ELITISM is a less than popular concept at the moment, but universities have always been about educating the best and the brightest of each generation, in the hope that they will repay that education later on, when they move into their full adult lives.
Half a century ago, most Australians finished their education at 15, or the equivalent of Year 10.
Now, most students finish Year 12, and more than a third of these will obtain a degree, a massive increase on the 10 per cent or so who were tertiary educated as recently as 20 or 30 years ago.
Interestingly, this increase in university education has come despite its increasing cost.
The Whitlam-era introduction of free university is now but a distant memory, and the need to provide "value for money", along with the ever-present call for degrees to be aligned with the needs of employers, are two of the biggest drivers of change in the sector.
A third influence has been the role of universities as income generators, primarily through the education of international students.
Thanks to COVID, Australian universities have been forced to do without this income from abroad, and are cutting their cloth accordingly.
At the same time, the Morrison government has embarked upon its own overhaul of the system - a series of funding adjustments that have substantially increased the cost of a liberal arts degree, a move that many have interpreted, rightly or wrongly, as ideologically driven.
Through all of this, the University of Newcastle has had to chart a course, and has done so by cutting some 530 subjects, or about a quarter of their existing offerings.
Time will tell whether the new program helps or hinders the university's efforts to prosper as a major regional institution in an increasingly global world of education.
It can only be hoped that such a well-educated and well-paid coterie of management make the right decisions.
Because while not everyone who studies at Newcastle University comes from nearby, and while some, who do, will leave the region when they finish their education, the university plays a crucial role in shaping the next generation of educated Novocastrians.
There are many other factors involved, but this consideration alone means our university should always be more than a fee-for-service degree factory.
ISSUE: 39,487.
IN THE NEWS:
