Transforming the University of Adelaide student experience

[Aishcirpac]

"co-creating learning"? What bullshit. University education should no revolve solely around a market orientation! Shame on you. I'm not an Adelaide Uni student but as a Flinders student, I'm showing my solidarity to fellow HUMN & SS students.

[kamal6991]

is she australian?coz her accent sounded different

[CatharticWeek]

I'm a philosophy major. The only difference between my degree and someone reading similar texts at home is the face to face time with a Tutor. I'm sick of being marginalized for my chosen field. I'm sick of my money not being good enough to handle the exorbitant costs of running a philosophy course. And I'm damn well sick of not being able to walk through the fucking Hughes plaza.

Should have gone to Flinders.

[kattcassie]

LOL

less education, moar money plz. k thx bai.

What international student is going to look at Adelaide and think, I should totes go there! look at that great food court!

[anthr44x]

what a rort

[upsidedowntumble]

Humanities students do not benefit from the learning hub more than any other Adelaide students. The learning hub is for all students, so humanities students aren't gaining anything. We're losing out.

[Staffyishere]

There is nothing that can replace the one on one learning opportunities of a tutorial, where ideas are passed around, discussions evolve, and people learn not only from our tutors or lecturers, but our fellow students also.

So go ahead and cut the tutorials, but don't expect that anyone will be happy to pay the same amount of HECS debt for a minimised learning experience.

[NUS2011]

What a contemptible piece of spin. Of course there is no universally agreed upon magic number of tutorials, but less tutorials means less time to learn collaboratively under supervision and discuss concepts with teachers. The tired line of argument that students are different and want different things comes off as disingenuous when used to justify what is blatant cost-cutting without any value-add.

[willoughby666666]

Also, cuts to tutorials are cuts to our education. Please stop with the insincere 'marketing' rhetoric.

[willoughby666666]

Cutting tutorials in the humanities alone, shows that the University does not value critical social education as much as other areas of education. With less critical social education, students are less empowered to make critical decisions in their lives and therefore become more like automatons.

Either this has a malevolent intent or the University staff responsible for these cuts are misguided and have not been able to fathom the negative social consequences of making cuts to the humanities.

[Arianddu]

Hell, if the University was *genuinely* looking at better education models, they'd be training all the lecturers how to actually USE the technology available, training EVERYONE in how to use MyUni to the maximum of its possibilities, and investing in training tutors to be better teachers and discussion leaders. Not to mention actively working to ensure that no tutorial has more than 15 people (and that's still a lot!)

[Arianddu]

Grrr. She keeps missing the point (or totally ignoring it) - no one is arguing against better learning models, what we're saying is tutorial cuts *with nothing of value in their place* is not acceptable!

[SolFuegoLluvia]

Change can be fantastic. But this does not imply that we should blindly accept deterioration of the quality of education simply because it hides within the trojan horse of supposed innovation.

[SolFuegoLluvia]

It may well be true that 12 is not a magic number Quester. Perhaps more tutorials would be better. However, having spoken with many students and staff, the general consensus seems to be that in the Humanities and Social Sciences, a tutorial every week is an essential component of student learning and engagement. Everyone knows full well that the reductions in tutorials were propelled by a need to cut budgets, now that tutors are being paid for marking minor essays - as they should be,

[SolFuegoLluvia]

Shame on you for cynically trying to sell budget cuts as a move towards optimising the student experience. And shame on the university as a whole for slipping in tutorial cuts without first consulting students. The backlash against this decision comes not from some reactionary fear of the new, as you seem to imply, but from the knowledge and experience that tutorials are valuable. Class time is already scarce. We already have plenty of time for self-directed learning.

[SolFuegoLluvia]

We're also aware that you were considering cutting tutorials not only down to 10, but to 9. A friend of mine put in my mind an interesting question. Without classes, what is the benefit of a university education as compared to a youtube account, a journal subscription and a library card? You're well trained in marketing and business. This is apparent in your abundant spin. But let's have the ugly truth out. Tutorial cuts to HUMS/SS are about money. People are angry. Now you're in damage control.