Beginner Comp Sci Student

[Adam]

Last year I completed what is called here Certificate 4 in Information Technology, at a local TAFE college. TAFE colleges are a step below universities and are not attached to universities. Having completed that, I have this year enrolled in Bachelor of Technology (Computer Studies) at Monash University in Clayton, Victoria. I've looked at the university's information, and this two-year degree will, if I pass (fingers crossed), let me walk straight into any specialist degree, anything at all like aerospace engineering, robotics, biomechanics, digital systems design, anything. So obviously I'm quite happy with this, especially since I'm now 28 and since leaving the Navy I have had only crappy jobs that went nowhere. Since there were 25,000 fewer university places this year, I was very lucky to get in.

Well, that's it, I just thought I'd share my very good news.

 

[Porfiry]

Congrats, good sir.

Since there were 25,000 fewer university places this year, I was very lucky to get in.

What the heck? Why is higher education being cut back in Australia? I ask only since I'm seriously considering doing an MA in Cognitive Science somewhere in Australia.

 

[Adam]

Our federal and state governments in Australia are known by several things:
1) They take orders from the unions.
2) They take orders from big business.
3) They take orders from minority groups who are always in the news.

Obviously those three groups are nearly always at odds. This makes our government rather confused, and they often don't really know what they're doing. Education has been suffering in Australia for years. Some politicians (those taking orders from big business) are trying to make it so that large corporations give financial support to universities, in return for having the rights to all research and patents which come from those universities, and having the right to force students who go through uni on their money to work for those companies. Unions demand highre and higher wages, so there is less industry in Australia, and eventually less money to be put into education. And the third group protests and forces big business to spend money on cleaning up their factories and all, which forces union disputes, and so on...

However... Melbourne university has a reasonable psychology department. Monash uni (the one I'll be attending, in Clayton) is in the news almost every week with some new medical discovery. Monash Clayton does world class research into everything to do with the human body. If you are interested more in the physical side of the human brain, you might want to contact them and ask about their courses. http://www.monash.edu.au/


And thanks for the congrats by the way.