The University of Sydney’s Students’ Representative Council acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land on which we work and study, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. The Gadigal people are the traditional custodians and caretakers of this land but to fully express the complex and spiritual relationship Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island nations share with their sacred lands in nearly impossible. Every piece of the land upon which we live,work and celebrate on has a story, just below our feet is 60 000 years of history, knowledge and wisdom. We acknowledge that the Gadigal people and those of the greater Eora nation were the first to suffer, resist and survive the brutalities of white supremacy in Australia. The centuries-long resistance of Australia’s Indigenous community endures as non-Indigenous Australians continue to benefit from the colonisation of sovereign Indigenous land. We acknowledge the Indigenous people who work within the SRC and the Indigenous students of the University of Sydney. We turn to Indigenous people within our community to guide our understanding of Indigenous issues and ensure that their voices are prioritised. We also acknowledge the continuing suffering of Indigenous people as racism and violations of human rights are still a reality for Indigenous people. This land always was and always will be Aboriginal land.
articles
pp.4-16 & 45-46
p.4 Editorial
p.10 Islamophobia
p.5 The EAG in 2016
p.11 last bastion of the left?
p.6 knowledge isn't neutral
p.12 can change happen?
p.7 Why Capitalism Sucks
p.13 The International Student Movement
p.8 Turnbull's Racism and Scapegoating of Refugees?!
p.14 Opposing the Restructure
p.9 No cuts!
p.16 Why Honours?
p.10 Descrimination @ USYD
p.45 Supra (postgraduate)Academic
courses
pp.17-44
p.17 Agriculture
p.32 Engineering: Aerospace, mechanical, mechatronic; Civil
p.18 Arts and Social Sciences: Ancient History, Archaeology
p.33
p.19
Art History, Anthropology
p.20
English, Gender & Cultural Studies
p.21
International and Global Studies, Government
p.22
History, Religion
p.23
Philosophy
p.24
Languages
p.26
Linguistics, Ancient Languages
p.27
Media and Communications, Sociology
p.28
Indigenous Studies, Performance Studies
p.29
Political Economy
p.30
Economics, US Studies
p.31 Business
Chemical and Biomolecular, Advanced/Space, Biomedical, Project Management, IT, Electrical
p.34 Education, Social Work p.35 Pharmacy, Dentistry p.36 Law p.38 SCA (Rozelle), Music @ The Con
p.39 Physiotheraphy, Nursing p.40 Science: Biology, Chemistry p.41
Psychology, Medical Science
p.42
Geosciences, History & Philosophy of Science
p.43
Maths, Physics
p.44
Nueroscience, Veterinary Science
EDITORIAL Dylan Griffiths & Liam Carrigan The 2016 Counter Course is brought to you by a collective of students who have sacrificed their summer and sanity in an attempt to shed some light on an often impenetrable university bureaucracy whilst celebrating the joys of learning that haven’t yet fallen victim to neoliberalism. This handbook has resulted in two completely burnt out, sleep deprived Ed Officers with the final stretch of frenzied preparation taking over 24 hours. It has been an undeniably emotional journey, involving an unfortunate lockout, copious EDM and constant confusion over determining if we fucked up the page count. We hope this very, very, very draining process will be looked back upon fondly.
A big shout out to comrades who wrote an article – we’ve got an impressive array of pieces ranging from the international student movement to the university’s political economy. As you read through these pages remember that within two years more then half of these faculties will be collapsed. More then one hundred degrees and the specialized courses that accompany them will be discarded. A great deal of specialized support staff will be discarded as administration is centralized. Read, reflect and then RESIST!
Of course we were preoccupied by the cooked attempts to undergo an extremely concerning restructure over summer. No thanks to Spence and his cronies for confirming the bloody thing as Dylan was trapped in Russia either. Gronks. The theme of the Counter Course, ‘student power’, is a desperate call to action as management begins the restructuring of our faculties and degrees. These changes must be recognized as an attack on the true stakeholders in higher education: the students and staff. It’s easy to lose hope here at Sydney University and fall into the passive mindset that there’s nothing we can do when management fucks us over. We hope this Counter Course reminds students that we should fight back and, along with staff CAN run this university. Management should serve us – something they clearly need to be reminded of! This handbook takes an extreme amount of effort to create and compile so it’s important to reflect on its changing role and significance. The university no longer supports us in disseminating the survey and Sydney Student has meant that students are no longer able to read the Counter Course at physical enrolments as they select subjects. Accordingly, we decided to include as many articles as possible – think of the handbook as a guide to radical activism and education accompanied by a compilation of subject reviews. Leafing through old Counter Courses as we compiled our own, we realised that this publication has always been a testament to the rapidly shifting state of higher education both locally and nationally. Through it, we can continue to track the ongoing war between the government and students, corporations and communities. We hope ours also imparts some of our history and a snapshot of the state of play as we stare down the barrel at this confusing and frankly sinister restructure. This publication would have been impossible without the immense enthusiasm and dedication of our contributors, some of whom stayed with us until the early hours of the morning to help lay out this bad boy. To every one of you who compiled survey data and added their own personal touches to the killer subject reviews contained in this handbook – thank you! PAGE 4
The Solidarity Raised Fist: We acknowledge that use of the fist salute, or solidarity symbol, on the cover page of this publication is a revision of its historical significance as a symbol of solidarity, antiestablishment rebellion and activism across many political communities both past and present, including but not exclusive to the the German paramilitary organisation, Roter Frontkämpfer Bund, the French and Soviet revolutions, the United States Communist Party, and the Black Panther Party. Our conviction when using this symbol as a visual representation of the content of this publication is that the fist is a dynamic compositional element capable of communicating our solidarity as university students struggling against power structures which defy our political identities and thus, provide motive for the kind of activism expressed in these pages. Our right to access this symbol is stemmed in this purpose as well as our collective understanding of how symbology empowers the unity of our cause and illuminates the intersecting experiences by which it is materialised. References:
http://www.docspopuli.org/articles/Fist.html
http://nicolasphebus.tumblr.com/post/129024775618/aboutthe-clenched-fist-and-cultural-appropriation SRC Counter course handbook 2016
The EAG in 2016 Liam Carrigan Students collectively hold incredible power. Although baby boomers, regressive governments and university administrations try to discredit us, our passion, spirit and fight have regularly changed the world for the better. Students marched for an end to countless wars, mobilised against inaccessible education systems, and fought to end racial inequality and environmental destruction. The Sydney University Education Department has a proud history of upholding this radical tradition. Our commitment to radical and militant activism that ensures the SRC is a fiercely political body has been especially strong in recent years, with the department being the heart of student activism on campus. In 2012 we mobilized to fight management’s attempt to cut over 300 staff jobs and successfully prevented all but a handful of job losses. In 2013 the SRC and student activists stood alongside staff striking for better working conditions during their unprecedented seven days of industrial action. From 2014-2015 students at Sydney University were part of the national campaign against the Liberal government’s attempt to introduce fee deregulation. Student activists mobilized in their thousands during National Days of Action, stormed Q&A and regularly chased Liberals off campus. Our fight is far from over. Birmingham might be a slicker salesman than Pyne but he and Turnbull are still staunchly anti union and anti student. With a federal election looming, the Liberals will be seeking a mandate to enact this agenda. Turnbull supported every aspect of Abbott’s budget. Deregulation isn’t defeated; it’s simply on the backburner. Already we have seen vicious attacks on welfare with the transformation of start up scholarships into loans and nearly $6.5 million in cuts to healthcare. Refugees and Muslims are demonized by the political discourse and mainstream media while the working class and Indigenous people suffer under capitalism. As the future of this country it’s our responsibility to fight for and demand a better world. While the national neoliberal agenda is a major reason to get involved, the repulsive intentions of Sydney University management are demanding a return to grassroots activism on campus. Michael Spence, the Vice Chancellor, chair of the Group of Eight and a major proponent of fee deregulation announced his intention to restructure the University over the Christmas break. This involves slashing the number of undergraduate degrees on offer from 122 to 20, layoffs of countless administrative staff and merging the ten faculties and six schools into six faculties and three schools. The restructure is a transparent attempt to climb the rankings ladder and implement deregulation through the back door. We will be fighting on a national, state and grassroots level through the Education Action Group, a democratic forum for on-campus activists. Come to our open forum to discuss and
plan against the restructure on March 10th, with the location and time to be announced on our Facebook page. Join us in protesting Spence’s plans on Wednesday March 16th, 1pm at Fisher Library. Help us organize a Refugee tutoring program to teach our most marginalized. Finally, take to the streets on the April 13th National Day of Action to demand a fairer education. Remember… STUDY, BE SILENT, DIE!
Contact the Education Officers: Liam & Dylan
email: education.officers@src.usyd.edu.au Phone: 0401 847 279 & 0432 236 668
Like the Sydney Uni EAG facebook page:
facebook.com/SydneyUniversityEducationActionGroup Attend the weekly EAG meetings on the New Law Lawns. Check our Facebook page for the day and time. Get involved in NSW education activism by joining NSW Cross Campus Education Organising: facebook.com/groups/171738616523360/
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knowledge isn't neutral:
The Politics of learning at a neoliberal university Anna Hush & Andy Mason
We feel it is crucial to acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora nation as the traditional custodians and rightful owners of the country on which our university is built.
Coming to study at this university has been one of the most exciting things in both of our lives. It all has a bit of a Harry Potter quality - the special letter in the mail, the tours around the sandstone village, the people strutting about in robes. Our teachers talked about university as if it were a magical place, where people are transformed into better versions of themselves through the power of knowledge, where ignorance and injustice are converted into enlightenment and freedom.
After a couple of semesters, we realised how naïve we had been. We learned that academics are not benevolent wizards, but human beings who can be clueless, arbitrary and even cruel. We discovered that most students are not at university to challenge the epistemological foundations of their thinking, but just to pass with degrees and quickly join the workforce with as little effort as possible. Ultimately we learned that the university as an institution is not a sacred garden of knowledge, but a profit-making enterprise like any other corporation, which will exploit its employees and unashamedly cut corners. Our naïve visions of the liberating potential of learning at university were shaped by the liberal tradition that sees all knowledge as inherently valuable. Since the Enlightenment, Western cultures have valorised the act of gaining knowledge as a personal journey that defines one’s worth. The goal of learning, in this tradition, is to obtain objective facts about the world through the use of reason and the empirical sciences.
However, no knowledge is neutral, and the things we are taught at university represent a specific interpretation of the world. It is crucial to understand that the content presented in any lecture represents only a fraction of the diverse perspectives that exist. Many perspectives are systematically excluded by academia for example, Indigenous systems of mathematics or ecological knowledge. The university courses we undertake promote a narrow way of thinking, steeped in Anglo-American academic histories. In addition to this de-legitimisation of non-western ways of knowing, our university has been directly involved in the colonial project in Australia. This is most salient in the ugly history of anthropology, which sought to study and classify Aboriginal peoples in the same way as biologists collect insects, but also of disciplines like geography which generated the body of colonial knowledge necessary to carry out the invasion and exploitation of the continent. As Australia’s oldest university, Sydney Uni is inescapably implicated with the theft of land and attempts to extinguish Indigenous culture existence perpetrated by the British state. Sandra Harding, a feminist philosopher of science, distinguishes between weak and strong objectivity. Weak objectivity, the fantasy of the Enlightenment academy, strives to create knowledge that transcends social, political and economic realities. Strong objectivity, in contrast, arises from the collaboration of diverse groups of people. More robust knowledge is created when it reflects the standpoints of many different lived experiences, rather than the consensus of a PAGE 6
small, homogeneous group. Centering women’s perspectives in scientific research promotes strong objectivity, as women are more able to identify and critique sexist bias in scientific theories. Sydney Uni pays lip service to the idea of diversity in its ‘vision and values’ statement, with vague phrases such as ‘embedding equal opportunity’ and ‘standing against inequality’. However, the proposed restructuring of the university, under which many degrees will be cut and undergraduate fees will rise, works against the goal of inclusivity. University will become even less accessible to minority groups and people from low socioeconomic backgrounds, and the elitism of the academy will become further entrenched. The University promotes the neoliberal rhetoric of the meritocracy - espousing ‘a place where the best researchers and most promising students can achieve their full potential’ - while actively excluding certain groups from participating in learning and knowledge production. By and large, this is due to the nature of the corporate university, with the primary goal of making money out of our education. The university receives funding for research and development from other corporations, and sometimes this money even extends to student-run groups - booze cruises for GeoSoc have been sponsored by Rio Tinto. These corporations have vested interests in research that is carried out, and in specific teaching practices that will produce valuable graduate employees for them.
