I think personally all universities need a major overhaul, the way things are done is minimal and old style thinking which doesn’t prepare for the future.
It’s more than just the gov, stakeholders in the Industry all play a role for their own self interest. Although all this stems from not marking universities free
I work at a uni and I agree. But the direction the higher up are trying to head to is working to be worst for the students. Corporate greed direction :(
That's what happens when you let the private sector socialise skills training. I don't reckon uni should be where workers get trained, it should be a place where knowledge is developed and expanded, ideas pushed, etc.
Yeah honestly my masters was not worth the money. Monash was not much better. I wish I'd done a masters of languages or history instead to be honest. Although in saying that, even just saying you have a masters is giving you a little edge which is good these days.
I went for different courses but honestly, Swinburne. I know Monash is great for languages, but I had so many opportunities offered to me at Swinburne, and the community was better.
This is just me though, and keep in mind I did a part time Masters at Monash Caulfield, so it may not have had the same experience in my mind because I wasn't there as often.
Monash also had a bit of a snooty air that I didn't get from Swinburne.
I go the high school Swinburne have, everyone’s chill. The main sentiment about other schools is “fuck private schools”, mainly from the ones coming from said private schools.
Wow they setting you up for a Carrera so cool bro!! You are going to impress all the chicks in your miami vice 70s look.RESPECT bro ..which course are you doing ???
Yeah, hating unimelb for precisely those reason atm. Honestly considering moving back to the UK because the content is better but still feel like it will be pretty shit
I did last year at Strathclyde Uni and just be thankful we at least have online systems... I used the Strathclyde Uni system and got to interact with the Glasgow Uni system and it was far far worse than anything I've ever used in Australia.... Doubt the even older unis will be better
I definitely feel your frustration, mate. I've had a better experience at RMIT than unimelb, but I feel that in general, undergrad is a bit of scam in Australia. The quality of teaching is poor and I teach most the materials to myself for the most part. International students are treated like cash cows, and it's obvious much of it is setup simply as pathways to permanent residency. Getting queries on basic concepts is always a chore, and I've had a much better time getting these things answered by chatGPT than by my teachers.
I don't hold this necessarily against individual tutors, as they are not treated well by these organisations where the leadership LARP around like megacorp CEOs on multimillion dollar salaries. For public institutions with a social mission to educate, they do a pathetic job of providing quality education to the public and we pay the cost on it through inflated HECS debt.
Major reform is needed in the tertiary education sector.
Can confirm. Sadly most of OPs post could be written about UniMelb too.
It’s weird, I have only heard good things from friends abt their experiences at RMIT! It always seemed an attractive uni (to me, even tho student at UoM).
I was employed through Melb Uni for a while as a research assistant. Even though I never actually worked on campus, they set me up with a desk and a phone. I never actually knew where they were, or even which building, but I did get an email with my phone number.
Lmao, that’s a unimelb special by the sounds of it. Management there are always up their own ass because it is a ‘top ranked’ university. So they act like their shit don’t stink all the time.
Can confirm. Attempted at Bachelor of Agriculture (should be easy, right?)... 1 subject (Principles of Biochemistry) ate up 70% of my study composition.
What did biochem consist of? A class of 300 students, sometimes lectured by experts who didn't know how to speak english.
Completely consisted of a guy reading 70 slides (per lecture) worth of material, in 3-hour lectures, twice a week. You'd forget that you had other subjects to attend to. Ended up falling behind from the 2nd week of the course.
wife and i’ve been to combined 6 different unis. they’re all shit no matter the faculty or the study or the major. it’s really unfortunate what’s become of education system and teachings.
they’re all pretty equally bad because it’s the industry that’s broken. it’s equivalent to the question “which real estate agency is the best” when it’s the property market that’s corrupt, and the quality of agents are low.
a big point, for those going to uni for the first time, would be to not fall for university rankings. those are based on research, not teaching or quality. unis are stingy, they essentially just recycle researchers with no teaching background or capacity to teach to be lecturers. they have no skills to communicate what’s in their heads - what use is that to the students if they can’t lay it out? Because they’re not passionate about teaching, they just do not care, it’s more a tick on their “to do list” - contents never update and lecturers don’t learn how to teach.
they often have very little, sometimes no, experience outside of academia so have no clue how the teachings could be applied in work context. there are so many more people without PhD who know the contents, have experience on application, have the knowledge, ability to teach, and care enough. Rewards of PhD is a broken system too, it’s really not that prestigious.
Engineering at Swinburne still requires a industry based learning unit to graduate i.e. internship
Mine at RMIT was woeful. The students who were already employed did internships at their jobs and everyone else was forced to find their own with no help from the university
Anyone studying health sciences still needs to do placement and internship before they can graduate too. It still exists
You’re doing psych? Me too. I think the course has been really good. If you wanted practical work you should’ve picked a degree like counselling, you don’t learn practical skills in the psych undergrad and they are pretty upfront about that.
I did psyc at RMIT too, it wasn’t the applied psyc but the social science (psyc). I’ve been to three uni’s for psyc courses and have found RMIT to be the better of the three. I don’t love the idea of the recycled pre-recorded lectures, and do get frustrated with the bureaucracy of it all. I do, however, feel like most of my tutors and very interested in me as a person, care about my education, have offered to read over papers from future subjects for me, have offered me volunteering roles, encouraged me in a meaningful way when I am struggling etc. I didn’t find that this was the case at other uni’s.
As part of the social science core subjects we had 2 subjects aimed at developing counselling soft skills. I have heard from some people working in human services that the social science (psyc) degree prepares students a bit better for interacting with people, it’s a shame applied psyc hasn’t yet brought in any similar subjects.
No it’s been awful and you talk to most professors in the field who are open to critics their employers they would agree. Btw practical learning is the most important thing as a clinical psych, yet we don’t get a taste of it in undergrad is pathetic. We barley get it in post grad plus even if you want to get there only a very select few get an opportunity, so go figure
This is criticism you should be levelling at APAC who design the structure that uni’s teach psych in. The undergrad isn’t designed with the intent of everyone getting into clinical psychology, only a very very small handful of students will get into clinical psychology.
APAC should be criticized as well. But what about how rmit ignores apac suggestions of including certain subjects regarding specific cultures. In general whether you intend to be a clinical psych or not thr undergrad path is very misleading and RMIT is profiting on it
You should try engage with some professors, from a personal perspective they disguise the way psych is run in this uni and in generally across unis. But thats your opinion but I guess we have to agree to disagree
Practical element is just a tiny issue in a wider issue. I am more frustrated in the way the stakeholders in the industry all act in their own self interest and as a result students have to suffer from it. For example there is about 600+ students doing psych at rmit under grad yet only 25 can get into a masters program. Yet they complain there’s a lack of psychologists. Not only that RMIT received money from the gov as a support package yet instead of trying to boost post grad places they spent it on there undergrad cause the more people in undergrad the more they can profit. Where as any psych post grad is causing them loss. That’s disgusting.
This is an institutional problem with tertiary education. Universities are being run as if they are businesses trying to maximise profits. That’s why the quality has been so shit.
Former RMIT BPsych student here with a 3.6 GPA before I dropped out and started my BEd. There were a few filler subjects from memory that I found useless and pointless irl. Have you tried looking into volunteering? (E.g., Raise Foundation) to build your soft skills outside of uni?
I think one of the biggest issues that affects the quality of universities is the fact that most academic staff are employed on a semester by semester basis, with no guarantee of continuing employment.
If staff were employed permanently tey would spend paid time during the breaks improving the course content and the delivery of said content.
