Online Voting Opens 29 October and closes 2 November:I will put up a link once voting opens. Here is how you can vote.
Online Voting Opens 29 October and closes 2 November:I will put up a link once voting opens. Here is how you can vote.
2008 Goals We have specific goals from which new ideas can grow, to ensure the 2008 guild is proactive.....
About Us In 2008 we need an active student focused Guild, which provides something for all students on campus...
Unless you have been living under a rock this past year, you would have noticed that Murdoch University shortened its semesters to 12 weeks. In doing so Murdoch is following numerous Universities across Australia. Universities including the exclusive G8 argue shorter semesters benefit both staff and students. Staff have more time for exam marking and research. While students are able to take advantage of the 4 shorter semesters, to fast track their degrees. With the financial burdens students’ experience on a daily basis, the majority will be happy to get their degrees as fast as possible.
However this new system isn’t as clear cut as it seems. One of the biggest concerns is the effect shorter semesters are having on the quality of teaching and content. Since the changes at Murdoch effected only the last week of semester, the impact on course content is theoretically minimal. Realistically however changing from 13 to 12 weeks is not as simply as it seems on paper, there has been no increase in teaching hours to compensate for the lost week. Last semester I had more then one lecturer cite the shorter semester as reasons for cutting or condensing content.
The loss of the 13th weeks appears far more worrying when you consider undergraduate degree as a whole. A student doing the standard 4-year degree will lose 8 weeks of teaching time, while a student doing 6 years will lose an entire semester. If you consider undergraduates only spend around half a year at university, this is quite a substantial loss of teaching time.
It won’t come as a shock to most that despite shorter teaching time, undergraduates will see no change in their invoice. Murdoch may no longer be offering 13-week units, but they are still charging for them. The ability to fast tracking a degree by doing 4 semesters a year could potentially outweigh any negative concessions. Unfortunately Murdoch offers only postgraduate units in the winter semester. Undergraduate units do not make enough of a profit for the university to offer them in winter semester. Personally I argue they could use the fees undergraduates are paying for the now non-existent 13th week.
The new shorter semester offers no direct advantageous to undergraduate students; in fact it seems to predominantly disadvantage them. Murdoch main justification for removing two weeks of the academic year was it could offer 4 semesters per year. While the entire student population experienced this loss, only the postgraduate proportion of the population has benefited.
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Neil GoldsboroughI am studying Environmental Restoration and in my third year, I served on the Guild Secretariat this year. I have been very active in promoting Environmental issues...more
Brodie Lewiscoming soon....