However, these phenomena are beyond critique or resistance. Understanding that what we are taught is only a small part of the bigger picture means that both the content of courses, and the ways they are delivered, can be challenged by students. By organising with fellow students, for example in study groups or discussion sessions, we can develop the critical stance necessary to challenge what we learn and how we are taught. This is an important part of breaking down the power hierarchies embedded in the university and deconstructing the authority vested in academics. Paolo Friere, a Brazilian educator, argued for the promotion of conscientizaçāo - critical, political consciousness - through radical education that develops us as responsible subjects. This is achieved when education is reciprocated between teachers and students, rather than a relationship of power and authority. Student-organised groups are an invaluable way to take control of your learning and develop critical consciousness with other students. We’ve been involved in the Critical Race Discussion Group, organising Cinema Politica screenings and reading groups for the Australian Student Environment Network and Students Support Aboriginal Communities, all of which have given us the opportunity to read widely and encounter a broader range of perspectives than in our courses.
In the end, we have both found university to be a deeply transformative personal experience - not necessarily because of the courses we’ve taken, but because of the experiences we’ve had outside the classroom, in activism and student organising. When these experiences can be brought to bear in our learning, knowledge becomes personally empowering and situated in relation to real social problems. Making your university experience valuable takes work, and won’t magically happen without effort. SRC Counter course handbook 2016
Why Capitalism sucks Kim Murphy
You may have heard the recent statistic that the richest 62 people in the world own as much wealth as the poorest 50% of the world’s population. The reality is as long as capitalism has been the dominant mode of production, the gap between rich and poor has only widened. Under capitalism, real control of society is held in the hands of a few at the expense of the many. The 1% of corporate bosses and the governments that support them run the world exclusively for their profit. Before safety, before the environment and before human lives comes profit. Subsequently war, genocide, exploitation and oppression are part and parcel of capitalism they all help to expand profit.
Meanwhile the police act as capitalism’s attack dogs, assaulting and criminalising those who are poor and those who protest against their inhumane living conditions. Just look at the heavy militarisation of US cops in response to the #blacklivesmatter movement.
In South China there is a string of factories run by Foxconn. Among other things, Apple iPhones are made here. Workers here are locked inside once their day starts, and they are slowly ground down by the numbing work of sitting at a repetitive assembly line. In 2010, 14 workers committed suicide by jumping off the factory’s roof, leaving the message that they would rather die than work in these conditions. The only alteration to factory life after this was the installation of nets so workers could no longer kill themselves by jumping off the factory’s roof.
Clearly capitalism is not the just, fair and democratic system it claimed to be. If hard work was rewarded, why are factory workers living in poverty? Why do people working multiple casual jobs struggle to feed their family? Why are a person’s grades more likely to be determined by their post code than anything else?
But isn’t capitalism the enlightened pinnacle of social organisation? It has no barbaric serfdom or slavery, no feudal lords - just innovation, justice, and rewards for those who work hard. Well a quick look around the globe might tell a different story.
In Flint, Michigan USA - the home of democracy and freedom - the town is suffering from a water crisis. Just over a year ago the state government realised they could get cheaper water by changing the city’s water source to the polluted Flint river. This water is not treated and remains corrosive, as it travels through the pipes the corrosion lets lead seep into the water supply. Since the switch thousands of citizens have become ill from the water, and 10 people have died from lead poisoning. People have had to rely on water aid from neighbouring communities and charities, as their government sat idle for a year.
2015 saw the biggest refugee crisis since the Second World War. While millions of refugees flee bombs and starvation to seek a better life, countries close their borders saying they just can’t take then in. Meanwhile in Europe 11 million homes sit completely empty. Though it is common sense to most ordinary people, that if someone is homeless you give them shelter, under capitalism this is nonsense. If something isn’t profitable, it’s not gonna happen. If this system is really so horrible though, why does it still exist? For one, every single government in the world is a pro-capitalist government. There are strong links between a countries corporate ruling class and its leader. In the United States, every single president that has ever won an election over the past century has also been the one that had the biggest amount of corporate funding.
Secondly there’s the law, where justice is only served if you’re rich. While the law will lock you up if you steal food because you’re starving, exploiting the terminally ill for profit is completely legal. This happened last year when Martin Shkreli, former hedge fund manager and then the CEO of Turing pharmaceuticals changed the price of a pill that helps AIDS patients from $13.50 to $750 each.
In school we are educated to believe that capitalism works, that society is fair, the law is just, and if we’re unsuccessful we’re not working hard enough. Capitalism creates ideologies to justify itself, and make exploitation seem normal. Capitalism also spits out ideologies of prejudice. Capitalism formulated oppression against women, against black people, migrants, indigenous people, LGBTI people and other minority groups, because it’s useful for profit making. Oppression helps justify paying people lower wages, conducting imperialist wars in foreign countries, and stealing land to build business on.
Capitalism is built on inequality. It has one set of rules for the poor and another set of rules for the rich. This is exemplified through the fact that last year, 38% of companies operating in Australia paid $0 in tax, while Australia’s government is trying to increase the tax paid by the working class.
As much as capitalism encourages people to be submissive, to feel powerless, and to settle for less, the reality is people are the most powerful force in the world. And sometimes, in times of radicalisation, struggle and protest, we see this power. In 2011 dictators were overthrown in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya thanks to mass protests and strikes by civilians. In 2015 a police officer was jailed for the murder of a young black man only after there were mass protests on the streets of Baltimore. Last year dockworkers of the Maritime Union of Australia went on strike over cuts to pay and conditions. When they went on strike they prevented tens of millions dollars’ worth of goods being brought onshore. Through militant collective actions these workers could stand in the way of the bosses’ fortune. Because at the end of the day it’s the masses that make the world run, not the parasitic minority of bosses.
Examples of mass struggle can win serious gains in improving the living conditions of people. But even though people can win some gains under capitalism, the system will continue to grind people down, to ramp up state repression, and cut peoples income. This is why when people get out on the streets and struggle, their ultimate goal should be for the overthrow of capitalism. If you’re serious about addressing issues of social injustice and inequality, it is vital to recognise that the cause is capitalism, and that inequality is the fundamental logic of capitalism. This is why the system cannot be tinkered or reformed; the only thing that will truly move towards solving the world’s problems is left-wing anti-capitalist politics.
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Turnbull's Racism and Scapegoating of Refugees Steven Kwon The Campus Refugee Action Collec tive (CRAC) is a group of Sydney Uni students, who are building the nationwide grassroots campaign to end the offshore processing and mandatory detention of refugees. Historically, students have played an important role in the fight against fear and racism, from the Freedom Rides against apartheid conditions for Aboriginal Australians in 1965, to opposing the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Last year CRAC marched for refugee rights, held forums with whistle-blowers who have worked in detention centres, occupied the immigration office to protest sexual violence against women on Nauru, and took a bus to rally for policy change outside the Labor Party conference. We celebrated the end of Tony Abbott as Prime Minister and his particularly vicious agenda to “Stop the Boats” by any cruel means. His demise shows that politicians do not have to be anti-refugee to be popular – this is a myth. But despite the new Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s progressive veneer, he has already proved his Government is no better – leaving sexually assaulted refugee women to languish on Nauru, and now sending 72 children back to the island gulag. Now more than ever we need people who can lead with a clear strategic vision to take up the fight. We call on you to join us! Determining refugee status should take only a couple of months at most, but most refugees are made to wait from 2-5 years to be processed. The long, idle and uncertain wait for their claims to be processed has bred an epidemic of mental illness, self-harm and suicide within the offshore detention centres. This is in addition to the constant threat of violence from the locals, from the racist guards, and for women, the threat of sexual violence. Over twenty women in these detention centres who have been sexually assaulted remain on Nauru and Manus, including Abyan - the twenty year old Somali Refugee who was refused an abortion by the Australian government after she was found to be raped by a detention guard and fell pregnant. Most striking of all, more refugees have died on Manus than have been resettled. Two have died, and none at all have been resettled! Turnbull: no better! Many hoped Turnbull would be different. But he made a point of leaving the ‘cruel’ Peter Dutton as Immigration Minister, to continue the same sick policies. The Liberal Party are proven experts at finding scapegoats while they push through cuts, fees and other attacks on ordinary Australian people. Turnbull is happy to let us think refugees are the real threat to our standard of living, but in the meantime, they are preparing
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to cut penalty rates and raise the GST – policies that are only in the interest of big business buddies and clearly against the interest of workers, students and the disadvantaged. The marginalised will have to brunt the cost for the sake of big business’s “productivity and efficiency” agenda. (When has improving business’s productivity and efficiency ever benefited the working people?) Thanks to the capitulation of the Labor party, both sides of politics believe it is electoral suicide to introduce pro-refugee policies. But it is the anti-refugee policies on the major parties (assisted by the mainstream media) that drive anti-refugee sentiment in the community. A strong refugee movement combating the government’s lies can turn this opinion around. Build the fightback Though Turnbull may do nothing to dismantle these torture camps, people on the ground are determined to put an end to the government sponsored torture of refugees. Last year doctors, nurses and medical students from Sydney Uni publically spoke out against the Border Force Act, which silences whistleblowers from speaking out about the third world living conditions on these offshore detention centres. Teachers in Queensland stopped work and held a rally to protest against the forced transfer of Mojgan, a high school student and refugee who was transferred to Darwin one month away from her HSC exams. Love makes a way, a group comprised of many socially conscious and predominantly elderly Christians occupied parliament and MPs offices throughout the year and got arrested for it. Tens of thousands of Christian groups marched on Palm Sunday against the cruel treatment of refugees. Hundreds also came out to protest against the treatment of Abyan. By inspiring people to take a stand on refugee rights through struggle and a conscious attempt to win over the working people and their unions, the refugee campaign was able to change public opinion on refugees and force the Labor government to go to the election promising to end offshore processing in 2007. Campus Refugee Action Collective is dedicated to leading the refugee campaign to put an end to the government sponsored scapegoating and the torture of refugees for good. To join us, look out for us at O Week, at the next Palm Sunday Rally (1PM, 20th of March at Belmore Park near Central station) and at the regular CRAC forums that we hold on campus. Contact Steven 0416 406 900 or Naomi 0435 536 189 for more information.
SRC Counter course handbook 2016
NO cuts! SRC Welfare Officers
Watch out, there’s a huge budget deficit coming straight towards you! It’s gonna swallow you whole, something must be done! Nah, not actually. But it’s a useful excuse for a Liberal government to help its rich mates. Budget cuts galore are in the works. Tony Abbott and his cigar-chomping treasurer might be out of the picture, and Malcolm Turnbull might be able to get through half a sentence without blustering; but a quick look at his policies shows the difference ends there. The attacks on healthcare, education and the working-class living standards continue. Here are the top five cuts coming for you in 2016 and what you can do about it: 1. 15% GST: You already pay more tax when you buy a Mars Bar, than QANTAS or Google do on all their profits. While the richest corporations avoid paying a dime, practically everything you buy gets marked up 10% to pay the government’s bills. This is an anti-working class tax because we spend most of our income on goods to consume, where the rich buy properties and portfolios. Now they want to increase this tax by another 5%. For a small to medium household, that’s another $4000 a year out of pocket. Why do they want to do it? So they can lower the income and corporate tax rates! 2. No penalty rates: The government appointed an “independent” Productivity Commission to find out what to do to keep profits rolling in for business. They’ve decided that people working in retail and hospitality (as a student, odds are that’s you) don’t deserve extra pay on Saturdays and Sundays. This will cut hundreds of dollars out of weekly budgets for people who study in the week and work weekends to pay the rent and scrape by. The commission also suggested that it’s too hard for bosses to fire people! Don’t worry, Turnbull’s on the job to make your job less secure. Join your trade union to be part of the workplace fightback: www.australian.unions.org.au 3. Paying HECS with your super: Plans are ahead in the Liberal Party for a system where grawwwduates use their retirement savings to pay off their student debt. This would affect many workers with an income currently below the repayment threshold. Students would then be required to pay more into their super later to make up for the gap. We should not be paying for our education with our retirements! Your HECS is about to increase too, if you’re a Sydney Uni student. Management are lengthening basic degrees like BA or BSc to 4 years, and massive staff cuts will hurt your learning. The Education Action Group has called a rally for Wednesday March 16, 1pm at Fisher Library to stop this neoliberal restructure. Join us and fight back!
4. Centrelink Loans: Currently, students with access to Centrelink can receive a start-up scholarship of $1000 or more at the beginning of each semester of study. These payments usually go straight into Sydney’s outrageous rent prices, which tells you something about the abysmally low pay of Youth Allowance. The Liberal government is pushing to turn these scholarships into loans that attach to HECS, adding at least $6000 to your student debt. The National Union of Students has called a National Day of Action for April 13 in opposition to such attacks against students. This measure has been shamefully supported by the federal Labor Party (who first proposed it in 2013), which shows why, if we want to stop these cuts, we’ve got to do it ourselves. 5. $50 blood tests: The Liberal government is seeking to scrap Medicare rebates for pathology and diagnostic services, including blood and urine tests, Pap smears, X-rays and MRIs. Costing anywhere between $30 and $150, these vital tests will be too expensive for working class people to afford. With his $200 million, Turnbull will never have trouble finding the cash to save his life. He doesn’t want ordinary people even to know if their life needs saving. A crucial campaign has begun nationwide to immediately cancel these plans. Medicare already has huge holes in it that undermine universal accessibility to healthcare, including mental health treatment, dental care and gender transitioning procedures. Any further cuts are intolerable.
