Higher education in Australia

I should probably be doing other things, like school work, but I'll blog about doing school work instead. Besides, I have a fairly good idea of how things are going to go in terms of the big essay thats due, so I'm not all that worried.

Anyway, here's my view of higher education in Australia. In general, its more independent then American college is, and that has its perks and its drawbacks.

In a typical class, you'll have one lecture and one tutorial (discussion) a week per class. So, you're in class for eight to ten hours a week. Most people get Friday off, and if you're awesome like I am, you get Monday off as well. There's something like sixteen weeks in a semester, so I'll go to Uni for about 48 days...probably closer to 45 with public holidays.

At least at UC, a lot of the content is put up on WebCT. Now, we have WebCT in the states, but not to the degree that its used here. Lecture notes get posted, lectures are streamed, and the professor will interact with students on the forums. Does this happen in the States? For some classes, yes. This has happened in all four of my classes here. Given that at SIU, a lot of courses don't even use WebCT, I found this to be interesting.

As far as grades go, you basically get three shots at grades. Tutorial participation, an essay, and then a final exam. Some courses do give out homework, and there are weekly readings, but that hasn't happened in my courses, or at least the weekly readings isn't tested on.

Now, I come from the American education system who, if students had a motto, might be "Slack off to win." The professor isn't going to test you on your readings? Why am I reading it then? There are more important things to do, like video games and drinking. Maybe you do some readings, but if there isn't a sense of urgency around it, people don't bother.

Here, you're on your own for the most part. And if you don't do the readings, it doesn't hurt you now but it probably will later on. I'm starting to realize this. To me, its hard to get into the flow of my classes because I'm used to having homework and things due every week or so. Here, that sort of thing doesn't happen and what I did normally back in the states doesn't work here.

The moral of the story: if you study abroad, do the readings!

That said, I'm pretty good at studying at the last minute and doing school work under pressure. So, two points to me.

After essays I turned in and tutorials are done its time for final exams. This is going on in the states now, and I remember this week to be actually fairly relaxing with a few bursts of stress when I would take tests. I'm sure others have a different version of Finals Week (one that includes no sleep and/or pulling of hair).

Here's a great alternative: spread out finals over three weeks. Thats what they do here. All the finals take place at the gym, and so they have to spread them out over three weeks. Why do they do this? I don't have a clue. Its possibly the most inefficiant way to run a finals schedule. Plus, they only do two tests a day, each one lasting two hours.

So basically...my final three weeks are going to be easy as pie. I'll study, do some sightseeing around Canberra, get around to posting about Vegemite. Those sort of things. I only have two exams in three weeks.

Considering I find exams to be low stress anyway...I can't wait for finals here. Three weeks of nothingness! Awesome.

To those back in the states, enjoy the exams. I'm enjoying Australia.

Alan