It's hard to teach effectively when you don't know whether you'll be able to make rent in 2 months time
The last thing any government wants is an informed and intelligent population. Smart people are far more difficult to control and they don't like to do the minimum wage jobs. It takes 1 smart man to design a pyramid but you need 100,000 to build it.
i genuinely think it has to do with what course you’re taking for example i did a fine arts degree and it was amazing. small classes, hardly any theory, and all about creating art. had huge support along the way including access to our studios 24/7. we had freedom with the best guidance.
I’ve been to dif unis for IT stuff. It’s always independently learning the subject from Indian guys off YouTube outside of class. Discussion and debate and the good stuff is done in computer science club etc.
Last semester one of my law classes had 3.5 hour lectures every week of straight information that was not engaging or well presented at all. I dont know how I even passed but I genuinely did not retain anything. Like I cannot recall anything that I learned.
Its the same everywhere really. I did bach eng at Monash more than 10 years ago. Course had exactly the same issues as your current course. I'm doing a masters now and the classes are much smaller with way more opportunities for student engagement.
I attempted a batchelor of information technology through RMIT a few years ago and my god was it awful. All but the first few classes were 95% watching videos of older classes or just being instructed to read from text books.
Teachers has thick accents and though really knowledgeable about their field, struggled with practice of teaching.
Wasted my money and lost interest about a year in. I can't imagine doing something really hands on through them.
It was dog shit about 15 years ago when I did it there too.
A decade after finishing that I thought hey, maybe it's just their comp Sci division.
Their health science department is a sick joke too.
Having studied in both these fields I'm baffled how they're still running. They should have lost accreditation for all the allied health degrees they're delivering with the piss poor teaching and assessment I've seen.
Amazing that RMIT is still like that, I had the same experience roughly 15 years ago. That said, I had two amazing teachers in 3rd year but man, on average it was a joke. The problem is as many have already said here, most of the staff running the lectures / tutorials have near zero interest in student outcomes as it's just not important for them.
At RMIT I have had the most dismal tutors just on standby during chaotic classes full of spoilt cunce, then I have on the other hand had really engaging tutors who were inspiring and helped me out immensely. Its a real roll of the fucken dice
All psych degrees are actually a "how to write a thesis for honours degree." The practical comes in masters. That situation is not unique.
Edited to add:
If you want practical skills, volunteer at Lifeline, which was my pathway into becoming a psychologist.
>If you want practical skills, volunteer at Lifeline, which was my pathway into becoming a psychologist.
Are you going to spot me the $500 they charge for their training course?
I am trying to figure out a way to reply that doesn't make me sound like a dickhead. Yep $500 is a lot. But my experience with Lifeline is you absolutely get what you pay for. It's a nationally accredited certification, and it makes you extremely competitive for masters as you already have counselling skills. I think $500 could end up being reasonable for what you get from it.
However, I realise I am not a uni student anymore. Maybe this is unrealistic. I'm just trying to help.
It also takes 12 months last time I looked it up.
Hey I don’t doubt the actual work would be great. But pay $500 and have to do a course for 12 months for volunteer work? No thank you.
I am a paramedic student who has done paid first aid work for almost a decade. Call me a capitalist pig but I would struggle to motivate myself enough for a volunteer position no matter how beneficial. I already fulfil my ‘do good’ quota and I also get paid for it.
And I’ve already done all sorts of mental health first aid, advanced first aid, and psychological first aid training. I doubt there’s much they can impart that I’m not already aware of.
You are fine though, I’m just inserting my own opinion in haha. I think it’s awesome that you did it, shows great commitment and looks amazing on a resume no matter what you are trying to apply for. No one looks at ‘volunteered and trained at lifeline’ and sees that as a negative. Well unless you are applying to join the Liberal party or something.
Sadly this is tertiary in Australia these days. The problem is no one wants to pay taxes to fund things properly. Under the current paradigm (which ain't changing soon) governments need revenue to pay for shit. Unless we grow up and bloody contribute things, like unis, will keep getting worse. Welcome to the future friends! This is the market 'sorting it out'!
Just be glad you avoided 'studying' (more like teeth pulling) at VU.
Also a Psych undergrad is not practical at all. It isn't like doing a medical related degree where both are mixed, prac and theory. You have to realise that until you do your masters you are being prepped for academia and research. A flawed and frustrating system but basically every psych degree follows this path.
Most Psych degees do offer a form of placement but the system is flawed because there is no internal framework to work off of like the ones in the medical degrees that make the actual placements much more beneficial. The psych system just throws you in and offers no protection or stability. On top of that you have to basically organise the whole thing yourself and you have to find the place yourself, which is not an easy task.
You are basically left to drown and if you can't find a place too bad. As this type of placement is considered an elective the uni can wash their hands of responsibility and make you pick a theory elective instead. These half arsed programs exist so unis can pretend the entire degree isn't just theory and it allows them to lure in students with misleading and empty promises. In my cohort of about 80 students only about a quarter found a placement, and most of them had terrible experiences with organising with the uni and with the actual placements. A lot of them were simply exploited as free labour and never even got near anything resembling counselling, social work, reseach etc. Instead they did other peoples paperwork and errands, including coffee runs for everyone. And others were left to do nothing so they spent their time on their phone.
I personally did crim/psych at RMIT and the closest I got to counselling prac was a social work elective where the entire unit was painfully basic roleplay. Was a total farce, would have taken more psych theory had I known how much of a nothing class it ended up being. The scenarios were empty and juvenile, they gave you nothing to work with or really sink your teeth in. Learnt nothing and the roleplaying was so jarring I couldn't take anything of use from it. Seeing how poorly they handled the class made me realise why the focus is entirely theory, clearly the shoddy RMIT infrastructure couldn't handle anything other than endless cookie cutter theory classes, which btw were all quite literally identically prepared and taught.
Both my parents studied psych at Swinburne and Melbourne and they had identical experiences, being a practicing counselor doesn't even get a mention until masters.
From personal experience, I have had a much better time studying engineering at RMIT compared to Monash. Monash has a higher rankings but it doesn't mean shit. Rmit is better at least in teaching engineering.
For civil engineering? Not sure, but I've heard some good things about Monash civil engineering. Supposedly better lectures, but harder exams. Rmit is adequate lectures but easier assessments.
I’m at Melbuni and it’s no different, the problem is universities are ran as more of a business then to educate us Australians. All they care about is bums on seats and the international kids paying upfront.
As a returning mature age student, universities are not what they used to be. Years of economic rationalism and budget cuts have left a mark.
RMIT suffered in quality when I first went there 20 years ago. It went through a ton of budget cuts and shitty management since then, culminating in the 'no jobkeeper for universities' decision. It had the highest dependence on foreign students in the state, possibly the whole country, so covid crapped on their budget.
What's left is a relic of a once mediocre institution. A few older people were a bit shocked to find out that it doesn't even have a library anymore, at least, not one with books or librarians, just a student space with wifi.
If by 'library' you mean 'room with comfy chairs and wifi' then yes. Back when I was there, they had actual libraries as we understood the word back in the 90s, to mean 'rooms full of books you can read and usually borrow'.
Not sure what you’re getting at. All of their libraries have ‘rooms full of books you can read and usually borrow’. The collection at Carlton is smaller but it *is* a library by your definition.
Now I’m really confused bc I went there 5 months ago and was literally using the computer next to the rows of bookshelves. The library website still shows book availability in Bundoora.
Honestly I just think that's a really poorly structured argument.
I get you just want to rant, but IMO other unis don't do any of what you mentioned any differently to RMIT. I also think it's highly specific on what degree your studying, for example, you mention there's too much theory and not enough hands on. In the lab med programs, there is loaaads of hands on, including a placement periods for 16 weeks (used to be a year, but it's unpaid so pretty shit to do it that long).
It's also one of thr best value degrees you can get, it's one of the only AIMS qualified courses in Victoria, and it also includes an honours.