A rally has been called for Saturday 20 February at Sydney Town Hall. Anyone whose body is capable of getting sick must be there! If you’re reading this and you missed it, there’s bound to be more. Be on the lookout! Parliament is filled with rich bastards who cut and slash the services they will never need. Spending cuts are about making space to give the wealthy further tax cuts, for taxes they don’t even pay! If budget deficits were really a problem, the billionaires would be the first on the chopping block. But in a world run for profit, it’s ordinary working class people that foot the bill. Our welfare department is about challenging that logic, encouraging students to band together and fight back, because no one in parliament will save you. They’re the ones we need to save ourselves from. Sydney University Student Representatives’ Council, Welfare Department
Welfare Officers: April Holcombe, Matthew Campbell, Isabella Brook, Dylan Williams.
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Discrimination @ usyd Justine Amin While the University has policies in place to prevent discrimination, harassment, and bullying, some instances of discrimination can still unfortunately occur.
If discrimination happens in your lectures, tutorials, or anywhere else on campus, get advice from the SRC – our caseworkers can help. People can be discriminated on the basis of sex, sexuality, race or cultural identity, gender identity, disability, age, religion, socioeconomic status, and more. Survey data indicates that people are most likely to be discriminated on the basis of disability (including disabilities that are ‘invisible’ or not immediately apparent), race and culture, and gender and sex identity.
While most students believe that the university is doing enough to prevent discrimination and harassment and address it when it occurs, many students, particularly those who have experienced discrimination on campus, do not believe this is the case.
The University’s Harassment and Discrimination Prevention policy outlines the standard of conduct expected from staff, students, and visitors. If you feel as though these standards have been breached, you can lodge a formal complaint with the Student Affairs Unit. Be sure to get advice from the SRC before you lodge a complaint – our expert caseworkers have experience in student advocacy and can help you draft a successful complaint, walk you through the process, and refer you on to external services if necessary.
If you feel comfortable and you don’t want to submit a formal complaint, you can often raise the issue in private with the responsible lecturer, academic, or tutor. Some students have had success with this strategy, while others haven’t. If you want to raise the issue informally, it can help to do so over email in case you are not satisfied with the response and want to pursue it further.
Most students will enjoy campus life without ever experiencing discrimination or harassment – but it’s always a good idea to know what to do just in case.
islamophobia Zahra Makki Islamophobia. Let’s not pretend that it doesn’t happen, because for hundreds, if not thousands of people, it’s real and it’s terrifying.
Many incidents go unreported, and few have made national news. Muslim women, being the flag bearers of Islam by wearing the headscarf known as the Hijab, often bear the brunt of Islamophobia, although it is not just limited to women wearing the Hijab. Men with darker skin as well as Sikh men who wear turbans have been victims. Sadly campus is not a haven from this reality. Sydney University has seen particularly vicious incidents of Islamophobia. Islamic women have borne the brunt of racist vilification, with a female Muslim student told to take her hijab off her head and hang herself with it while walking to Redfern Station. In 2014 several Muslim students at the University’s Cumberland campus reported being spat on. People are made to believe that Muslims are a threat to their wellbeing and as a result some take it upon themselves to harass, threaten and insult them. Ironic, isn't it? You see, Muslims should not be feared, ignorance should be. Why? Because ignorance breeds fear which in turn breeds hate.
Want to get to know more about Islam, Muslims and our practices? Do not be afraid to ask! Platforms you may use to ask questions are the Ahlulbayt Society, Sydney University PAGE 10
Muslim Students' Association (SUMSA) and the Muslim Wom*n’s Collective, all of which can be found on Facebook. Go take a look, we won’t bite, we promise.
There are many misconceptions about Islam which have been blown way out of proportion. This happens especially in the wake of terrorist attacks in western countries. The holy scripture for Muslims is the Holy Quran. Many Quranic verses begin to be taken out of context and misunderstood, some you may have already come across.
This can be seen throughout social media, discussion forums and articles. Going through each verse that has been taken out of context, misunderstood or misrepresented in this article will far exceed my word limit, however I do hope you know what I'm talking about. At the Camperdown /Darlington Campus, the Muslim Wom*n’s Collective was founded by Fatema Ali as a space for women to talk to each other, build connections and ultimately solve problems. In 2015, meetings were held throughout the year discussing future events and goals.
The events that took place included a bake sale in which all proceeds went to refugees arriving in Lesbos, Greece as well as an event which explored sexual rights, ethics and practices in Islam and the Muslim community. If you wish to be a member of the collective, join the 'Muslim Wom*n’s Collective (USyd)' on Facebook or like the page. Alternatively, contact the interfaith officers at interfaith.officer@src.usyd.edu.au. If you have been a victim of Islamophobia on campus, please contact campus security and report it. You may also report it to Islamophobia Register Australia which was created for Muslims to report such incidences.
SRC Counter course handbook 2016
last bastion of the left? recent radcalism at Sydney University Liam Carrigan
The recent history of student activism at the University of Sydney is remarkable in intensity, diversity, and impact. Somehow, this campus has become a bastion of the broad left; socialists sell papers on Eastern Avenue, anarchists serve alongside the labor left on the USU Board and the vestiges of radicalism from the 60s and 70s can be felt in the reemergence of political consciousness amongst the student body. Explaining this phenomenon is difficult: why is it that nearly every political grouping has some presence here? Why does the shifting political battleground seem to gain attention throughout the national media and predict trends in federal politics? Perhaps the radical history and political prestige of the University perpetuates an arguably elitlist political class within the sandstone. A forgiving administration helped us survive the worst of voluntary student unionism, preserving a vibrant campus culture and student led unions as others collapsed or were absorbed into administrations. However, recently it has been a pattern of draconian right wing attacks from both government and management that allowed an activist left to grow at the grassroots level before the fight took to the national arena. Student activism at Sydney University is thriving, now it’s your turn to join the EAG and contribute to its history! Staff cuts Prior to 2012 the Education Action Group was inactive. Uninspiring bureaucratic lobbying was the focus of most student representatives, with the SRC controlled by right wing forces. However, the Left had regained influence as the University announced vicious cuts to 340 jobs with the EAG being restarted by a broad left coalition in response. The collective quickly grew as students felt the material impacts of the cuts as they lost thesis supervisors and beloved lecturers during semester. A vibrant anti cuts campaign emerged with on campus rallies attracting up to 2000 students. However, it was employing direct action, such as the occupation of the Dean of Arts office that truly struck fear into management. The victorious campaign saved the majority of jobs. It accentuated the importance of students standing in solidarity with staff, fighting for activist student unions, and the necessity of collective action to combat the neoliberal corporate University. Strikes 2013 was an exceptionally tumultuous and violent year of radical struggle on campus. The NTEU engaged in an unprecedented seven days of industrial action to demand a better deal from a reticent management, who attempted to slash benefits and protections in order to advance an agenda of casualisation. The strikes happened against a backdrop of vicious cuts to higher education enacted by the Labor government. With a reinvigorated activist left, the EAG joined
workers at picket lines as campus grinded to a halt. For these students the full force of police brutality was their reward, with a vicious display of state violence ensuing as cops invited onto campus by management arrested, bashed and assaulted numerous students. This very writer was radicalized when watching video footage of the pickets when attending a court case in solidarity. The NTEU was able to declare a decisive victory against management, with the collective might of workers and students defeating the institution to ensure a good deal for staff. Deregulation 2014 and 2015 saw the return of student activism to the national stage, as students were jolted into action by the most deplorable, far right Government in living memory. Abbott and his crony Pyne proved effective rallying points for students as they attempted to push through a budget that included deregulating university fees, a move that would lock low SES students out of education and saddle the rest of us with a lifetime of debt. The EAG was a vital to the vibrant campaign led by the National Union of Students that saw over five thousand students take to the streets in NSW. Activists also protested ABC’s Q&A and regularly chased Liberals off campus. Student unions, in collaboration with the NTEU, shifted the broader political sentiment and ensured deregulation was defeated repeatedly in the senate and eventually shelved by Turnbull. The Restructure Without the windfall of profit deregulation would provide, management have turned to more insidious means to adopt the corporatized model of higher education. Over the Christmas break Management conveniently confirmed a restructure that has terrifying implications for the University. The sixteen faculties will be slashed to nine and the one hundred and twenty degrees reduced to a scarce twenty. This structure is reminiscent of the Melbourne model and will lead to staff cuts. Management additionally drastically reduced the Senate from twenty–two to fifteen in an attempt to replicate a corporate governance structure. However, the tides are already shifting, with mainstream media and alumni decrying the University’s trajectory. We need to show them we also stand against this agenda by rallying at Fisher Library at 1pm on March 16th. The future Ultimately, radical currents on campus ebb and flow in reaction to the local and broader context. The stage is set for more uprisings at Sydney University that will radicalise a new generation. Cuts are imminent and will be deep. The NTEU EBA will expire soon and the renegotiation could again result in industrial action. Whatever is ahead, a fighting student left will be ready. They will win. PA G E 11
can change happen? Kelton Muir I still remember the day very clearly. My dad was driving my mum and I down the coast for a summer beach weekend. I was about 12, and curious about the dad I loved but didn’t know all that much about. He had never talked much about his youth or upbringing so I had decided to keep prodding him until I got something. After some brief descriptions of his dad leaving school at 16, being the eldest kid in the family and needing to start work on the train tracks to keep his grand parents afloat, Dad started talking about where he went to university - Berkley. He told me about living as a hippie in the hills of San Fran, smoking weed rolled without a filter, his big beard (he still had it but it was now groomed to fit his academic look) and then... about Vietnam. He had never been an American citizen (onya Canada!) because of the Vietnam war specifically - at that time because of conscription and his hippie pacifism, but forever after because of their involvement in Vietnam as well as past and continuing imperialism (he never used that word, but there is no other word for the American Empire’s foreign policy). He told me about the protests - hundreds, then thousands, then hundreds of thousands of people. And then everyday it seemed, again and again - confrontations with police, protest after protest... and then finally... No more war.
Students played a vital part in the end of the Vietnam war, just as they have played a part in almost every struggle since. The liberalisation of universities around the Western world for the Baby Boomer generation led to an explosion of activism from students in Western nations, however student activism was rife in South America and Asia for almost a hundred years before the term baby boomer had even been conceived. Student activism in China has been effective since the defeat of Qing dynasty in the mid 1840s-60s during both Opium Wars and then in 1919 student protest led to the birth of Chinese communism and the Chinese democratisation movement. And it was students who filled Tianamen square in what almost was a revolution turned infamous massacre. In Paris 1968, the University of Paris and The Sorbonne both were closed due to struggles between administration and students. The treatment of students during protests from the police led the French peoples sympathy and support for the students to turn into a nationwide general strike that lasted almost a month and almost led to an insurrection and socialist revolution in France. The collapse of Suharto’s dictatorship in Indonesia in 1998 sprung from mass student protests that gave a voice to the popular discontent that had been brewing for decades. And that will of students to change the world still lives on today... All that might seem cool, maybe not, but either way, it’s on the other side of the world. It’s easy for Australians in our liberal democracy to think everything is ‘fair dinkum enuf... ay mate’, all fine and dandy, oh but politics is a bit shit... What does the word struggle even mean? We live in an awesome country....... well, how about the worlds most vulnerable people, refugees, locked up on islands they have never heard of as prisoners in horrid conditions that our Government illegally imposes on them and their children until they are destroyed as humans through mental illness and or sexual/violent assault. I’m talking about the millions of the PAG E 12
lowest paid Australians who are likely to get hit with a cut of 10% to their wages due to the abolition of penalty rates and then have to pay more for literally everything as the GST goes up to 15% (meanwhile big business pays next to no tax and tells our Parliament that there should be welfare cards that impose restrictions on how the poorest australians can spend their money). Oh, and your Uni degree at Sydney, it probably won’t exist if the University gets its way and restructures to only 20 different degrees while cutting staff. And remember that thing climate change... we’re projected to be past the tipping point of 2 degrees rise soon and our country, our world (at least those who rule it) are doing just about NOTHING to stop what is likely the greatest threat to humanity. And what about all that racist divisive crap like ‘Team Australia’, or the rampant sexism and racism that we all see way too often in our streets and community (let alone reclaim Australia...), and what about the way we treat Indigenous people after the genocide we inflicted upon them. Did you know being an Aboriginal kid, you’re 28 times more likely to go to jail in Australia? If you think Black Lives Matter is making an important point about racism in America, their statistics of black representation in prison are mere fraction of the racist Australian incarceration system.
