James Crafti, Melbourne
At 7pm on January 17, a special edition of Melbourne Age newspaper listing the first round of university offers was released. The cover of the paper had a cartoon of a small young person reaching up to grab a key from a god-like hand in a suit. The key dangling over the young person's head was labeled "your university place".
Inside the paper were a variety of statistics indicating the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) results required to be accepted into various educational institutions.
The Equivalent National Tertiary Education Rank (ENTER) scores to get into university and TAFE varied from more than 99 to under 35. The scores had very little to do with course difficulty. For example, the tourism management course at LaTrobe University has a required ENTER score of 82, while studying to become a civil engineer at Victoria University requires an ENTER of 67.
The ENTER "value" of the same course at different institutions also varies — for an arts degree between 54 and 93.
Scores to get into university are becoming increasingly based on the ability for the course to be marketed, both to students and to corporations which seek to employ graduates. Recent advertisements for Swinbourne University epitomise this with the slogan "From the moment you enter we're thinking about the moment you leave".
Universities are increasingly promoting themselves as degree factories. This is reflected in universities creating a series of new "specialist" degrees. At La Trobe University, for example, some of these "specialist degrees" include creative arts, development studies, international relations and social science.
What makes all of these degrees interesting is that they are all basically arts degrees, but a student is limited in what subjects he or she can take. Students are limiting their subject choices before they even have a chance to explore the various departments.
Even at the same institution, degree requirements vary depending on whether a student can pay or not. At Melbourne University, for example, there are two ENTERs — 93 for those students who pay through a capped Higher Education Contribution Scheme and 82 for students who can afford to pay $13,500 up front each year.
The VCE ENTER score is hardly a fair way of determining who can go to universities — elite private school students do better in the tests, and a score cannot reflect a student's enthusiasm and energy for study — but it is a better system than looking at students' bank balances.
Federal education minister Brendan Nelson claims that "intelligent" students are not disadvantaged because they can still get into university if they have an ENTER over 93. You could just as easily argue the US system is "fair" because around the top 1% of students can get scholarships if they can't pay full fees.
All students should be able to access the university courses that they want to, and given the resources, including study support, so that they can be successful if they work at it. University should be funded through a progressive tax. That's the best way of ensuring that Australia can truly be a "clever country".
[James Crafti is a member of the socialist youth group Resistance.]
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, February 4, 2004.
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