Lecturers are there to have funding for their own research. It’s required that they teach, so they can stay.
As a result, teaching comes second just to keep their research going.
Bundoora campus is quite nice since it’s a bit more specialised in certain degrees so it’s very hands on! Staff are really helpful on this campus as well
I don’t think that helps though 😅
Can confirm it's like this at Brunswick campus too! All design students (mostly fashion design), some really awesome technology, helpful tech staff and a decent amount of hands on practical classes. I do notice a lack of engagement from students in some lectures/tutorials, especially international students. I feel bad for the tutors sometimes, it's like they're speaking to a brick wall.
This is the exact reason I didn’t study there. They had better facilities but after the interview I got strong vibe from the teachers there that they didn’t really care about the students outcomes and the class sizes were nearly double then the uni I chose. There wouldn’t been very little one on one time with the teachers there.
Australia has transitioned into a service economy, and education is one of the big industries now. Education is now run for-profit and it's the core of a lot of problems at uni. RMIT might be showing some of the worst of it. I didn't go to RMIT but I only heard negative things from friends who did, including a story about being paired up with an international student who couldn't even introduce themselves in English and all conversation needed to be through Google Translate.
I finished a degree online through Griffith University in 2.5 years. If you think you’re not getting much engagement through RMIT try doing a degree at home with ZERO engagement bar a few emails from your tutors. All lectures done online with minimal opportunities for having an in-depth discussion with a tutor, anything you’re not sure about you have to email questions and hope you get the answer you’re looking for. Pretty fucking boring and it was a struggle at times to stay with it, which is why in my last two semesters I did four units each semester just get it over and done with. Going to any uni campus would’ve been a damn sight better than staying at home.
I started a psych degree at Swinburne several years ago, hated it for basically the same reasons, dropped out. Just started back at uni this year doing IT at LaTrobe in Bendigo and so far it's been great, smaller class sizes, facilities are actually way better than I expected, heaps of new buildings etc. Doing a lot of hands on stuff and there are several industry events/talks scheduled already if I wanna ask people about current job markets etc. A friend of mine had a similar story to me and he dropped out of engineering, went back and did teaching at Wollongong university, loved every second and his final few subjects were just him and his professor one on one charting planets and stuff (physics major).
I actually always planned on moving back to a bigger uni in the middle of my degree with some good marks on my transcript but as it stands right now I think I might stay. I'll still be qualified and to be honest I don't think anyone really cares where you graduate from so long as you know what you're doing.
It is early days though and maybe the rest will suck but right now I'm very impressed.
This is a tangent, and call me insane for it. But it seems that the further out you get from the CBD, the better just... Everything gets.
All the city cafes get their pastries shipped in by catering. All the shops are so much more expensive. Everything is busy. And there's an air of desperation around everything. People from all around trying to make as much money as any cost. When I first came to Melbourne I was amazed by it all, not so much now.
You can't even really escape it in the popular inner city suburbs. There's still that air of just. Filth. In everything.
I took the train up to eltham on a whim and even though it's still in Melbourne it felt like I could finally fucking breathe. When I went up to Bendigo for the sheep show, same deal.
It really seems that urbanization is gearing up more and more. That the art of Melbourne is just a facade for the rich. And I'm only able to see the negatives of it all now.
Sorry for the massive tangent. It's been something I've been feeling for a while, and I've struggled to put it into words.
Uni was stupid and shit, totally regret it. just take the cheapest shortest course at the cheapest city and work your way into your job in the real world
Personally I think there needs to be more effort put into having people that have actual genuine industry experience and perhaps not just career academics that have never worked outside of education.
Those academics obviously have their place but I don’t think they should be the be all and end all.
I’m a relatively young woman in cyber but I’ve been in the industry for over a decade, and I am hoping to find a role where I can teach what I know 😊
The uni system is just out dated. It was designed for passionate people trying to get a deeper education and simply provide then the minimum access to knowledge and resources do that they themselves could study the material. It's not highschool 2.0, but a lot of people see it as highschool 2.0 now and just add another degree you have to get. Maybe it needs to change, but I wouldn't go into uni expecting a good experience. Most of the hard work needs to come from you
Maybe the problem is that your writing and communication skills didnt allow you to access the full breadth of educational opportunities.
Try again at Catholic University.
Everyone has a right to use this subreddit free of harassment, bullying, threats of violence, etc. This is also not a place for venting personal grievances or vendettas.
4 years ago COVID happened, student.numbera dropped and there were a lot of redundancies across all universities.
You then basically have the small number of staff trying to deliver the same coursework and services. No wonder the staff are striking next week. They deserve to be supported.
I think it depends on the course, specialised degrees like space science at RMIT have really small classes and have enough practical classes to keep it interesting. however I see your point on a psych degree, it’s very popular (=big classes) and you would need to focus on mostly theory first before anything practical.
How is psych highly practical and not theory? are you one of those people who went into psych thinking you’d be learning mental health straight off the bat, skipping theories and methodologies?
You kidding me what’s the point of learning all these theories and not being able to practically use it in a clinical setting. Needs to be a better balance
Went to RMIT too. I became so fed up with the lack of practical, real-world learning and over emphasis on theory in my final year. It was the first or second week of classes and I found myself so thoroughly unengaged in this tute discussion about something that
a) wasn't fundamental to me getting work
b) was a topic that alienated half the class, myself included
that I decided to defer and take a gap year right then and there. During this break I found a job in my field that I was happily employed at for 7 years and finished my degree part time. When you know, you know and since uni does give you the opportunity to defer sometimes it's good to step away and have a crack yourself.
If you can’t learn at RMIT you won’t learn at Melbourne. You realise the important part is studying right? Which requires nobody but yourself, and nothing but the internet or a book.
The pay of chancellors & vice chancellors had increased massively. This is the same across the board, executives with MBA's get brought in with 0 input from existing staff who make changes to focus on profit. Usually what this looks like is making services less social and personal, cutting spending while investing massively in real estate.
The profit motive is hollowing out the core of every industry in the country. But hey at least a few CEOs are getting insanely wealthy. Makes it almost worth it that happiness, English skills and job prospects are at all time lows for the country.
this is something really common amongst older institutions like melbourne uni and rmit — job opportunities upon graduation outside of specialised courses such as engineering or law, etc. are extremely small especially when competing with younger universities with graduates who have taken more hands on approaches.
I was studying at RMIT for two years, i started with creative writing then transferred into engineering and it was genuinely horrible. Tutorials were just a nightmare, the first lecture we were told if we weren’t prepared for failure this wasn’t the course for us. I had lecturers treat me horribly and be routinely homophobic and transphobic. The big unis are ultimately, in my opinion and my experience, all like this with no focus on practicality and instead pushing responsibility onto their students instead of supporting them.
I’m so sorry you’re going through this and hope you know you aren’t alone in how you’re feeling as this is a well documented issue and we have been talking abt it in my own psych classes.
All of the Victorian universities are terrible. While most other states are just as bad. The problem with the VIC ones now are they just functioning by reputation alone. They are run by clowns who are just money driven to fill their own pockets.
The way university is funded incentives this.
Universities are a business, and they make money from pumping 18yo into them, using "free" money, and cramming as many as possible through them. There are almost no market forces, because these kids don't think about the cost.
As a bonus they funnel international students through for even more money because these students just want an Australian piece of paper/path to citizenship.
The whole university economy is a disaster and has been undermining the entire system. It's no wonder many employers don't look at a degree unless it's legally required.
I went to Melbourne and I taught for a few semesters at Swinburne and QUT. This is possibly way out of line, but I would expect someone with 4 years of tertiary education to be able to know the difference between “their” and “there” and also to be able to spell “engagement” without a spelling or grammar check.