When you dig below the ridiculously dull news headlines of the Telegraph, (actually anything Murdoch can get his grubby fingers on) cChannels 7, 9 and 10 and even the increasingly boring and conservative Sydney Morning Herald, you find that there is some really horrendous stuff happening in Australia and we, as students, have a unique opportunity in our lives (especially bloody Arts students) to take the time to find out about the dirty tricks the government and big business pull in Australia, while learning the history of the student movement within these struggles. The education that I have got from being involved in different groups and collectives at Sydney Uni has been invaluable. In fact, it’s probably been even more valuable than the education I’ve received in class...
Sydney University students are not just the Tony Abbot’s and John Howards of the world (although unfortunately those two dickheads are our alumni)... they’re the ones who rode in the 1965 freedom rides to highlight the injustices against Aboriginal Australians, they’re the ones who stood in solidarity at the Block in Redfern for the last 15 months to win affordable housing for Indigenous Australians on Indigenous land (and they won it!!), they’re the ones doing sit ins at the immigration department the day after Abyan (refugee on Nauru) had asked and been denied access to an abortion after she was raped and impregnated on Nauru (and then the Government brought her here a few days later!), they’re the ones invading their own university’s offices to demand that the staff at the University keep their jobs in 2012 (successfully and then also halted Abbot and Pyne’s deregulation of universities bill - that wasn’t even talked about in that horror budget until Sydney Uni students stood up!), and now they are you. Student activism is apriceless opportunity for change. We have a lot to fight this year with Malcolm Turnbull shining the shit that Abbott couldnt and implementing neoliberal policies that will make Australia a more unequal and unjust country. Refugees, climate change, Indigenous rights, the 1%, the Liberal Party, your education, Islamaphobia, war in the middle East... there are a lot of things to fight against and fight for in 2016. Get involved and stand with us through 2016s struggles! SRC Counter course handbook 2016
The International Student Movement Declan Maher
Universities have always been a hotspot for protest and struggle, and 2015 was no different. With the persistent, grinding pressures of neoliberalism, universities are now little more than degree factories designed to enrich the owners at the expense of students and staff. Profitability and managerialism reign supreme. Collective opposition to this pro-business agenda is intolerable for university management. Throughout the year, universities across the world became battlegrounds between students and managements, governments and the Right. At the University of Sydney, management is currently engaging in a “restructure” in which courses will be cut and fees will increase. Many staff have already been sacked, and more are threatened. Meanwhile, the Vice-Chancellor Michael Spence receives a salary of over a million dollars (and rising). Students, historically, have rarely let attacks such as these go unchallenged. As a volatile layer within society, they can kickstart and inspire wider social movements that challenge social injustice, oppression, and even capitalism as a whole. In May 1968 in Paris, student protests sparked the biggest general strike in world history at that point, with 10 million workers downing tools across France. Closer to home, the Maritime Union of Australia cited student protests in 2014 against fee deregulation as an example to follow in the trade union movement. All struggles of students, workers and the oppressed are linked, and all can learn and be inspired from one another. That is one reason why it is so important for student activists to keep up to date with the student movement internationally. Here’s a brief rundown of some of the struggles we saw in 2015: Mexico In 1968, hundreds of student protesters were murdered by Mexican security forces in the infamous Tlatelolco massacre, mere days before the opening of the Mexico City Olympics. Billions of dollars poured into this event while Mexican students and workers lived in poverty. The Mexican state has not stopped its anti-student crackdowns. In late 2014, 43 students were disappeared and murdered. They came from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College, an institution with a history of left-wing activism. Protests led by students raged throughout 2015 demanding answers and accusing the government of colluding with drug cartels to repress students and activists. This horrific crime has been a spark for a movement on the streets involving marches, teacher and student strikes, occupations, and blockades of motorways amongst other actions. USA 2015 was a spectacular year of resistance in the United States. Thanks to the huge #BlackLivesMatter movement, police violence and institutional racism has been forced out into the open. Mass protests began when Michael Brown, an eighteen-year-old black person, was murdered by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri. Protesters were met with extreme force by riot police, armed with automatic weapons, tear gas, and armoured personnel carriers. Resistance to state-sanctioned racism erupted across the entire country, involving hundreds of thousands of people. It has shone a light on the sheer brutality of the American state: police
murdered in total 1,134 people in 2015. Many of these protests have been organised and led by students. A series of protests in the University of Missouri accused the president of the university of ignoring a culture of racism on campus. This led to a strike by the university’s football team, which successfully forced the president to resign. The #BlackLivesMatter movement has linked up with the #Fightfor15 campaign, a protest movement demanding a raise to the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. The situation for workers in low paid industries such as fast food is very bleak, with many people working several jobs and 80-hour weeks just to get by. Add to this the enormous burden of college debt that students are expected to pay off. Collectively, student debt in the United States is more than one trillion dollars! South Africa Rising university fees provoked a huge upsurge of struggle in South Africa in the closing months of 2015. This has been the largest protest movement since the fall of Apartheid! “Reforms” proposed by the neoliberal African National Congress would have priced tens of thousands of students out of an education. Fortunately, the militancy and persistence of predominantly black and working class South African students stopped these attacks in their tracks. The movement began with a demonstration at Wits University in Johannesburg and exploded to campuses around the country, taking the ANC and university managements by surprise. The protests spilled out of campuses, and students managed to break down the gates of the South African National Assembly in Cape Town, where they were met with tear gas, batons, rubber bullets and arrests. On October 23, tens of thousands marched to the seat of Government in Pretoria. The students were not isolated; they managed to gain the support of several trade unions, including the National Union of Metalworkers. Such broad social unrest exposes the reality of South African society today. While Apartheid may be formally abolished, deep racial segregation still exists on economic lines, making South Africa one of the most unequal countries in the world. Black and working class people will continue to suffer until the capitalist priorities of South African society are overthrown. These four examples are by no means the extent of student struggle in 2015. Neoliberal governments will continue to try to convert universities into the soulless degree factories they desire, and squeeze as much money out of students as they possibly can. As the examples above show, governments and university managements will never give students a better deal out of the goodness of their hearts. Everything must be fought for, and we must be willing to fight and show solidarity with others who fight. From London to Ferguson to Johannesburg to Sydney, we all suffer under the same system of capitalism, and we must all fight back! Our first opportunity here in Sydney is opposing the restructure of our university. The Vice Chancellor seeks to make “traumatic” cuts to degrees, course options and staff. The end product will be more student debt and worse conditions. Come out to Fisher Library on March 16 to tell the Vice Chancellor that our education is not for profit! PAG E 13
Opposing the Restructure Dylan Griffiths Strong public opposition in the form of protests and radical action has led to fee deregulation’s retreat. Likewise, low popularity levels have seen the demise of both Tony Abbott and Christopher Pyne. But our education is still under attack!
University management is continuing to push an agenda that places profit before quality education. On the last day of work in 2015 for University of Sydney staff, Belinda Hutchinson (USYD’s Chancellor) confirmed by email that the University would begin a major restructure of the university. This restructure was first proposed in management’s strategic discussion papers released throughout 2015.
The email released some of the decisions made in December’s ‘secret’ Senate meeting. The confirmed changes to be implemented in 2017 include the amalgamations of ten faculties and six schools into six faculties and three schools, the cutting down of degree options from 122 to 20 degrees, and the removal of five alumni and two staff-elected Senators. The changes to the faculties and schools include:
ATAR. Michael Spence has played the victim, pointing to poor government policy, however, it was Spence who lobbied for the deregulation of university places and again for the deregulation of fees. Promoting a quality education is not a priority for management.
At the SRC we are certain that the faculty amalgamations will lead to heavy staff cuts. Administration is already being centralised, in preparation for the restructure. In this process we will lose staff who have dedicated years to working in their faculties. One academic working in the faculty of Education and Social Work describes their faculty’s administration staff as being the holders of ‘institutional memory’ who are essential for academic support. They were particularly concerned with the future of their faculty’s special consideration policy, which covers conditions unique to education and social work students like school placements. The centralisation of university administration staff is something that will affect all students. I remember in my first year being able to walk into the Science office and have an administrator give me subject advice. I doubt this will be possible in 2017. Administration will lose their specialisation and connection to their faculty.
Changes to the composition of the USYD Senate are an attack on staff democracy. The University has made a concerted effort to disempower staff and centralise decisionmaking in the hands of a few. Whilst the student Senate Fellows remained untouched, alumni took a heavy hit with all five alumni-elected Senate spots also removed.
But it would be wrong to think 2017 will only see administration staff cuts. Academics face a similar prospect. The strategic paper ‘Improving our Organisational Design’ states the aim of the merger between Biology, Agriculture and Veterinary Science as ‘reducing overlapping and duplication in the curriculum’. Management is out of touch with the curriculum. One Biology lecturer has stated ‘botany taught by Biology is completely different to botany taught from an agricultural perspective’. A similar picture is painted for the new Medicine school, which will likely combine Pharmacology and Pharmacy. Generalising faculty curriculums will lead to downsizing and cuts of academic staff deemed as unnecessary by management. We should expect the trend of downsizing and restructuring to occur while student numbers rise. Many academics already suffer precarious employment arrangements with casual, teaching only, and seasonal contracts common. The working conditions of university staff are the conditions of student learning. If staff suffer under the restructure, students will too.
In the past, staff cuts in the name of savings have been rationalised by claims that the university would be left behind by their competitors. In reality, the University has significant savings but chooses deprioritise our learning quality. The University has spent upwards of $50 million on Sydney Student and continues to hand out yearly $10,000 scholarships to wealthy private school graduates with a high
Cutting our degrees and curriculum will generalise our undergraduate education as an attempt to promote postgraduate study. The University’s strategy papers suggest an increase in the proportion of vertical degrees being offered in 2017. These degrees look to lock you into postgraduate study at Sydney University. In general Postgraduate study is much more expensive than an undergraduate degree and the few Commonwealth–supported places mean many students
• Merging the faculty of Education and Social Work with the faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
• Closing the Sydney College of the Arts campus at Rozelle with a proposal to merge with the faculty of Arts and Social Sciences • The faculty of Agriculture and the Environment AND the faculty of Veterinary Science to be merged with Biology as a school in the faculty of Science
• The creation of a new Medical Science faculty under which Nursing, Pharmacy, Dentistry and Medicine will operate
Management puts up a façade, claiming that students will be better off under the changes. They say we will have better graduate employability, a higher university rank, and a better student experience while flagging staff cuts through the faculty mergers and an explicit agenda to ‘cut the administrative burden’.
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The Sydney College of Arts is set to shut-down in Rozelle, relocate and merge with the faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. With little free infrastructure for studio space on main campus, SCA will majorly downsize along with related academics and student support.
SRC Counter course handbook 2016
will pay full fees for their education. Melbourne University offers Teaching (Primary) exclusively at a postgraduate level charging $52,414 for the qualification compared to the Sydney University’s undergraduate program which charges roughly $25,000. To become a primary school teacher at Melbourne you will need to pay for your undergraduate degree plus $52,414. The University of Sydney is looking to charge you more for your qualification. In 2017 we can expect the University Senate decisions to be dominated by the management and government appointed Senate Fellows. They will put the true stakeholders of tertiary education – you and me – last in the pursuit of an ‘impressive’ surplus.
The secrecy of the changes is a strong indication the restructure will be bad for students. The December Senate meeting which saw many of these changes passed has been labelled as taking place in ‘secret’ by media outlets such as The Australian. The meeting date and time was repeatedly changed resultinng in coincedentally sharing a date with the funeral of a recently deceased Senate Fellow (whose position has not yet been filled). Some alumni Senate Fellows chose to attend the funeral and not the Senate meeting. Another alumni Senate Fellow had been attending a conference overseas and was also forced out of the ‘democratic process’ by the date change. Finally, there have been reports that there had been little to no talk in previous meetings about the Senate structure changing. Nor had there been consultation with the alumni or staff community. There has been no true consultation with staff and students regarding the restructure. Students have felt ignored by the consultation sessions held in 2015. The faculty society of Education and Social Work made a petition to management which was completely ignored. The Deans who spoke out against the mergers were have gone quite and many staff members appear to be to scared speak out against the changes. The Melbourne Model and the Corporate University
Many members of the university community have compared Sydney University’s restructure to the Melbourne Model. The Melbourne Model, implemented around a decade ago, saw similar cuts at Melbourne University losing over 100 degrees and many faculties to amalgamation. The result has been a vertical degree structure where students complete a generalised undergraduate degree and need to do postgraduate study to find employment. This imposes a huge financial burden on students (as highlighted above). As one academic put it: ‘you get halfway through… and realise you have to do a lot more study until you can get a career in anything’. A Dean of rival university, Monash labelled the changes as “one of the best things to ever happen” to his university. At Melbourne a generalised undergraduate education is compulsory with ‘breadth subjects’ (subjects taken from outside your discipline) a key feature of its curriculum. A lot of students don’t want to waste time (and money) doing subjects which aren’t relevant to them. This is the purpose of the flexibility currently offered by electives and double degrees. The Melbourne Arts faculty suffered severely under the Melbourne Model. Whilst it retained its Bachelor of Arts program, the many disciplines amalgamated into the faculty
caused subject cuts and job losses. In the early days of the Melbourne Model, Gender Studies came under attack and was removed as a major until students fought for its return in 2008. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Philosophy at Melbourne is a ‘mere shadow of its former self’. Popular subjects such as the History Department’s Witches and Witch Hunting in Europe have been discontinued.
