No Surprise as Uni Students Drop Out

Do you need new -- lateral -- thinking for your own problems? email nick leth at gmail dot com. Need solutions? No worries. Now.

In Today's West (29 Dec 2010) Bethany Hiatt reports that more students are dropping out of university. Almost 19% of students who started uni in WA in 2008 did not return in 2009.

Is anyone surprised?

Edith Cowan University (ECU) appears to have set the record, with 23.03% of its 2008 first year students not returning in 2009. I wonder if the ECU V-C really believes the spin that he puts on that figure?

ECU vice-chancellor Kerry Cox says that ECU has "a long-term vision" and is "willing to take the risk of encouraging and supporting non-traditional students to achieve their potential". What he means is, that ECU is desperate for students and is willing to take almost anyone. And ECU is not alone.

As Hiatt writes, "20 years ago most university students were academically talented school leavers..."

Twenty years ago, university was a place for learning. If you could not learn, you failed. Unis only wanted to accept students who had a reasonable chance of being able to learn.

Now, a university is a place at which every effort will be made to help you pass. "Every effort" includes setting lower pass standards. Unfortunately this has encouraged less able students to enrol at university -- requiring even lower pass standards.

Still, with the increasing number of institutions allowed to call themselves "universities", there's plenty of room for all those incapable students. In fact, there are more university places than willing students -- so entrance standards and pass levels have been lowered even further.

And suddenly -- the education market has fallen flat.

Mining companies offer good salaries for employees with no university education. And overseas students have found that the global financial crisis has limited their ability to buy an Australian university degree. (Yes, plenty of those students believe that they are paying their money so that they will get the university degree.)

There is now a valid alternative to tertiary education: leave uni in order to save / earn a lot of money.

Why get a university degree? It's expensive. It takes several years. And there's a heap of money to be made without it.

Will universities lower their educational standards even further, in order to retain students? Perhaps they will guarantee a pass, if only the students will enrol for another year...?

Here's a good idea...

Redefine a university as a place for higher learning. Identify the institutions which actually offer higher learning with suitably high standards for their students. Every other institution is given a name and status which is not "university".

Then fund the "real" universities. Give them enough money to allow them to attract, educate and retain capable students. (For example, a university will not allow an incapable student to graduate as a dentist!)

All the rest can continue to prostitute themselves for profit. Sell their "educational" services to whoever has the money. With sufficient government subsidies to allow them to educate people who really do need to learn... something.

Educational institutions can be measured on student numbers, pass rates and attrition rates... The real universities will be measured by the success of their educational services.

Independent thinking & independent analysis of your problems by Agamedes Consulting. Support for your thought: email nick leth at gmail dot com