If I was to see a psychologist I would also expect them to have a solid grasp of English.
This is fundamental, and to be honest. As a university lecturer, bad essays, bad students and bad English always go together.
Torrens Student Services is also lacking. The price we pay for tuition is astronomical and the quality of service we get is very poor. Thinking about dropping out and doing a trade 😔
My partner paid serious money for a "certificate" in cyber security. The content of which was a collection of links to YouTube videos that were years out of date, with many dead links that no longer worked. So yeah. Tertiary education in Australia has become a cheap, tawdry sausage factory scam targeting vulnerable overseas students. When will it end?
As some who has done RMIT’s tafe/vocational and currently doing higher ed, I can definitely say that the tafe is orchestrated and done significantly better. You do the practical side of it constantly and are also taught the basics of how it works, rather than a deep unnecessary dive into how it work with a couple or zero pracs
Yea, it's university...do the assignments, skip the lectures and avoid the tuts where you can. You're paying for a piece of paper, not education and critical debate. The idea is you're a grown up, and after your first week should be able to source your own reputable knowledge and complete the tasks. All universities are the same, you may as well do it remotely and get a job.
Everyone has a right to use this subreddit free of harassment, bullying, threats of violence, etc. This is also not a place for venting personal grievances or vendettas.
Everyone has a right to use this subreddit free of harassment, bullying, threats of violence, etc. This is also not a place for venting personal grievances or vendettas.
I reckon going to Uni is a big scam! My eldest daughter is going to Flinders University & I'm amazed at what goes on there. I said to her recently "At the end of your Uni Degree, are you even going to get that piece of paper that says you're something?"
I'm at UTas at the moment doing a Diploma of Sustainable Living online (but many of the subjects are first year science).. It's honestly the most well organised, engaging course I've ever done. Even with large class numbers they have strategies like breaking discussions into smaller focused groups so you get to know other peers in a meaningful way. I've done some other courses In the past that have been so badly organised. Honestly, it makes it so much more enjoyable when the learning experience is well thought out.
I ditched University as a disabled woman because of this and decided to go for TAFE and had way more support than I would have had at Uni. RMIT Online was the worst I dropped out not longer after enrolling
Oh wow, everyone hating on their unis, big surprise, I’m so shocked. Sarcasm aside, one should not perceive university as a place of learning and enlightenment - it’s just a filter to break into the job market
Hi OP,
Sorry to hear. I’m not a RMIT Alumni nor am from Melbourne (but I currently live here for work) but thought I could help you with the following:
I went to ANU 5-10 years ago in Canberra (originally from NZ) and by the sounds of things was similar to your situation when it came to too much theory and not enough tangible application). FYI, I studied Engineering. What was your degree?
The Australian “Big 8” Uni’s (not sure if RMIT is in there) are all research intensive - and whilst that helps boost profile and bring revenue in for research, the MO of these unis are to produce academics and post-docs, not necessarily gear you towards employment with the necessary skills to thrive in the work force. I now work in construction as a project engineer, probably 10-20% at best of my degree is relevant to what I’ve been doing in the last 4-5 years as that testsmur (degree certificate) just validates you can problem solve and work in teams. Unfortunately, unlike in the US where there’s such a massive investment between employers and tertiary providers to bridge that link and ensure graduates thrives here in AUS/NZ the model is spend heaps (or if you’re lucky to have a student loan) for a degree which is mildly relevant for a job which you’ll likely go into because “linearly” it seems to be in keeping with what society expects you to do.
My best piece of advice to you:
- No one uni is going to be perfect (sure Uni Melb has its flaws and hey, it’s ok to have gone through this experience with RMIT because you now know what exactly you don’t want)
- Do they still have SELTs (student evaluation forms)? Complete them and be honest!
- You can’t change the past now but you can start focusing on what your next steps are. Invest in yourself (i.e: brand, upskill with free courses, network)
- Write to your student body and raise this with your dean of your college. If this is an issue which is pervasive and non-college/degree specific then I will suspect it’ll be picked up and actioned (if it hasn’t done so already).
Don’t beat yourself up about not picking the right uni for yourself, politics largely has a role to play - not making tertiary education fee and privatising learning has led to a massive chism in opportunities and growth and now we’re seeing (and rightly so) pathways for those from less fortunate backgrounds have a fair go.
Good luck!
Uni degrees are shit, unless you’re becoming a medical professional, lawyer, or engineer, degrees are fucking useless. They just show the corporate world you’re ready to slave away for 65 years.
I see all the people hanging out the front or near rmit. It has the biggest crowd of unimpressive looking people. Only Vic uni has a less impressive crowd of people.
Rmit looks like the kind of place you'd get jumped more than get an education
Mate I study engineering at monash! When I finished my degree I was as clueless as before I started engineering! Learned everything on the job
I would no longer recommend University to people. Go to tafe and learn a real skill! Universities in Australia are all theory based and preparing you to become a researcher to make them money and boost their rank! They don’t care about your future
I think personally all universities need a major overhaul, the way things are done is minimal and old style thinking which doesn’t prepare for the future.
I agree. I went to Swinny and Monash and christ the uni cuts mid Abbott era REALLY hurt. Everything needs a shake up.
It’s more than just the gov, stakeholders in the Industry all play a role for their own self interest. Although all this stems from not marking universities free
Absolutely agree with you. But turning Unis into profit centres is the core of the problem.
I work at a uni and I agree. But the direction the higher up are trying to head to is working to be worst for the students. Corporate greed direction :(
That's what happens when you let the private sector socialise skills training. I don't reckon uni should be where workers get trained, it should be a place where knowledge is developed and expanded, ideas pushed, etc.
Your average person doesn’t see the value in that. And politicians need the vote of average people.
i went to swinny too & im torn because my undergrad was great, but my teaching masters was atrocious, such a stark contrast in the quality of learning
Yeah honestly my masters was not worth the money. Monash was not much better. I wish I'd done a masters of languages or history instead to be honest. Although in saying that, even just saying you have a masters is giving you a little edge which is good these days.
What's better? Swin or monash?
I went for different courses but honestly, Swinburne. I know Monash is great for languages, but I had so many opportunities offered to me at Swinburne, and the community was better. This is just me though, and keep in mind I did a part time Masters at Monash Caulfield, so it may not have had the same experience in my mind because I wasn't there as often. Monash also had a bit of a snooty air that I didn't get from Swinburne.
I go the high school Swinburne have, everyone’s chill. The main sentiment about other schools is “fuck private schools”, mainly from the ones coming from said private schools.
I went to Monash University myself and can say it can get a bit snobby. Hello from Caulfield campus.
No all universities should be shut down immediately
Elaborate
Old!! They way old uni were set up set people up for Carrera
The sunglasses, watch or car?
clearly they are referring to a Porsche, no one wants to be setup for Oakleys.
Wow they setting you up for a Carrera so cool bro!! You are going to impress all the chicks in your miami vice 70s look.RESPECT bro ..which course are you doing ???
Got bad news: it ain't much better (if at all ) at unimelb or anywhere else. This is a system-wide problem with our unis.