The comparison is most useful when put in framework of the neoliberal university. With funding taken out of the the education sector universities have moved to a user-pays market system. As a result, the university has attempted to adapt itself into a money making machine by operating like a corporation. Whilst this economic policy is dominant we should expect to be continuously under attack. Universities, now in an intense competition over students, look to channel prestige believing an attachment to investors and well maintained jacaranda provide the edge they need to enrol a high number of students. But then they abandon these students in oversized classes after firing staff for immediate savings. A move to a vocational education is another method used to attract students, this explains Melbourne University’s disregard for its Arts faculty. But whether you graduate from Melbourne or Sydney you are far from guaranteed employment after graduation with growing youth unemployment and trained teachers going without permanent employment for years. The Melbourne Model that offers a vocational, expensive degree in a centralized, minimally staffed institution represents the appealing next step for USYD in its pursuit of the dystopic corporate university. How Can We fight the Restructure?
Students have a strong history fighting for a fair and better education. At Sydney University, in the past students have fought against faculty amalgamations and staff cuts, and won! As was demonstrated in the successful campaign to stop the merger between the Political Economy Department and the Department of Politics and International Relations, student democracy is key. The first step to stop this merger was holding a public meeting between students who set demands and condemned the amalgamation. Students voiced these demands by rallying, passing motions in lecture theatres and by striking with staff. As management refuses to hold real consultation we also need to make democratic spaces for students to voice their opposition to management’s agenda. Due to the size of the restructure, these meetings should occur at the faculty level, and be followed up by a well-coordinated and large direct action campaign. By rallying in large numbers and taking direct action we can ensure that our demands are heard. There will always be some who view protesting as a disruption but what’s more important – missing lectures whilst rallying against the restructure or having your subjects cut? It was student that defeated fee deregulation, saved Political Economy, and fought in defence of staff jobs in 2012. At the end of the day, the university is run by students and staff and together we can grind it to a halt. Should you wait for someone or some group to organise against the cutting of your degree or the merger of your faculty? There is nobody more qualified than students to lead these campaigns and there is no reason why you should wait. Discuss the restructure with you classmates and teachers, come to an Education Action Group meeting, and join the rally on March 16!
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Why Honours? Freya Jansens
Academically speaking, I found Honours exciting. Having one whole year to focus on one topic of your choice, and have your research guided by some of the top minds in your field is a great experience. However a large component of Honours does depend on your supervisor. Personally, I had a great experience with my supervisor. She challenged my argument, provided me with extra reading material and shoved me in the right direction with my methodology. Although I had a good experience with my supervisor, I know a lot of students who have struggled with distant supervisors, noncommittal supervisors and unresponsive supervisors. The choice of a supervisor is dependant upon your faculty. In a lot of departments supervisors are assigned to the students. In Government and International Relations, students are expected to approach supervisors and pitch them their topic. This is exciting if you have a topic in mind, but coming up with a topic, and then the question, can be one of the most difficult parts of doing Honours. The question has to be specific enough to be answerable in 20,000 words and fit into a previously unfilled gap in the literature. Coming up with the question can be the continued project of your Honours. In Government/IR the structure of the Honours year is two seminars in first semester, then no contact hours in second semester to work on your thesis. Each seminar in the first semester contains a 6000-word essay, as well as weekly readings of up to 80 pages. It is said that you haven’t done honours in Government if you haven’t had Charlotte Epstein for one of your research seminars. Author of ‘The Power of Words: The Anti-Whaling Discourse’, Epstein pushes her students harder than most. The seminars are the arena in which you do a close analytical reading of your chosen texts and discuss and present the ideas with your peers and your teacher. The seminars can be one of the most rewarding experiences of Honours because you have a chance to thoroughly engage in the literature in your field, but if you are not interested in the seminar topics available that semester, they can feel like a waste of time. In first semester you also have to complete your literature review. The ‘lit review’ is the first and one of the most demanding aspects of the thesis. Hitting you in the first month of honours you are asked to compile a review of all previous literature and academic work on your topic, and then pick it apart to show where your research is original. The literature review usually forms the first chapter of your thesis, contextualising question that you are asking. All Honours programs require the literature review, as does any form of further research. I have three friends also doing honours this last year, one in law, one in architecture and one in science, and each one of us struggled with the lit review.
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The Law Honours program differs in that it is one semester, and the final mark depends on the rest of your law subjects. Architecture is one of the most flexible Honours programs, allowing the student to embark on their own creative journey and present their thesis in a manner that reflects their research. In Science, you are assigned to a supervisor whose project your work will contribute to. Each faculty and department conducts their Honours program in a different way, just as each Honours student experiences the program in a different way. In one of our first meetings about Honours our coordinator told us that Honours was potentially going to be scrapped. Masters programs are more lucrative for the university due to their classification as post-graduate, and are basically the same level as Honours research. This was disappointing to hear, and hopefully won’t happen, as Honours is a brilliant opportunity to engage in high-level academic research on an undergraduate level. Amongst more potential changes to undergraduate degrees is the potential fourth year of mandatory study for an undergraduate bachelors degree. As engaging and character building as Honours was for me, it should always remain a choice to do a fourth year of study in a bachelor degree. The honours program is designed to allow students to push themselves in their preferred field of study and conduct original research under the guidance of an academic as a window into academic life. By the end of my three-year Arts degree, I felt like I had learned the true lesson of university: how to argue. Honours for me, was practicing this skill. This should remain a choice. I feel like my supervisor introduced me to what academia is really about, and that’s not a generalist understanding of topics in your discipline forcing you to take further studies, and it’s not trying to be heard in a tutorial room filled with more students than it should be, and it’s not paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to an institution that pronounces that its about learning but acts like it’s about something else. It’s about an engagement with learning. Learning that not only illustrates the boundaries of what we know, but when armed with it, and when its made accessible to more than the top per cent, it becomes a process of equalization.
SRC Counter course handbook 2016
courses
Agriculture
Drips and Spray Paint - V.001 - Set.1000 - www.MediaMilitia.c
Last year’s Agriculture review was remarkably sunny, proclaiming “practical field trips and theoretical course work are just some of the super fun things you should be looking forward to as you embark upon your major in Agriculture within our wonderfully diverse department.” The department was “renowned for having smaller class sizes, better contact hours and thus a generally nicer atmosphere as far as peers being able to chat together about course content.” According to that writer, this made “learning a lot easier for students as less autonomy is needed and the contact you have with faculty staff is more inclusive and easier to get info about assessments settled outside of consultation hours.” Additionally, “the field-contact hours were one of the most praised things in this faculty, with students responding that it was some of their favourite time spent off campus in their whole degree.” Unfortunately, the diversity and specialised support this degree offered is already changing, with the impending restructure producing a remarkably different response from students in this year’s data. The Agriculture Faculty is being collapsed into a new ‘School of Life Sciences and the Environment’ within the new combined Science Faculty – also including the current Faculty of Veterinary Sciences and the School of Biology.
The experience of the Faculty of Agriculture and Environment to date is what we can expect from the proposed restructure. For example, for those interested in agricultural economics, all subjects relating to that area have been transferred to the School of Economics. Even worse, the major of Environmental and Resource Economics has changed to a “lectureonly style” whereas previously it was a tutorial-intensive course. This lowers learning and teaching standards significantly. As one student perceptively noted, “the main reason for this is to increase profits and increase efficiency.”
It was recommended students avoid Research Methods and Agricultural and Resource Policy, which were described as “hard to follow” with low assessment turnaround, poor feedback and difficult examinations. One student concluded that they don’t recommend that students undergo “the new agricultural economics major that replaced the Bachelor of Agricultural Economics and Resource Economics.” Perhaps a transfer is unfortunately in order for some students.
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Arts
Archaeology
First-year Archaeology subjects are some of the friendliest subjects available in the Arts Faculty. The two first-year units on offer are Early Hunters and Farmers and Ancient Civilisations. Both have assessments broken up throughout the semester and no final exam, making them very manageable. The tutes are great for giving you a sense of what it’s like to work in the field with a few practical elements as well as online quizzes in alternate weeks. However, having fewer face-to-face tutorials was unpopular in the survey, because of a lack of opportunity for clarification. Early Hunters studies pre-history and looks at the archaeological evidence for evolution, whilst Ancient Civilisations leans more towards classical archaeology. The lecturers for both units are extremely nice and always happy to talk about their own experiences in the field. To major in archaeology you need to do 12 junior units, either from the two above, or by combining one Archaeology unit with one of the following; ANHS1600 Foundations for Ancient Greece, ANHS1601 Foundations for Ancient Rome, ANTH1001 Cultural Difference: An Introduction, ARHT1001 Art and Experience, HSTY1089 Australia: Conflict and Transformation.
Ancient History Ancient History at USYD is based around the Greek and Roman worlds, so if you’re yearning for Egypt, you’ll have to make the trek to the country itself. The department, however, has done extremely well at perfecting its approach to its specialty areas and the units available mean you won’t have to do that extra bit of travel to explore Athens and Rome. The topics covered for both states are diverse, including government, architecture, mythology, geography and culture. To major in Ancient History, you need to have 12 credit points of junior units in the subject or combine one Ancient History unit with another from History, Philosophy, Archaeology, Latin or Greek. There are three junior units of Ancient History available which cater for all types, from history nerd to newbies. You can already start specialising in first year through picking either (or both) Foundations for Ancient Greece or Foundations for Ancient Rome. For fans of the ancient gods, there’s also Greek and Roman Myth. These units cover a lot of ground, particularly Foundations and Greek and Roman Myth which have different professors taking different weeks. Unfortunately, this also occasionally led to some confusion in what topic was going to covered each lecture. Having PAGE 18
You also need to complete the second-year unit Explanation and Theory, which provides a necessary background on how the field of archaeology got to where it is today. In second-year, you also get to specialise in an area of study, ranging from Neolithic archaeology to the classical Greek and Roman worlds. Not compulsory but recommended if you’re into the ‘hands-on’ experience is Field Methods which is a great introduction to the tools and instruments regularly used in archaeological excavations (the ‘dumpy level’ being a corker in both name and use). Overall, most of the first- and secondyear Archaeology subjects are decent surveys of a variety of topics, with in-depth studies available in third-year and honours (such as Research in Australasian Archaeology or Archaeology and Iconography). Archaeology, although taught in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, is really a mixture of theory and writing with a bit of science thrown in for good measure. If you’re more into writing than science, don’t be scared off, the unit is definitely okay for the scientifically challenged. Survey results showed that nearly every subject was positively reviewed.
Maybe i’ll start that take-home when I finish chilling?
multiple professors did, however, help some students pick units later on and specialise in areas they’d enjoyed in first-year. In second- and third-year, students will choose to specialise in a field, discipline, or a chronological period. Worth noting is that the Ancient History department only offers up to four senior units each year, which are repeated on a two or three year cycle. The Later Roman Empire did not score so highly based on 2015 surveys, but lecturers were mostly endorsed.
SRC Counter course handbook 2016
Art History For all you aspiring auteurs and tortured artists, these are the subjects for you, with one student finding these courses to have “excellent lecturers, and very interesting and stimulating course material.”
Film Genres and National Cinemas is an actually enjoyable core unit for Film Studies with sensible assessment that was praised for its “great lecturer” Richard Smith who was “incredibly generous with his time, thoughtful in regards to what we are doing in the course and its wider importance, great marker, incredibly understanding re: deadline and extensions.” The unit was praised for its diverse mix of films that went beyond the “typical Hollywood mix” by including recent and educational “diasporic films from various countries.”
The teaching staff were particularly praised as “engaging and vibrant” “brilliant” “genuine and caring” whilst managing to challenge the “dominance of white males in art history and encouraging viewing more diverse groups.” However, one student warned the unit had “some tough assessments that were poorly explained and hard to complete” and encouraged students to “start early and seek help.”
Modern Australian Art and Cinema was praised for “some interesting lectures” that were ultimately not engaging enough as the “content was too quickly brushed over” with “not enough focus on individual works”.
Pollock to Psychedelia was described by one student as a great course with inspiring content whilst another noted that enjoyment was “dependent on how much you get into various forms of modern art” although they did note the mix was pretty good.
Anthropology The Department of Anthropology offers an interesting insight into the world around us from differing perspectives. Unfortunately, the University of Sydney often suffers from a lack of diversity in its teaching; Western-centric course content is far too common. Anthropology is a break in this traditionalist and imperialist mould, providing a glance into social and cultural structures ignored by other schools. What is most important to note is the passion and dedication that anthropology lecturers, tutors, and unit coordinators bring to their field of study. The two first-year subjects are both excellent scholarly endeavours into the broader world.
