whether the new undergraduate degrees will allow students to pursue two quite different majors in a single course
• Random Nation: not entirely convinced, but sees some advantages
• The Growing Esteem blog is hosted by the Melbourne University Student Union’s education officer Libby Buckingham
• Berno at Another Day in the Antz Farm worries about whether the Melbourne Model degrees will meet skills shortages in particular areas, eg law
• Sam at Drive Activated thinks the new degrees mean Melbourne Uni is “no longer the place for those who are driven, ambitious and determined to pursue their passion”
• The VCA Student Union calls for a rally and demonstration march against the Melbourne Model; and later reports that 20-30 students participated in the protest

And other higher-education news this week:

• Swinburne Vice-Chancellor Ian Young endorses TAFE as a pathway to undergraduate degrees, calling it a ‘US-style’ collaboration between universities and community colleges (The Age); an unsigned editorial opinion calls this a welcome addition to the education debate
• Labor eyes cuts to spiralling HECS (The Age) – brief comparison of Labor and Liberal/Coalition policies on government funding for student places at university

Meanwhile…

• the ASEN Campus Clean Energy student collective is looking for ways to persuade Melbourne University to purchase ‘green energy certificates’
• and former Melbourne vice-chancellor Alan Gilbert is making a name for himself as head of the University of Manchester

Coincidentally, 33 people have died in two related shootings at Virginia Tech in the USA. College Web Editor summarises the university’s effective disaster-communication strategy, a case study in why every university (and other organisation) needs to prepare such a thing before rather than after the event.

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