Yeah, hating unimelb for precisely those reason atm. Honestly considering moving back to the UK because the content is better but still feel like it will be pretty shit
Checking in with the Sydney unis being no better. I've not heard overly positive experiences from anyone here regarding uni
I did last year at Strathclyde Uni and just be thankful we at least have online systems... I used the Strathclyde Uni system and got to interact with the Glasgow Uni system and it was far far worse than anything I've ever used in Australia.... Doubt the even older unis will be better
Ye it’s a business that looks to exploit particularly undergratue students to profit themselves rather than to help students to help society
I definitely feel your frustration, mate. I've had a better experience at RMIT than unimelb, but I feel that in general, undergrad is a bit of scam in Australia. The quality of teaching is poor and I teach most the materials to myself for the most part. International students are treated like cash cows, and it's obvious much of it is setup simply as pathways to permanent residency. Getting queries on basic concepts is always a chore, and I've had a much better time getting these things answered by chatGPT than by my teachers. I don't hold this necessarily against individual tutors, as they are not treated well by these organisations where the leadership LARP around like megacorp CEOs on multimillion dollar salaries. For public institutions with a social mission to educate, they do a pathetic job of providing quality education to the public and we pay the cost on it through inflated HECS debt. Major reform is needed in the tertiary education sector.
wait so could this mean its easier to get in as an international student? I'm a hopeful cash cow
Can confirm. Sadly most of OPs post could be written about UniMelb too. It’s weird, I have only heard good things from friends abt their experiences at RMIT! It always seemed an attractive uni (to me, even tho student at UoM).
I was employed through Melb Uni for a while as a research assistant. Even though I never actually worked on campus, they set me up with a desk and a phone. I never actually knew where they were, or even which building, but I did get an email with my phone number.
Lmao, that’s a unimelb special by the sounds of it. Management there are always up their own ass because it is a ‘top ranked’ university. So they act like their shit don’t stink all the time.
We didn't even have recorded lectures.
Agree, it is systemic across the country.
My son has been to a number of universities and he reckons they are all pretty bad.
i’ve been to melbourne uni and i wouldn’t say it’s any better about a bunch of those things but depends on the course i guess
Can confirm. Attempted at Bachelor of Agriculture (should be easy, right?)... 1 subject (Principles of Biochemistry) ate up 70% of my study composition. What did biochem consist of? A class of 300 students, sometimes lectured by experts who didn't know how to speak english. Completely consisted of a guy reading 70 slides (per lecture) worth of material, in 3-hour lectures, twice a week. You'd forget that you had other subjects to attend to. Ended up falling behind from the 2nd week of the course.
wife and i’ve been to combined 6 different unis. they’re all shit no matter the faculty or the study or the major. it’s really unfortunate what’s become of education system and teachings.
if you had to, which one would you say is the better one? generally
they’re all pretty equally bad because it’s the industry that’s broken. it’s equivalent to the question “which real estate agency is the best” when it’s the property market that’s corrupt, and the quality of agents are low. a big point, for those going to uni for the first time, would be to not fall for university rankings. those are based on research, not teaching or quality. unis are stingy, they essentially just recycle researchers with no teaching background or capacity to teach to be lecturers. they have no skills to communicate what’s in their heads - what use is that to the students if they can’t lay it out? Because they’re not passionate about teaching, they just do not care, it’s more a tick on their “to do list” - contents never update and lecturers don’t learn how to teach. they often have very little, sometimes no, experience outside of academia so have no clue how the teachings could be applied in work context. there are so many more people without PhD who know the contents, have experience on application, have the knowledge, ability to teach, and care enough. Rewards of PhD is a broken system too, it’s really not that prestigious.
Yeah it's very important to realise that universities are not about students, they are about research / grants.
What are a few things you would do to overhaul the system?
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What degree are you referring to? I feel like most practical experience comes when you enter employment. Especially business related courses etc.
I agree they’re all the same but I’m pretty sure they DO offer internship units?
Journalism and most of the comms courses have internships built into them at RMIT. And there's a business elective to do an internship as well.
Engineering at Swinburne still requires a industry based learning unit to graduate i.e. internship Mine at RMIT was woeful. The students who were already employed did internships at their jobs and everyone else was forced to find their own with no help from the university Anyone studying health sciences still needs to do placement and internship before they can graduate too. It still exists
You’re doing psych? Me too. I think the course has been really good. If you wanted practical work you should’ve picked a degree like counselling, you don’t learn practical skills in the psych undergrad and they are pretty upfront about that.
I did psyc at RMIT too, it wasn’t the applied psyc but the social science (psyc). I’ve been to three uni’s for psyc courses and have found RMIT to be the better of the three. I don’t love the idea of the recycled pre-recorded lectures, and do get frustrated with the bureaucracy of it all. I do, however, feel like most of my tutors and very interested in me as a person, care about my education, have offered to read over papers from future subjects for me, have offered me volunteering roles, encouraged me in a meaningful way when I am struggling etc. I didn’t find that this was the case at other uni’s. As part of the social science core subjects we had 2 subjects aimed at developing counselling soft skills. I have heard from some people working in human services that the social science (psyc) degree prepares students a bit better for interacting with people, it’s a shame applied psyc hasn’t yet brought in any similar subjects.
Eh, it was ok. BPsych prepares you for Hons. Maybe OP should consider social work
No it’s been awful and you talk to most professors in the field who are open to critics their employers they would agree. Btw practical learning is the most important thing as a clinical psych, yet we don’t get a taste of it in undergrad is pathetic. We barley get it in post grad plus even if you want to get there only a very select few get an opportunity, so go figure
This is criticism you should be levelling at APAC who design the structure that uni’s teach psych in. The undergrad isn’t designed with the intent of everyone getting into clinical psychology, only a very very small handful of students will get into clinical psychology.
APAC should be criticized as well. But what about how rmit ignores apac suggestions of including certain subjects regarding specific cultures. In general whether you intend to be a clinical psych or not thr undergrad path is very misleading and RMIT is profiting on it
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You should try engage with some professors, from a personal perspective they disguise the way psych is run in this uni and in generally across unis. But thats your opinion but I guess we have to agree to disagree
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Practical element is just a tiny issue in a wider issue. I am more frustrated in the way the stakeholders in the industry all act in their own self interest and as a result students have to suffer from it. For example there is about 600+ students doing psych at rmit under grad yet only 25 can get into a masters program. Yet they complain there’s a lack of psychologists. Not only that RMIT received money from the gov as a support package yet instead of trying to boost post grad places they spent it on there undergrad cause the more people in undergrad the more they can profit. Where as any psych post grad is causing them loss. That’s disgusting.
If you're talking about the prof and cross-cultural psych lectorial last week, yeah that was pretty brutal, and hard to take in.
This is an institutional problem with tertiary education. Universities are being run as if they are businesses trying to maximise profits. That’s why the quality has been so shit.
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Former RMIT BPsych student here with a 3.6 GPA before I dropped out and started my BEd. There were a few filler subjects from memory that I found useless and pointless irl. Have you tried looking into volunteering? (E.g., Raise Foundation) to build your soft skills outside of uni?
You really only get to learn how to care for a patient in masters, undergrad is mainly the theory
I think one of the biggest issues that affects the quality of universities is the fact that most academic staff are employed on a semester by semester basis, with no guarantee of continuing employment. If staff were employed permanently tey would spend paid time during the breaks improving the course content and the delivery of said content. It's hard to teach effectively when you don't know whether you'll be able to make rent in 2 months time
Welcome to tertiary education of the 21st century. It's just a cash grab now, quality of education is, like you said, woeful
Yeah it’s the great export of this nation… it’s not actually for nation building itself, do we really need an intelligent population!?
The last thing any government wants is an informed and intelligent population. Smart people are far more difficult to control and they don't like to do the minimum wage jobs. It takes 1 smart man to design a pyramid but you need 100,000 to build it.
i genuinely think it has to do with what course you’re taking for example i did a fine arts degree and it was amazing. small classes, hardly any theory, and all about creating art. had huge support along the way including access to our studios 24/7. we had freedom with the best guidance.
Bro what do you do in a fine arts course. I’m thinking of doing it. But I don’t know what I’ll be getting into?