Cultural Difference: An Introduction is well-known for its ability to ground you with an appreciation of cultural difference and diversity. Gaynor Macdonald is noted as a lecturer that provides ample material, explanation, and experience to ensure both success in this unit, and an appreciation of what it means to be an anthropologist. Anthropology and the Global is described as broader and more difficult, but lecturer Ryan Schram provides the depth of knowledge needed to succeed in this unit. The impacts of globalisation on societies that have experienced the brunt of colonialism is examined, with an emphasis on the experience and values of each culture studied.
There are so many senior units on offer in different areas, but there is a wealth of units analysing gender, religion, and Aboriginal Australians. In Being There: Method in Anthropology you get to write your own thesis for the semester, and Linda Connor is well-regarded for her ability in guiding students through the process. The greatest drawback for Anthropology is the enormous sizes of the lectures and tutorials. Whilst the lecturers and tutors all do a fantastic job in explaining the course content and encouraging further scholarship, they are severely limited by the constraints the university puts on them. Hundreds of students are in every lecture, and there is not much of an ability for the lecturers to tailor their teaching to the needs of the cohort. The same is true in the 25 person tutorials. However, each staff member in the department responds quickly to any emails, and is more than happy to have a chat!
Anthropology is a study of the societies and cultures of the world in their own terms. The department is a fresh breath of anti-colonial air in a university that is often too Western-centric!
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English If you’re sick of “Discovery” have I got the area of study for you!
Whatever qualms you may have about the useless, formulaic and repetitive nature of high school English, studying English at university is a completely different experience (at least if you want to succeed). So, if you hated high school English but love books, film, genuinely learning some new things, or if you have an original thought about Hamlet that needs to be heard, maybe give it another chance.
In terms of text selection, the greatest criticism is consistently the lack of diversity in authors and subject matter. The first year introductory courses tend slightly towards the “dead white men” end of the spectrum (though still certified good reads and essentials to tick off your ‘english major reading list’), and lectures can potentially be quite full. After first year, however, the potentially dry material gives way to a rich and broad array of subject areas. Hot hits are Screening Sexuality for the amazing tutors, Reading the Nation: American Literature for an exciting text list, and Imagining America. It’s worth emailing the coordinators of courses you’re interested in for a booklist beforehand, least of all because nobody can read a book a week during semester. There is a great deal of autonomy afforded by the faculty towards the academics who teach each course and the
content on a given course will vary wildly depending on who is taking it. Mark Byron, Huw Griffiths, and Melissa Hardie are known for their student-centric focus, and their interests (Irish Literature/Drama, Shakespeare, Contemporary Lit, respectively) deeply influence their courses. If you’re a linguistics nut, your main man here is Nick Reimer, whose courses are famed for being back-breakingly difficult, but incredibly interesting and deeply rewarding.
Spending any serious time in the school of English means engaging in the universal struggle to turn as many lecturers as possible into kind parental figures. Best dad awards go to David Kelly (top tip, ask him about his love of comic books), Melissa Hardie and Kate Lilley as the mums you deserve, and Peter Marks for his off-beat humor.
Tutorials are invariably an experience in listening to the opinions of a better-showered version of that guy in your philosophy lecture - top tip here is to be that guy. Assessments are fortunately (save some first year subjects) very keen on individual, prepared work. Anything but a traditional essay is almost unheard of. They are usually structured around a midsemester essay and a take-home exam (of equal weighting), and a class participation or presentation mark. Ultimately, studying English as a spare unit or as a major will be a process of discovery, but you will always find a sense of belonging.
Gender & Cultural Studies Gender and Cultural Studies are the majors your parents don’t want you to do because they don’t think it’ll take you anywhere in life. This couldn’t be further from the truth, though – the department helps you think critically and colours your perceptions of everything imaginable.
The best thing about these units is that they usually don’t have exams! This means that you can lord your freedom over your friends doing Government, who will probably have four exams and a lot of regrets about their life choices.
As for first-year units, Introduction to Gender Studies has rave reviews – the content is diverse (introductory queer theory is a ton of fun), and the lectures and tutorials are well run. Introduction to Cultural Studies is great too – “why did the lecturer keep saying the N word that one lecture” is the only negative feedback about the unit.
Second-year is where it gets exciting. Special mention must go to Race and Representation, facilitated by Dr. Jane Park, objectively the best lecturer in the country. Her lectures find the perfect balance between witty banter and challenging, genuinely helpful (and in some cases, life-changing) academic content about race, racism and whiteness. The subject PAGE 2 0
equips you for the fight against racism and white supremacy. Youth and Youth Culture also received a lot of love – theories and concepts discussed were backed up with pop culture references and films. Bodies, Sexualities and Identities received similar reviews – “sick content” about sex, rape culture and abortion and a helpful lecturer make this unit a good choice.
On the flip side, Intimacy, Love and Friendship has received less positive reviews. Boring, unoriginal and not challenging, most of the content has been discussed in introductory subjects. Somewhere between brilliant and unbearable lies Sex, Violence and Transgression. The content feels surreal sometimes (in one reading, Ground Zero was referred to as a “smouldering vagina”) and it’s hard to wrap your head around. For this subject to be worth it, you’ll have to have a great relationship with your tutor. This is fine, though – the tutors are usually super accommodating (although the planned restructure jeopardises this). Speaking of tutors, marking can feel generalised and subjective. Feel free to ask your tutors for more specific feedback; they’ll happily oblige. Gender and Cultural Studies is underrated but wildly important. It will make you a better person and a better student. Pls do it. Thx.
SRC Counter course handbook 2016
International and Global Studies The structure of an International and Global Studies degree is incredibly similar that of an Arts degree with four additional core units, each hosted by a different department. This similarity poses a question as to the longevity of the degree in the wake of the restructuring of the degrees offered at Sydney.
In the three years that this author has been at Sydney, I have seen the course develop and separate itself from the Arts degree with the addition of the compulsory language and exchange units, which hopefully, may see to its continuation.
Studying INGS can be expensive; particularly because of the compulsory exchange, and whilst there are the OS-HELP loans available, an additional, virtually compulsory debt makes this degree unavailable to some. In addition, the rigid structure of the degree means that in order to graduate in three years, you must continue the subjects you selected in first year; leaving little room to foray into areas outside of your core major. There were not many responses from the ever-elusive INGS cohort, however those who did respond noted that the third year core unit was “interesting and diverse and challenging in the best way” and noted that it was a significant improvement on the core units of previous units.
Of the second year core unit, respondents described it as “interesting” but “disjointed” as the readings and tutorials, lectures and assignments could have been from “completely different courses”; however, responses also indicated that students found the staff in this unit helpful and found the report style assessments to be “a nice change, and perhaps a little more ‘real world’”. As for the two first year core units? Well, there were no responses to the survey from first year students, and as such, we can offer little advice to the reader about the calibre of them as they have changed significantly over the years. Ultimately, at the end of an INGS degree one feels as though you know a little about a lot, and then a lot about a few oddly specific topic areas. There is a lot to be learnt in this area of study; and the consistently shifting nature of international issues, debates and politics ensures that each year that graduates from INGS will have learnt vastly different things depending on the issues brought to a head that year in international relations.
Government Government and International Relations: that behemoth of the Arts faculty at Sydney Uni, probably studied by 1 in 3 of the people you will meet in O-Week. But by second week, second semester, second-year, these numbers will dwindle until you’re left with only the very core, passionate about issues in IR that can only be described as nichest of the niche. “Please stay if you want,” my INGS tutor once said to my friend studying science who was sitting in on my tutorial for shits and gigs, “we have a retention rate problem.” This is illustrated clearly in a decidedly mixed range of responses for Government and IR’s 2015 courses – beneath the sheen of politeness that seemed to be a trend amongst G&IR survey answers lay an undercurrent of discontent with several courses, particularly first-year courses World Politics – a first-year subject with a difficult-to-understand lecturer – and Geopolitics – whose lecturer’s content-heavy lectures were uninteresting and often left uncompleted due to the lecturer’s tendency to spin off into orbital tangents about everything and nothing at once. “Everything you do in first year…is overly theoretical and traditional,” writes one student, who laments both first-year subjects, which are steeped in convention and unchallenging.
Come senior years, however, and several antidotes are offered for this glaring problem at hand. Gender Security and Human Rights is truly the diamond in the spreadsheet of poignant criticisms. High praise was given by all students who mentioned this subject, complimenting its tutors and lecturers (Christopher Hills, Angelus Morningstar, and Christopher Neff) for their excellence. “Gender Security should be compulsory for every government student – hell, any Arts student, any student, anybody ever,” reads a rave review about this worldshattering and ideology-changing course. Other courses that were similarly praised included Social Politics and Change and Environmental Politics, although broad criticism was given to the courses in which lecturers withheld lecture slides until close to the exam (in an apparent effort to promote lecture attendance).
If I was a statistician, I’d say that this follows the basic pattern we typically see in Government & IR – strong first year demand followed by an immediate and sudden slump as a result of poor introductory courses, then a steady cohort as the courses generally increase in quality. However, I have never seen a number in my life, so I’d say that a measured response would be to ride out the wave of first-year discontent to sail through to some pretty flippin’ fantastic senior units. PAGE 21
History Courses offered by the History department are great for self-directed learners. They are generally thematically or geographically based, and can be quite broad. Some students see this as a weakness, and many use major assignments to specialise in their area of interest. History is reading heavy. Expect 60+ pages of weekly readings for junior units and 120 pages for senior. Disciplined reading pays off even in massively oversized tutorials, however, with a 10% tutorial participation mark usually on offer. Junior Units This year, Twentieth Century Europe will be taught by Dirk Moses and Andrew ‘highly praised by students and staff’ Fitzmaurice will lecture Renaissance and Reformation. Modern European History, taught by Cindy ‘THE BOMB’ McCreery, received very positive feedback with special mention to the excellently-composed course reader. Senior Units Miranda Johnson’s course Frontier Violence is a unit to look out for this year. Johnston has received positive feedback for her engaging lectures and structured teaching-style, with many considering the Australian section a highlight of her 2015 course. Russia’s Revolutions will be offered by David Brophy for a second consecutive year after Russian history’s long break from USYD. This subject was reviewed positively with special mentions to its structure, content, reader, and textbook.
Andre Rodriguez remains the sole lecturer teaching Chinese History in the department. According to one respondent, his course The Chinese World suffered from excessive breadth as a result of this mammoth task. He is also known to set online discussion work before tutorials, so if you’re planning on cramming on the way to uni this might be a problem. This year he will also teach Twentieth-Century China. Marco Duranti had mixed responses with but the majority of responses giving positive feedback. His lectures appear to lack structure and often go on tangents, but the carefully curated reading materials and interesting content compensate for this. This coming year he will be taking Contemporary Europe and Fascism and Antifacsism. Julie-Ann Smith takes all medieval history subjects. Her lectures are well-structured, the readings are manageable and interesting, and her tutorials cover course content very comprehensively. She does have a specific essay style which she will strictly enforce, but outlines this to students in the weeks prior. James Curran will be teaching two new subjects this year – Australia’s World and Alliance Anxiety. According to our survey, he is a very good lecturer and has a nearencyclopaedic knowledge of modern Australian history. History courses offered at the 3000s level prepare students for Honours. As such, they are usually heavy on reading but allow significant freedom to choose your research area. These courses are very rewarding and are taught by three excellent lecturers in John Gagne, Kirsten McKenzie and Michael McDonnell.
Religion Students who have an interest in all things holy, have their sights set on becoming a saint or just blitzed their R.E classes in highschool and need something interesting to fill out their degree requirements should go down on bended knee and pray for enlightenment through the University’s Religion department.
Studies in Religion received positive responses this year. Luckily for prospective students “most of the units are taught by incredibly competent and engaging lecturers who take time to help you out one on one, and the tutors for firstyear units are mostly always as helpful.” The course content was also described as “interesting” with “a lot of information on many topics.” Most students will be pleased to hear that apparently there are never exams.
units at the same time. Although preferences for units often comes down to personal interest, the junior units were cited as enjoyable, especially Atheism, Fundamentalism and New Religions.’ Jay Johnsen was praised for their lecture-focus as well, with Sex, Desire and the Sacred receiving rave reviews and many students commending the department on its openminded approach to the often-taboo subject of sex in religion.
Class sizes are often attractively small in Religious Studies due to the relatively small cohorts that pass through its pearly gates. Though there was a criticism of there not being enough choice in senior units, students seemed relatively unconcerned by this as the course content was: “Interesting enough to keep me interested if you know what I mean” and by God, I think I do.
However, the courses are very essay-heavy so students are advised to stay away if this isn’t their preferred form of assessment. Also, the department tends to not properly space assessment across units, with work often due across PAGE 22
SRC Counter course handbook 2016
Philosophy What is philosophy? This question will plague you for the next four years of your three year degree. We won’t answer it. Studying philosophy demands rigorous reasoning and clarity of expression—but it rewards you with...well, we’re not quite sure. We’re just here to tell you how to navigate the department. You’ll see some courses have an “advanced” stream (e.g. Justice Advanced). Advanced streams share lectures, but have more readings, sometimes separate tutorials, and a more research-intensive assessment structure. If you’re interested in Honours, remember you need to do at least one course from (i) History of Philosophy, (ii) Epistemology, Metaphysics and Logic, and (iii) Aesthetics, Ethics and Political Philosophy. Luckily enough, the number of philosophy subjects has ballooned recently—enjoy! First year philosophy:
Summary: necessary but not sufficient.
