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News & Views item - July 2006 |
No More Ms Nice Guy -- Spare the Rod and Spoil the School. (July 18, 2006)
As a blind guess it looks like Prime Minister Howard has got the word to the Minister for Education, Science and Training, Julie Bishop, that she's too soft on the recalcitrant universities. Following her brandishing of the rod when addressing the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia conference last week, The Australian's Dorothy Illing reports, "Ms Bishop will increase the powers of the national university quality watchdog in an attempt to lift the reputation of Australian degrees overseas."
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Wellesley College |
And according to Illing, the minister said, "I'm going to pursue diversity through each and every funding and regulatory mechanism I've got at my disposal," and Illing added, "She cited the private women's liberal arts college, Wellesley, in Massachusetts, as a good example of high-quality education."
But there was no mention of increasing resources for the sector -- which ought to come as a surprise to no one.
Since Ms Bishop has singled out Wellesley College as an example of a top flight liberal art college, it may be worthwhile taking a look at Wellesley. Oh, among others, Hillary Clinton is an Alumna.
Wellesley is a private college some 13 miles west of Boston, was founded in 1870, and awards four-year baccalaureates. The student body consists of about 2300 women and has a faculty of 200, i.e. a student/staff ratio of 11.5, about half that of Australian universities.
Wellesley boasts an endowment (June 2005) of US$1.2 (A$1.6) billion. In comparison The University of Melbourne founded in 1853 with a student body of about 40,000 has an endowment reported to be A$908 million (June 2005).
Examining the College's offerings to its students has definite interest in the light of Ms Bishops gossamer-veiled threat of DIVERSITY or ELSE to Australia's academe.
Now if we're talking diversification and Wellesley and taking the lead from Ms Bishop, this liberal arts woman's college of 2300 students in addition to a large group of departments of the liberal arts (which includes classical studies) maintains departments in mathematics and the enabling sciences, biology, astronomy, geosciences and psychology.
Teaching only? Well, let's see what the Physics Department for one has to offer.
Faculty
The Wellesley Physics Department faculty consists of seven full-time professors and three full-time laboratory instructors who are engaged in a wide range of teaching and research activities. Click here for a listing of individual faculty webpages, email addresses, telephone numbers, and office addresses
Students
Our department has been fortunate over the years to attract a talented and enthusiastic group of majors. A high fraction have gone to very good graduate programs in physics or other related fields. A very high percentage have been involved in either a graduate program or a job that makes direct use of the skills gained as a result of their undergraduate physics training. In addition to their strong performance in the classroom, our majors are involved in a wide range of other activities. Many are working on independent research projects and we have an active Society of Physics Students chapter. In the past five years, three Wellesley students have served as Associate Zone Councilor for the New England section of SPS. In the spring of 2000 the Wellesley SPS Chapter hosted a regional Zone meeting for all schools in the New England area.
Alumnae
From PhD programs in physics, astrophysics, and engineering to financial analysis on Wall Street to computer programming in industry, the career paths chosen by our alumnae reflect the broad training of an undergraduate physics degree. Our major is designed to provide an effective preparation in the critical thinking and quantitative skills that are foundations for a wide range of post-baccalaureate options. Perhaps the best evidence that an undergraduate physics degree broadens career options is provided by a sampling of activities and careers pursued by recent Wellesley Physics alumnae. A more complete list of physics alums and what they have been up to since graduating from Wellesley can be found at our Alumnae Directory.
So is the successor to Brendan Nelson, who vows to "pursue diversity through each and every funding and regulatory mechanism I've got at my disposal", going to provide the resources for an extreme makeover of say Southern Cross University (student body ~12,000) or say any university into an antipodean Wellesley College?
Or is the grand plan to have the public universities die the death of a thousand cuts and invite the private sector to create unisex Wellesleys with billion dollar endowments, student/staff ratios of 11.5 and research minded faculties.
In fact does Ms Bishop really care
what becomes of Australia's universities?