University of Adelaide flags course cuts - students silent

It is expected the University of Adelaide will narrow its research focus to its core strengths: Physical Sciences, Earth and Environmental Science, Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences and Medical and Health Sciences, to increase its international rankings which have been in the 200-400 range, depending on the assessment criteria.

The paper suggests the North Terrace sandstone will push to deliver online programs and to offer out-of-standard hours lectures with possible teaching on the weekends.

The University of Adelaide is facing some wicked problems as South Australia has a static domestic year 12 leaver population and all three local universities compete for students from a relatively small and closed pool of applicants.

The medium projects show the number of young children (0-4) born in SA is projected to stabilise at about 111,000 from 2026 onwards in accord with a decrease in the level of assumed net migration and fertility levels.

Andrew Stoler, the Executive Director at the Institute for International Trade at Adelaide University, said in a speech to SA business executives in 2010, that three universities vying for the same students was a recipe for disaster.

"We cannot say for sure what will happen to our important international student market, but three universities in South Australia won't prosper for long if they have to depend only on South Australian and international students for their primary enrolments… In my view, they need to develop specialties and be the best in Australia in these specialties," he said.

The former vice chancellor of UniSA, Professor Peter Hoj said, "We have to lift our sights to competing nationally and internationally, rather than having three universities incessantly trying to slice up a fixed cake," just before he left to take up the position of vice chancellor at the University of Queensland.

There is also the threat of more international universities establishing themselves in Adelaide over the next ten years.

Professor Bebbington said the university would embrace student-centred learning.

… the focus should no longer be on teaching (students don't teach), but must shift to learning (that is what they come to university to do). Learning outcomes are what matters and more teaching may only at times deliver more learning. More often that not, less teaching, not more, is what will deliver better learning outcomes, as students become active participants, rather then passive recipients, in their learning process.

Apart from the sophistry (students don't teach), by deleting courses, this necessarily concentrates student's interests around a mean of academic offerings, which the university considers important.

The last time students raised their voices in anger at the conservative North Terrace institution was over voluntary student unionism and before that, the war in Vietnam. Will course cuts rouse the students out of the Barr-Smith library? Only time will tell.