Reality, Ethics and Beauty and Society, Knowledge and Self
Women in Philosopy
Philosophy is one of the most rewarding disciplines one can study, but unfortunately, a there is a huge gender discrepancy. By 2nd year, women only make up 20% of the course (as opposed to 50% in 1st year). There are many theories as to why this is; I personally suspect that it has something to do with (1) the institutionalised erasure of female philosophers and (2) the type of behaviour philosophy brings out in men i.e. naming 10 philosophers that no one else has heard of and who aren’t in the course to try and impress the tutor. This posturing can be deeply off putting to other students, especially those just starting their academic career.
If you need a break from Men being Pretentious™, join the Usyd Women in Philosophy facebook group. Composed of tutors and students, we hold multiple events during the semester, mostly social, always delightful. Philosophy of Law: As said earlier, Yarran Hominh is an outstanding lecturer and tutor. This course examines a number of areas of legal theory including punishment, political obligation, and the function of the law. Beware the over-eager law students in tutorials.
First year PHIL provides an important foundation for all further philosophy study. These courses very quickly teach students both an entirely new vocabulary and way of understanding arguments. Both courses are good for seeing whether you’ll enjoy philosophy, but don’t be deterred from further philosophy study if they feel too simple – senior units are much more rigorous and interesting. These junior units are also good if you just want to take a decent elective.
The Philosophy of Happiness examines the nature and value of happiness. Course content varies from psychological studies to theories about the nature of happiness. Although Caroline West is a very good lecturer, epiphanies about personal happiness cannot be assured.
Most subjects survey a range of thinkers or topics within a theme. Very few focus intensively on a lone topic or thinker. You’ll notice that some subjects have curiously similarsounding names—such as Philosophy and Psychoanalysis and Philosophy and Psychiatry. The reason can be crudely summarised by the infamous analytic–continental divide: the two subjects come from different intellectual traditions.
The History of Philosophy courses are, undoubtedly, where you find the most passionate academics. Dalia Nassar, who joined the faculty in 2015, delivers stimulating lectures and playfully snarky, anti-capitalist tutorials. Her Philosophy of Nature and the Environment covers a gender and culturally diverse range of philosophers and historians in considerable depth. Readings include aboriginal Australian theories of nature, early Christian vs. late Christian, wilderness and moral development, the ethics of eating animals and plant intelligence.
David Macarthur’s stream: Aesthetics and Art, Philosophy in Film, and the ‘Beauty’ portion of Reality, Ethics, Beauty all offer opportunities to philosophise using artworks as primary texts, which is a welcome change for students wishing to move away Logic is mathy without being math. It will not be a list of from strictly philosophical modes of writing. Both senior units argumentative fallacies for you to use to punish opponents will offer significant latitude in terms of assessment, as DMac in Facebook arguments. studies how truth flows -between DripsItand Spray Paint - V.001 Set.1000 - www.MediaMilitia.com welcomes essays along the lines of: “Choose a film you care premises in arguments. about that does some philosophical thinking. Provide a reading that demonstrates that thinking.” Senior Units
Reality, Time and Possibility: Metaphysics. Ah, metaphysics—the study of the nature of stuff in the world. Taught by David Braddon-Mitchell, an outrageous character infamous for florid thought experiments, your brain will be tickled with the paradoxes of time and time travel, as well as other key topics in the field. Contemporary Political Philosophy and Democratic Theory are subjects that go hand-in-hand—both are organised around liberal democratic thought and critical responses to it. Expect to read John Rawls in both. This year Drs Milly Churcher and Yarran Hominh are lecturing Contemporary Political Philosophy—and both are brilliant. Democratic Theory’s lecturer has not been finalised.
Justice surveys various theories of distributive justice (from Libertarianism to Marxism) and examines interesting applications of these theories (e.g. immigration). It is taught by Lachlan Umbers who is an excellent lecturer and seems to genuinely care whether students understand the content.
Nassar specialises in the German philosophical canon, teaching 19th Century Philosophy with such meticulous insight and passion that she reinstalls sense of purpose in this dumb, empty world. By far the most challenging courses on offer, and the only course I would dare call “life-changing” despite the gruelling essay questions. John Grumley lovers worship his critical intellect and dry humour, while the average student finds his content dense and his train of thought impenetrable. Confusingly, his courses attract copious Evangelicals, despite the fact that Modernity in Crisis is the most secular class available. So, as one of the few radical Marxists left at the university, unless you are an anarcho-Christian who resents the church, he’s having none of it. To get the most out of this course, practice mindfulness and patience, and embrace anti-institutionalism.
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Languages As a Chinese Australian who can’t really speak Chinese, communicating with relatives can often get really hard. I can understand Chinese to the extent that when Mum is complaining about me to her Chinese friends in front of me, I can understand what she’s saying but can’t retort back in Chinese. But it’s not only the desire to learn how to talk back to my mother in Chinese that compelled me to do Chinese studies. Rather, I found Chinese culture complex, frustrating and beautiful, and I wanted to learn about it. Structure of Chinese Studies
Chinese studies at USYD includes both cultural and language subjects. The language subjects start off with either a complete beginners course (Chinese 1A) or an advanced beginners level (Chinese 1C). Beginners is suggested for people who have never studied Chinese before.
Advanced Chinese is recommended for people who are fluent in Cantonese or another Chinese dialect (not Mandarin) or can speak/understand a bit of Mandarin. From there on, there are a range of different levels you can go on to. Pros and Cons
Chinese is really great because you learn HEAPS. Besides the generally rigorous, fast-paced course, there’s a variety of ways you can improve your Chinese. The department has in-country studies where you go on exchange to Chinese universities. They also host sessions where you can practice your Chinese with native speakers (so I’ve heard - admittedly I’ve never attended). Also, one of my favourite things about the course was my tutor. Irene An teaches the advanced beginners course and she is really fantastic. She will push you quite hard, and is always forcing you to improve. But on top of all, she has a really nuanced and deep understanding of both the Chinese language and culture, so you end up with a really holistic understanding of modern and historical China.
However, if you want an easy going subject this may not be the best choice of subject. You really do need to study hard, unfortunately. Also, as I’ll elaborate below, there’s a variety of different levels of fluency within one class. This may mean some lessons may be too slow or too fast for particular students. Things to note
Advanced beginners has to facilitate a range of Chinese speakers, so it ends up having a huge range of skill. You’ll have people who can only speak limited, broken Chinese to people who are fluent in Chinese, but just don’t know how to read and write.
exercises. Also, languages are really intense, so you may be learning up to 50 new characters a week.
I’d definitely recommend this course. Personally, I find that this subject goes beyond just teaching grammar structures and immerses you in Chinese culture. I’ve learnt a lot about Chinese cultural norms and significant myths, and it’s been quite eye-opening and formative.
It’s actually made me want to talk back to my parents less, because I start to understand their cultural perspective more. But for whatever reason, if you’re interested in Chinese studies, I’d say give it a go! Hebrew, Biblical and Jewish Studies
Hebrew, Biblical and Jewish Studies students responded positively regarding their units of study, with all units recommended by respondents. The “great lecturers” came particularly praised, Yona Gilead was acclaimed as “insanely good” and Galit Shemer was also highlighted as a “very competent tutor.” Class sizes were celebrated as “nice and small” with one respondent claiming “the teaching calibre in this department is 10/10 excellent.” The well-structured courses that had thorough “areas of learning” and “generous outlines provisions.”
However, guest lecturers were not as strong as the core teaching team, markers were often very tough and “some of the essay questions are becoming too broad in the second year” which led one student to note that their research focus suffered as “things become slightly irrelevant and ambiguous.” Reading Bible: Narrative, Law and Ritual came highly recommended as an introductory course. Germanic Studies
German continues to be a popular subject, however, it requires a lot of self-discipline and continuous effort. Speaking skills aren’t always emphasised in class, so it’s worth tagging along to one of the German Klub’s conversation groups which happen over lunch to improve your skills and get to know other enthusiasts. The content is quite rushed, so it can be worth asking the teachers for extra worksheets on a topic you may have not understood at the time. The tutors all receive high praises in the survey for being friendly and happy to help when someone was struggling.
This may seem to be a disadvantage to you if you’re not fluent, but keep in mind that this is a fact with all subjects, and there will always be a range of skill and experience in each class, and this fact is simply brought to the forefront in Chinese. The course is usually structured around a textbook. Each week you will complete a new lesson from the textbook. I suggest asking around to see if you can get your hands on a textbook beforehand to see if you like the way Chinese is taught. It’s usually a combination of vocab, comprehension and grammar
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SRC Counter course handbook 2016
Languages Continued FRENCH
The French Department is a great place to find yourself at the university on the whole. Cultural units are diverse (and constantly changing), and the language courses will bring your French up to speed quickly. It’s definitely worth considering as a major! In second year, language courses focus more on contemporary issues in France, which is both challenging and engaging. French Studies brings all sorts and a wide variety of opinions so it’s easy to enter debate if you keep up with your language. The core units in French use innovative types of assessment through which you really get to know your cohort. This year, Nathalie Camerlynck was praised after taking on the course Senior French 9. Michelle Royer also received praise.
Bureaucratic restructuring of the department makes understanding course progression difficult, the courses change a lot from year to year, so don’t count on planning your courses ahead specifically. With that said, I had a great experience of French Political Cinema, which covered a really interesting range of at times subversive topics through film. Taking time away from Sydney to do an exchange, if you are able, is a great way to improve your French and get ahead in French academia, particularly if you’re doing Honours, which requires a 70% average, 48 credit points in French and a couple of prerequisite courses. There’s also the option to do double Honours with French, if your other major permits it!
The French Society (FrenchSoc) of the USU is an active society aimed at helping students with language and reflecting French culture at events throughout the year. Their Wine & Cheese nights are particularly well-recommended. In previous years, French discussion groups over lunch a few times a week has provided free coffee and a chance to practice your French regardless of your level of fluency, which there are few opportunities to do in a casual setting. Look out for their stall and an event during O Week.
Spanish and Latin American Studies
Like other culture and language departments, entry into of Spanish and Latin American studies, involves undergoing an assessment of sorts in order to assess your language level and eligibility for cultural units taught or assessed in Spanish or both Spanish and English. If you intend to major, this assessment also determines the amount of culture to language units you will need to take. Given this, it’s better to ask for such assessment before you enrol and depending on your results, arrange for permissions to be written and emailed for prerequisite subjects. According to department majors, Spanish and Latin American studies is a very niche yet compelling insight into the Spanish speaking world and its European and Latin American contexts. Popular culture units recommended by students were New Latin American Geopolitics of Power and Latin American Film and Literature. Students noted their ability to approach contentious issues with engaging and interdisciplinary pedagogy. Both units are coordinated and taught by Dr Vek Lewis – yes, the department is small but mighty. Dr Lewis is popular among students for his conversational teaching style and obvious passion for the riveting histories which embrace the dynamism of the Spanish speaking world.
On the flipside, students also noted that these units assumed a lot of prior knowledge and that this was often reflected in the variety and amount of course texts suggested off and online.
Now to Language Units. Students complained that the units were also content rich and demanded a lot of independent learning or outside-of-class interaction with your tutor or super awesome, newly created study group. In terms of the learning environment offered by the department, some students liked the intimacy of the tutorialstyle lectures. Higher language level students in particular, felt the interactive and intimate nature of language seminars give students more confidence to ask questions and participate in speaking exercises. Generally, however, students disliked crowded tutorials or fact that that such an arrangement made your attendance and participation in class more obvious.
Overall students enjoyed Spanish and Latin American studies, recommending their learning experience to those who are not afraid to go that extra mile!!
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Spence Sorts the Wheat from the Chaff PAGE 25
Ancient Languages Ancient Languages received generally good feedback. Studying Cicero and Demosthenes may sound dull, but if you plan on doing Ancient History honours, you’ll need to finish 12 units of Latin or Ancient Greek – so plan ahead.
As class sizes are exceptionally small compared to other departments, the vibe was described as “tight-knit” and “a really welcoming feel”. The lecturers were described as “lovely” and tutors as “very understanding if you needed extensions or if extenuating circumstances (or just bad organisation) prevented you from finishing your work, they would accept late submissions.”
in Intermediate Latin 1 ensuring students stayed on top of study by moderating the workload and stress. The structure of Intermediate Latin 2 was critiqued for its more traditional approach and “monotonous structure” that involved major essays and a high workload that involves translating mountains of text that meant, “it becomes less a language class and more a literature class.” Ancient Greek is known to be both more difficult and more quickly taught than Latin but, despite this, students who studied both Latin and Ancient Greek in 2014 tended to prefer the latter.