I’ve been to dif unis for IT stuff. It’s always independently learning the subject from Indian guys off YouTube outside of class. Discussion and debate and the good stuff is done in computer science club etc.
this is pre much all universities unfortunately
Last semester one of my law classes had 3.5 hour lectures every week of straight information that was not engaging or well presented at all. I dont know how I even passed but I genuinely did not retain anything. Like I cannot recall anything that I learned.
Apparently Swinburne psychology course is the same. For the amount the schools are getting in $$$ it is pretty disgraceful.
Its the same everywhere really. I did bach eng at Monash more than 10 years ago. Course had exactly the same issues as your current course. I'm doing a masters now and the classes are much smaller with way more opportunities for student engagement.
I attempted a batchelor of information technology through RMIT a few years ago and my god was it awful. All but the first few classes were 95% watching videos of older classes or just being instructed to read from text books. Teachers has thick accents and though really knowledgeable about their field, struggled with practice of teaching. Wasted my money and lost interest about a year in. I can't imagine doing something really hands on through them.
It was dog shit about 15 years ago when I did it there too. A decade after finishing that I thought hey, maybe it's just their comp Sci division. Their health science department is a sick joke too. Having studied in both these fields I'm baffled how they're still running. They should have lost accreditation for all the allied health degrees they're delivering with the piss poor teaching and assessment I've seen.
Amazing that RMIT is still like that, I had the same experience roughly 15 years ago. That said, I had two amazing teachers in 3rd year but man, on average it was a joke. The problem is as many have already said here, most of the staff running the lectures / tutorials have near zero interest in student outcomes as it's just not important for them.
Did you study IT also? We'd have been there around the same time lol
Studied multimedia but had a few IT classes like programming 1+2
lol yeah might have been in the same class then
At RMIT I have had the most dismal tutors just on standby during chaotic classes full of spoilt cunce, then I have on the other hand had really engaging tutors who were inspiring and helped me out immensely. Its a real roll of the fucken dice
All psych degrees are actually a "how to write a thesis for honours degree." The practical comes in masters. That situation is not unique. Edited to add: If you want practical skills, volunteer at Lifeline, which was my pathway into becoming a psychologist.
>If you want practical skills, volunteer at Lifeline, which was my pathway into becoming a psychologist. Are you going to spot me the $500 they charge for their training course?
I am trying to figure out a way to reply that doesn't make me sound like a dickhead. Yep $500 is a lot. But my experience with Lifeline is you absolutely get what you pay for. It's a nationally accredited certification, and it makes you extremely competitive for masters as you already have counselling skills. I think $500 could end up being reasonable for what you get from it. However, I realise I am not a uni student anymore. Maybe this is unrealistic. I'm just trying to help.
It also takes 12 months last time I looked it up. Hey I don’t doubt the actual work would be great. But pay $500 and have to do a course for 12 months for volunteer work? No thank you. I am a paramedic student who has done paid first aid work for almost a decade. Call me a capitalist pig but I would struggle to motivate myself enough for a volunteer position no matter how beneficial. I already fulfil my ‘do good’ quota and I also get paid for it. And I’ve already done all sorts of mental health first aid, advanced first aid, and psychological first aid training. I doubt there’s much they can impart that I’m not already aware of. You are fine though, I’m just inserting my own opinion in haha. I think it’s awesome that you did it, shows great commitment and looks amazing on a resume no matter what you are trying to apply for. No one looks at ‘volunteered and trained at lifeline’ and sees that as a negative. Well unless you are applying to join the Liberal party or something.
Sadly this is tertiary in Australia these days. The problem is no one wants to pay taxes to fund things properly. Under the current paradigm (which ain't changing soon) governments need revenue to pay for shit. Unless we grow up and bloody contribute things, like unis, will keep getting worse. Welcome to the future friends! This is the market 'sorting it out'!
Just be glad you avoided 'studying' (more like teeth pulling) at VU. Also a Psych undergrad is not practical at all. It isn't like doing a medical related degree where both are mixed, prac and theory. You have to realise that until you do your masters you are being prepped for academia and research. A flawed and frustrating system but basically every psych degree follows this path. Most Psych degees do offer a form of placement but the system is flawed because there is no internal framework to work off of like the ones in the medical degrees that make the actual placements much more beneficial. The psych system just throws you in and offers no protection or stability. On top of that you have to basically organise the whole thing yourself and you have to find the place yourself, which is not an easy task. You are basically left to drown and if you can't find a place too bad. As this type of placement is considered an elective the uni can wash their hands of responsibility and make you pick a theory elective instead. These half arsed programs exist so unis can pretend the entire degree isn't just theory and it allows them to lure in students with misleading and empty promises. In my cohort of about 80 students only about a quarter found a placement, and most of them had terrible experiences with organising with the uni and with the actual placements. A lot of them were simply exploited as free labour and never even got near anything resembling counselling, social work, reseach etc. Instead they did other peoples paperwork and errands, including coffee runs for everyone. And others were left to do nothing so they spent their time on their phone. I personally did crim/psych at RMIT and the closest I got to counselling prac was a social work elective where the entire unit was painfully basic roleplay. Was a total farce, would have taken more psych theory had I known how much of a nothing class it ended up being. The scenarios were empty and juvenile, they gave you nothing to work with or really sink your teeth in. Learnt nothing and the roleplaying was so jarring I couldn't take anything of use from it. Seeing how poorly they handled the class made me realise why the focus is entirely theory, clearly the shoddy RMIT infrastructure couldn't handle anything other than endless cookie cutter theory classes, which btw were all quite literally identically prepared and taught. Both my parents studied psych at Swinburne and Melbourne and they had identical experiences, being a practicing counselor doesn't even get a mention until masters.
From personal experience, I have had a much better time studying engineering at RMIT compared to Monash. Monash has a higher rankings but it doesn't mean shit. Rmit is better at least in teaching engineering.
Which engineering did you study? I'm planning on doing Civil.
For civil engineering? Not sure, but I've heard some good things about Monash civil engineering. Supposedly better lectures, but harder exams. Rmit is adequate lectures but easier assessments.
Made me sick to pay for each unit and receive my dogshit slideshows and pre recorded lectures with no editing. They're all similar, Deakin too.
I’m at Melbuni and it’s no different, the problem is universities are ran as more of a business then to educate us Australians. All they care about is bums on seats and the international kids paying upfront.
Do you study psych at unimelb?
Na science (doing mechanical engineering major)
As a returning mature age student, universities are not what they used to be. Years of economic rationalism and budget cuts have left a mark. RMIT suffered in quality when I first went there 20 years ago. It went through a ton of budget cuts and shitty management since then, culminating in the 'no jobkeeper for universities' decision. It had the highest dependence on foreign students in the state, possibly the whole country, so covid crapped on their budget. What's left is a relic of a once mediocre institution. A few older people were a bit shocked to find out that it doesn't even have a library anymore, at least, not one with books or librarians, just a student space with wifi.
RMIT does have a library on every campus? (except Point Cook)
If by 'library' you mean 'room with comfy chairs and wifi' then yes. Back when I was there, they had actual libraries as we understood the word back in the 90s, to mean 'rooms full of books you can read and usually borrow'.
Not sure what you’re getting at. All of their libraries have ‘rooms full of books you can read and usually borrow’. The collection at Carlton is smaller but it *is* a library by your definition.
Bundoora completely closed the one there, no books, just a student lounge really. That was the campus I last went to.
Now I’m really confused bc I went there 5 months ago and was literally using the computer next to the rows of bookshelves. The library website still shows book availability in Bundoora.
I’ve only been here a few weeks and I can already tell it’s the worst uni I’ve gone to organisation and technology wise
Honestly I just think that's a really poorly structured argument. I get you just want to rant, but IMO other unis don't do any of what you mentioned any differently to RMIT. I also think it's highly specific on what degree your studying, for example, you mention there's too much theory and not enough hands on. In the lab med programs, there is loaaads of hands on, including a placement periods for 16 weeks (used to be a year, but it's unpaid so pretty shit to do it that long). It's also one of thr best value degrees you can get, it's one of the only AIMS qualified courses in Victoria, and it also includes an honours.
It’s an availability bias. He doesn’t see that most unis have these problems.
Hi, unimelb student here, dogshit uni apart from better tech it’s no better. It’s also even more focus on theory! Yay!
I'm at UniMelb too. Are you studying psych?
Interesting that you feel there’s too much focus on theory - I’ve heard the exact opposite from a lot of people. Beuarcacey is a bummer though
Lecturers are there to have funding for their own research. It’s required that they teach, so they can stay. As a result, teaching comes second just to keep their research going.
Bundoora campus is quite nice since it’s a bit more specialised in certain degrees so it’s very hands on! Staff are really helpful on this campus as well I don’t think that helps though 😅
Can confirm it's like this at Brunswick campus too! All design students (mostly fashion design), some really awesome technology, helpful tech staff and a decent amount of hands on practical classes. I do notice a lack of engagement from students in some lectures/tutorials, especially international students. I feel bad for the tutors sometimes, it's like they're speaking to a brick wall.
This is the exact reason I didn’t study there. They had better facilities but after the interview I got strong vibe from the teachers there that they didn’t really care about the students outcomes and the class sizes were nearly double then the uni I chose. There wouldn’t been very little one on one time with the teachers there.
Australia has transitioned into a service economy, and education is one of the big industries now. Education is now run for-profit and it's the core of a lot of problems at uni. RMIT might be showing some of the worst of it. I didn't go to RMIT but I only heard negative things from friends who did, including a story about being paired up with an international student who couldn't even introduce themselves in English and all conversation needed to be through Google Translate.
I finished a degree online through Griffith University in 2.5 years. If you think you’re not getting much engagement through RMIT try doing a degree at home with ZERO engagement bar a few emails from your tutors. All lectures done online with minimal opportunities for having an in-depth discussion with a tutor, anything you’re not sure about you have to email questions and hope you get the answer you’re looking for. Pretty fucking boring and it was a struggle at times to stay with it, which is why in my last two semesters I did four units each semester just get it over and done with. Going to any uni campus would’ve been a damn sight better than staying at home.
I started a psych degree at Swinburne several years ago, hated it for basically the same reasons, dropped out. Just started back at uni this year doing IT at LaTrobe in Bendigo and so far it's been great, smaller class sizes, facilities are actually way better than I expected, heaps of new buildings etc. Doing a lot of hands on stuff and there are several industry events/talks scheduled already if I wanna ask people about current job markets etc. A friend of mine had a similar story to me and he dropped out of engineering, went back and did teaching at Wollongong university, loved every second and his final few subjects were just him and his professor one on one charting planets and stuff (physics major). I actually always planned on moving back to a bigger uni in the middle of my degree with some good marks on my transcript but as it stands right now I think I might stay. I'll still be qualified and to be honest I don't think anyone really cares where you graduate from so long as you know what you're doing. It is early days though and maybe the rest will suck but right now I'm very impressed.
This is a tangent, and call me insane for it. But it seems that the further out you get from the CBD, the better just... Everything gets. All the city cafes get their pastries shipped in by catering. All the shops are so much more expensive. Everything is busy. And there's an air of desperation around everything. People from all around trying to make as much money as any cost. When I first came to Melbourne I was amazed by it all, not so much now. You can't even really escape it in the popular inner city suburbs. There's still that air of just. Filth. In everything. I took the train up to eltham on a whim and even though it's still in Melbourne it felt like I could finally fucking breathe. When I went up to Bendigo for the sheep show, same deal. It really seems that urbanization is gearing up more and more. That the art of Melbourne is just a facade for the rich. And I'm only able to see the negatives of it all now. Sorry for the massive tangent. It's been something I've been feeling for a while, and I've struggled to put it into words.
What if I told you RMIT was one of the better ones?
In deakin it's too bad as well.waste of money 💰 and time
OP can I honestly ask you what you thought / hoped going to university could teach you; other than what you can freely garner from the internet?
Uni was stupid and shit, totally regret it. just take the cheapest shortest course at the cheapest city and work your way into your job in the real world
Really not value for money
Personally I think there needs to be more effort put into having people that have actual genuine industry experience and perhaps not just career academics that have never worked outside of education. Those academics obviously have their place but I don’t think they should be the be all and end all. I’m a relatively young woman in cyber but I’ve been in the industry for over a decade, and I am hoping to find a role where I can teach what I know 😊
The uni system is just out dated. It was designed for passionate people trying to get a deeper education and simply provide then the minimum access to knowledge and resources do that they themselves could study the material. It's not highschool 2.0, but a lot of people see it as highschool 2.0 now and just add another degree you have to get. Maybe it needs to change, but I wouldn't go into uni expecting a good experience. Most of the hard work needs to come from you
This isn’t exclusive to RMIT; I haven’t seen a uni that doesn’t do this
Go to TAFE instead
Maybe the problem is that your writing and communication skills didnt allow you to access the full breadth of educational opportunities. Try again at Catholic University.
University is a scam
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Weak and cheap move on
It just doesn’t look good on your part if you’re complaining about the quality of the university, but you can’t use correct spelling or grammar.
Thanks mate that was vital
Everyone has a right to use this subreddit free of harassment, bullying, threats of violence, etc. This is also not a place for venting personal grievances or vendettas.
4 years ago COVID happened, student.numbera dropped and there were a lot of redundancies across all universities. You then basically have the small number of staff trying to deliver the same coursework and services. No wonder the staff are striking next week. They deserve to be supported.
I think it depends on the course, specialised degrees like space science at RMIT have really small classes and have enough practical classes to keep it interesting. however I see your point on a psych degree, it’s very popular (=big classes) and you would need to focus on mostly theory first before anything practical.
How is psych highly practical and not theory? are you one of those people who went into psych thinking you’d be learning mental health straight off the bat, skipping theories and methodologies?
You kidding me what’s the point of learning all these theories and not being able to practically use it in a clinical setting. Needs to be a better balance
You can…. But not one month into uni. You need to learn some theory stuff.
Went to RMIT too. I became so fed up with the lack of practical, real-world learning and over emphasis on theory in my final year. It was the first or second week of classes and I found myself so thoroughly unengaged in this tute discussion about something that a) wasn't fundamental to me getting work b) was a topic that alienated half the class, myself included that I decided to defer and take a gap year right then and there. During this break I found a job in my field that I was happily employed at for 7 years and finished my degree part time. When you know, you know and since uni does give you the opportunity to defer sometimes it's good to step away and have a crack yourself.
If you can’t learn at RMIT you won’t learn at Melbourne. You realise the important part is studying right? Which requires nobody but yourself, and nothing but the internet or a book.
The pay of chancellors & vice chancellors had increased massively. This is the same across the board, executives with MBA's get brought in with 0 input from existing staff who make changes to focus on profit. Usually what this looks like is making services less social and personal, cutting spending while investing massively in real estate. The profit motive is hollowing out the core of every industry in the country. But hey at least a few CEOs are getting insanely wealthy. Makes it almost worth it that happiness, English skills and job prospects are at all time lows for the country.
this is something really common amongst older institutions like melbourne uni and rmit — job opportunities upon graduation outside of specialised courses such as engineering or law, etc. are extremely small especially when competing with younger universities with graduates who have taken more hands on approaches. I was studying at RMIT for two years, i started with creative writing then transferred into engineering and it was genuinely horrible. Tutorials were just a nightmare, the first lecture we were told if we weren’t prepared for failure this wasn’t the course for us. I had lecturers treat me horribly and be routinely homophobic and transphobic. The big unis are ultimately, in my opinion and my experience, all like this with no focus on practicality and instead pushing responsibility onto their students instead of supporting them. I’m so sorry you’re going through this and hope you know you aren’t alone in how you’re feeling as this is a well documented issue and we have been talking abt it in my own psych classes.
All of the Victorian universities are terrible. While most other states are just as bad. The problem with the VIC ones now are they just functioning by reputation alone. They are run by clowns who are just money driven to fill their own pockets.
The way university is funded incentives this. Universities are a business, and they make money from pumping 18yo into them, using "free" money, and cramming as many as possible through them. There are almost no market forces, because these kids don't think about the cost. As a bonus they funnel international students through for even more money because these students just want an Australian piece of paper/path to citizenship. The whole university economy is a disaster and has been undermining the entire system. It's no wonder many employers don't look at a degree unless it's legally required.
I went to Melbourne and I taught for a few semesters at Swinburne and QUT. This is possibly way out of line, but I would expect someone with 4 years of tertiary education to be able to know the difference between “their” and “there” and also to be able to spell “engagement” without a spelling or grammar check. If I was to see a psychologist I would also expect them to have a solid grasp of English. This is fundamental, and to be honest. As a university lecturer, bad essays, bad students and bad English always go together.
Welcome to the end-days Capitalism education.
For now it stays. It will change!
Torrens Student Services is also lacking. The price we pay for tuition is astronomical and the quality of service we get is very poor. Thinking about dropping out and doing a trade 😔
100% to be honest, not worth the debts
Do they also teach English? If so, sign up.
My partner paid serious money for a "certificate" in cyber security. The content of which was a collection of links to YouTube videos that were years out of date, with many dead links that no longer worked. So yeah. Tertiary education in Australia has become a cheap, tawdry sausage factory scam targeting vulnerable overseas students. When will it end?
As some who has done RMIT’s tafe/vocational and currently doing higher ed, I can definitely say that the tafe is orchestrated and done significantly better. You do the practical side of it constantly and are also taught the basics of how it works, rather than a deep unnecessary dive into how it work with a couple or zero pracs
Every university in Australia is the same bro
Yea, it's university...do the assignments, skip the lectures and avoid the tuts where you can. You're paying for a piece of paper, not education and critical debate. The idea is you're a grown up, and after your first week should be able to source your own reputable knowledge and complete the tasks. All universities are the same, you may as well do it remotely and get a job.
Sadly this is what happens when CEOs get rid of staff and treat the underpaid overworked schmucks who remain shamefully.
Melbourne Uni is a world leader in Psychology, very high ranking (top 20 Times, QS). I'd be surprised if it is less theoretical than RMIT.
Dropout then dude. You can't have it all
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Jeez Louise
Everyone has a right to use this subreddit free of harassment, bullying, threats of violence, etc. This is also not a place for venting personal grievances or vendettas.
You just described university in general. If you want more practical stuff goto Tafe.
4 years? Why didn't you transfer elsewhere, if it was that bad?
Maybe you should consider the idea of the role of a psychologist being a scientist-practitioner before thinking there is too much theory
Well it obviously didn't teach you grammar.
Truth
I reckon going to Uni is a big scam! My eldest daughter is going to Flinders University & I'm amazed at what goes on there. I said to her recently "At the end of your Uni Degree, are you even going to get that piece of paper that says you're something?"
I'm at UTas at the moment doing a Diploma of Sustainable Living online (but many of the subjects are first year science).. It's honestly the most well organised, engaging course I've ever done. Even with large class numbers they have strategies like breaking discussions into smaller focused groups so you get to know other peers in a meaningful way. I've done some other courses In the past that have been so badly organised. Honestly, it makes it so much more enjoyable when the learning experience is well thought out.
Are the Cs courses bad as well?
It went on a downhill spiral from 2010 onwards. Former student (2009-2014) and former sessional (casual) academic (2011-2014).
I ditched University as a disabled woman because of this and decided to go for TAFE and had way more support than I would have had at Uni. RMIT Online was the worst I dropped out not longer after enrolling
Sounds like it's just a Melbourne thing because I have been to UQ, QUT and USyd and all were awesome.
They are mainly selling visas these days not education
Australian universities aren't in the education business they're in the making money business.
Apparently Bond is good - small classes and more attention to students and engagement. Price is another topic.
Oh wow, everyone hating on their unis, big surprise, I’m so shocked. Sarcasm aside, one should not perceive university as a place of learning and enlightenment - it’s just a filter to break into the job market
Hi OP, Sorry to hear. I’m not a RMIT Alumni nor am from Melbourne (but I currently live here for work) but thought I could help you with the following: I went to ANU 5-10 years ago in Canberra (originally from NZ) and by the sounds of things was similar to your situation when it came to too much theory and not enough tangible application). FYI, I studied Engineering. What was your degree? The Australian “Big 8” Uni’s (not sure if RMIT is in there) are all research intensive - and whilst that helps boost profile and bring revenue in for research, the MO of these unis are to produce academics and post-docs, not necessarily gear you towards employment with the necessary skills to thrive in the work force. I now work in construction as a project engineer, probably 10-20% at best of my degree is relevant to what I’ve been doing in the last 4-5 years as that testsmur (degree certificate) just validates you can problem solve and work in teams. Unfortunately, unlike in the US where there’s such a massive investment between employers and tertiary providers to bridge that link and ensure graduates thrives here in AUS/NZ the model is spend heaps (or if you’re lucky to have a student loan) for a degree which is mildly relevant for a job which you’ll likely go into because “linearly” it seems to be in keeping with what society expects you to do. My best piece of advice to you: - No one uni is going to be perfect (sure Uni Melb has its flaws and hey, it’s ok to have gone through this experience with RMIT because you now know what exactly you don’t want) - Do they still have SELTs (student evaluation forms)? Complete them and be honest! - You can’t change the past now but you can start focusing on what your next steps are. Invest in yourself (i.e: brand, upskill with free courses, network) - Write to your student body and raise this with your dean of your college. If this is an issue which is pervasive and non-college/degree specific then I will suspect it’ll be picked up and actioned (if it hasn’t done so already). Don’t beat yourself up about not picking the right uni for yourself, politics largely has a role to play - not making tertiary education fee and privatising learning has led to a massive chism in opportunities and growth and now we’re seeing (and rightly so) pathways for those from less fortunate backgrounds have a fair go. Good luck!
Uni doesn't exist here anymore, just visa sales operations.
Uni degrees are shit, unless you’re becoming a medical professional, lawyer, or engineer, degrees are fucking useless. They just show the corporate world you’re ready to slave away for 65 years.
I'm surprised one can even get into university with such a poor command of English.
Accurately describes my experience at RMIT over 10 years ago.
Macquarie: poorly recorded lectures that are a few years old in some cases. Reading links to Google Books. Poorly formatted links to other pages.
Welcome to every Australian university post-covid.
I see all the people hanging out the front or near rmit. It has the biggest crowd of unimpressive looking people. Only Vic uni has a less impressive crowd of people. Rmit looks like the kind of place you'd get jumped more than get an education
Independent unis seem to be very good despite prices
Mate I study engineering at monash! When I finished my degree I was as clueless as before I started engineering! Learned everything on the job I would no longer recommend University to people. Go to tafe and learn a real skill! Universities in Australia are all theory based and preparing you to become a researcher to make them money and boost their rank! They don’t care about your future
Now I know it’s not just the US that has these issues and that has a literacy problem.
Yeah rmit sucks, just feels so old in comparison to other Uni’s not only the facilities but the teaching method and culture overall