If you decide to embark on a journey in Latin, you’re in for a lot of work. First year students unanimously complained about the study load, usually in capital letters. Weekly quizzes encourage constant revision and exasperation. Which is all for the best, because if you don’t keep up with the fast-paced course, “you will fall behind and you will DIE”. Senior Latin is even more dire, with disproportionate amounts of time taken up by hundreds of lines of translations, week after week. Nevertheless, students insisted that they enjoy doing all this work. Both Intermediate Latin 1 and Intermediate Latin 2 came recommended, with the course work described as “engaging”, with weekly quizzes and smaller fortnightly assessments
Linguistics Linguistics has undergone some recent changes – units in semester 1 are quite different or have been repackaged. The unit Media Discourse is not longer available while a new unit called Australia’s Indigenous Languages will be run. This is a welcome change considering there was previously no course that covered (or even touched on) the languages of pre-invasion Australia. This course is recommended by your author.
Based on the survey responses, students generally have good experiences with linguistics and people seem to regard it as providing generally moderate to high-quality learning. Being a subject students coming straight from high-school are unfamiliar with, it can be an interesting and refreshing adventure to take. Sometimes people feel like things progress quickly and it can be easy to get lost – so if you don’t understand something, ASK!
The introductory units are generally recommended: interesting and understandable. Both courses will be taught by Nick Enfield who was viewed favourably. Language and Social Context was regarded as easy by some. Students appreciated the small take-home assignments and problem sets as they help you to keep on top of things. Exams are very manageable, PAGE 26
being either open-book or take-homes. Some found that readings for the intro courses were not always “essential”, in that they weren’t brought up in class. It seems possible to get by without purchasing those materials however I recommend reading them for your own edification if you have time. They will probably contribute to your personal / academic development in linguistics, even though it may seem like they won’t help you in the course.
Phonetics and Phonology cover two areas of linguistics that have now been lumped together – linguistics majors should generally do this unit to get a grasp of sound systems. You also have the option of Dynamics of Sound later on, which seems like a more advanced version. Phonology was reported to be “tricky” to “a disaster” to “interesting”. It seems as though many students had trouble with it, some saying that it accelerates very quickly. Functional Grammar was well-received. James (Jim) Martin is regarded as a great and enthusiastic lecturer and tutor. Unfortunately, the psycholinguistics course is no longer available but you can take Language and Reality, which apparently will investigate the cognitive process of categorisation. Coooool. Drips and Spray Paint - V.001 - Set.1000 - www.MediaMilitia.com In terms of lecture recording, it’s a real mixed bag. Some do, some don’t. In terms of teachers, basically all are pretty great. Students reported that Nick Enfield and Sebastian Fedden were friendly and engaging. The ever-charismatic William Foley (Bill) is traditionally recommended as a legend (though sometimes can be vague and difficult) and Nick Riemer is exceptionally well-regarded.
SRC Counter course handbook 2016
MECO The Bachelor of Arts (Media and Communications) is unusual because all of the media units are compulsory. In addition to your compulsory media units, you must do one Arts major and may do another major from a diverse range of faculties, or fill these units with electives.
The three first-year subjects are Introduction to Media and Communications, Media and Communications Landscapes and Principles of Media Writing . The former two courses are both theoretical, and one student surveyed noted that these subjects had good lecture content and provided very helpful exam revision packs to take the stress out of preparing for final exams. In Principles of Media Writing, students learn how to write in the news style, and I personally found both the lectures and tutorials fantastic – very informative and practical.
Though there were very few responses to the survey, many responses were very positive, aligning with my own experience of the course. Though one student critiqued having compulsory subjects, another said that this meant they had discovered some subjects they didn’t expect to like and that they found they were also good at. Another student said they enjoyed all of the subjects, and more students praised
individual units. One student said they really enjoyed Dr Alana Mann’s teaching in Introduction, another praised Alison Ray’s expertise in video production, and another said generally that all of their lecturers and tutors have a very high level of experience in the subjects they teach. Overall, I’ve also found the academics in the Media and Communications Department very approachable, understanding, and willing to provide individual help. Further, the Department’s Digital Media Unit is extremely well-stocked with technical equipment e.g. for video production. One student noted that Video Production and Online Media taught vital skills for the graduate market, but that they had steep learning curves. Another student also praised the Video Production course as offering much freedom to explore your own ideas within the video format. The main criticism of the degree structure is that the fourth year of the degree (which used to be when people would do their internship, but the structure has changed since) felt like an Honours year without the Honours title.
I’ve only done a year of Media and Communications so far, but it’s been a great year in which I’ve learned really interesting skills, discussed fascinating ideas and worked with fantastic lecturers and tutors who are clearly extremely passionate about their work. Would recommend 10/10.
Sociology We live in a pretty fucked up world, so the scientific study of social behavior or society, including its origins, development, organization, networks, and institutions is pretty damn important. Luckily, Usyd has a fairly well respected Sociology department.
Responses were also mixed regarding the compulsory firstyear subjects Introduction to Sociology 1 and 2. Although one student “didn’t find it interesting at the time” they noted it “actually helped me so much with later units from different subject areas.” The “pretty easy content” and open book final exams were also celebrated. However, the overly long lectures were criticized as “boring” and “beyond dry and repetitive” and students complained that the content was so easy that the entire course could be self-taught from the textbook. Regardless, because of the very positive responses to senior units this writer would encourage potential sociologists to push on – it gets better. Welfare States: A Comparative Analysis received good notices, especially for its “engaging, knowledgable, funny and entertaining” lecturer and tutor Gyu-Jin Hwang. Crime, Punishment and Society was praised for interesting content, assessments and readings, with great discussions around “punishment, sentencing, and policing, all analysed from critical perspectives.” Celebrity Society also received props
as “very engaging and highly relatable for film and television addicts” with assessments that allowed for “individual interpretations.” Finally, Childhood and Youth received praise for its “engaging” and “excellent” lecturers and tutors and the well explained concepts and subject matter. A respondent said that the readings “can be overwhelming but that isn’t a problem with the units so much as the faculty!” Sociology of Deviance and Difference was described as “great, the topic areas were very interesting and tutorials were very engaging.” Unfortunately, it was recommended Sociology of Health and Illness be avoided due to numerous complaints from students regarding assessment.
A common theme seems to be engaging and popular electives and unpopular and resented compulsory units. Sociological Theory and Practice, compulsory for prospective honors described as an “absolute joke of a unit, just a complete rehash of material from the second year methodology units.” Lectures were described as unengaging and students were not satisfied with the assessment feedback. However, as Sociology gives you the tools to understand why the world is the way it is - this writer considers it a particularly valuable area of study if we are to make it better.
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Indigenous Studies Indigenous Studies was consistently very highly recommended by survey respondents, who all shared a sense of the importance of engaging with Aboriginal issues through the units offered. Students consistently felt that Indigenous Studies was much more practically-focussed than most other subjects, and that the tutorial discussions were consistently very engaging. Tutorial sizes were good and academic staff were seen as very dedicated and very helpful.
Academics who teach Indigenous Studies units come from a variety of different backgrounds, including sociology, history, law, community development, education, and others. Students felt that the interdisciplinarity of the major was a major strength, allowing them to explore different perspectives on Aboriginal issues. Indigenous Studies units were strongly praised for being able to “decolonise” the academy, that is to deconstruct how academic knowledge and universities as institutions have been implicated in the process of colonisation, and to articulate alternative ways of conducting research which empower Indigenous peoples and support their struggles for decolonisation and justice. Students overwhelmingly felt that the major has been valuable not only in an academic sense, but has been beneficial for their personal development as well. Intro to Indigenous Australia was regarded by all respondents as an excellent introduction to Aboriginal culture, history and
politics. Re-Awakening Indigenous Languages was also very highly praised for its fascinating subject matter, and for its engaging field trip to see Gumbaynggirr language revival in practice. It is being offered again this year, but places are very limited, so enrol ASAP! Sydney University’s Indigenous Studies course is also the only place in Australia where you can do a tertiary-level subject in Gamilaraay, a language from northwestern NSW. Unfortunately, University Management does not share this enthusiasm, and has a history of tension with Indigenous Studies. The University tried to close the Koori Centre (a support and study space for Aboriginal students) a couple of years ago, and was only unsuccessful because Aboriginal students and supporters took action. However, the Indigenous Studies major is no longer run by a dedicated department, but has been folded into Education & Social Work. Some feel that this reduces the capacity of the faculty and are concerned that the quality of courses will suffer.
The major is being further reshuffled this year - in previous years, the introductory unit KOCR2600 has been a second year offering. This year, it’s been split into two first-year subjects. It also appears that several other units will not be continuing this year, though many units are usually only offered bi-annually, so they may return next year. One of the positive changes this year is that the faculty are making a greater effort to ensure units are taught by ATSI people. Overall, the message about Indigenous Studies was - “Do it, you won’t regret it”, but the subject is also a great example of how students cannot take a quality education for granted, but must fight to defend it.
Performance Studies The haven of young creative types (essentially SUDS students preparing for their NIDA auditions and future drama teachers), performance and theatre studies received very strong reviews across the board as “generally laid back and are the kind of classes you’re likely to make friends in.” Future students are advised to note that there is “a great deal of theory involved mixed in with some practical activities.” The universal critique is the high level of group work and assignments – respondents noted that this is a major part of all courses. Luckily, there “are no exams and the units are assessed through assignments.” The praise doesn’t stop – “the lecturers/tutes are excellent across the faculty – they’re well practiced in the field and are overall lovely people!”
The junior units, Performance: Process and Collaboration and Dangerous Performances, received fantastic feedback with “great content” with “very engaging very interesting stuff covered.” Ian Maxwell was described as a “fantastic” with other lecturers and tutors praised as “very good, they had great attitudes and all were approachable for anything regarding the course work and material.” Additionally, students studying junior units favorably received the style of tutorials being taught as workshops.
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Senior units received similar praise, except for the compulsory Being There: Theories of Performance which was critiqued for its long lectures and difficult, excessively dry course content. However, Ritual, Play and Performance developed the theoretical ideas from Being There with “a hands-on, studywhat-you’re-interested-in kind of way.” It was also praised for the “degree of flexibility when it came to assessments due to the nature of the work and the small class size.”
Students also recommended avoiding Rehearsing Shakespeare as “while the concept of the class was interesting, it was poorly planned.” Embodied Histories was praised for its excellent teaching and “strange but fun” assignments. Humorously, students should be warned of the “weekly dance sessions” although no experience is needed!
Finally Performance: Production and Interpretation was cited as a “great class that has more of the drama aspect” with assessments that provide an avenue to “express many different types of experience and knowledge no matter whether you’re an actor, writer, producer or something else.”
SRC Counter course handbook 2016
Political Economy Political Economy – or ECOP, as it is commonly known – is the beautiful cousin of economics. Essentially, it studies economic issues as social issues, hence involving its analysis with politics, values, and (to some extent) philosophy. Especially since the Global Financial Crisis and the War on Terror, political economy has seen a global resurgence. It takes on and interrogates topics like poverty, the nature of markets, democracy, discrimination, climate change, growth and multi-national corporations. Constantly questioning, arguing and poking holes in the mainstream, ECOP teaches you to think creatively and write clearly. It is an inter-disciplinary field that draws on anthropology, economics, history, sociology and philosophy.
The students are eclectic and the faculty are brilliant. In fact, the Department of Political Economy at the University of Sydney is known around the world as one of the best collection of political economic thinkers.
ECOP is also (as the name would suggest) one of the most politically active departments on campus. Their staff and students are constantly fighting back against cuts to university funding, and they have spearheaded many initiatives promoting student rights, better working conditions for staff and a more open and inclusive university system. It’s also surprisingly employable. USYD ECOP students are frequently sought out for positions in journalism, business, advocacy, politics and – you guessed it – economics.
The two junior units in ECOP – Economics as a Social Science and International Economy and Finance – introduce students to the idea of political economy and its method of study. The former is highly regarded as an enjoyable introduction to the discipline. The senior units typically explore various topics in-depth and you will quickly find yourself travelling down the rabbit hole of political economy. EcopSoc, the USU society for political economy, has highlyattended weekly drinks at Hermann’s Bar. The community of ECOP is tightly-knit and, if you go through to Honours, you’ll find yourself in one of the most collegial bunch of undergraduate researchers known to USYD.
Economic Theories of Modern Capitalism
Previously, this subject was taught by the great and infamous Joseph Halevi. He has been synonymous with the course since its inception and left an indelible mark on the unit. While difficult, his skill as a story-teller ensured it was accessible to even those fresh out of first-year – although, I would recommend taking it in third-year when you’re more prepared for the rigour necessary to undertake the subject.
This year, Mike Beggs will be taking the subject and has made the core concepts of the course more accessible to secondyear students while maintaining the advanced material as a supplement to the course. The course focusses on the major macroeconomic trends and theories randing from the French physiocrats and moving through classical political economists, Marx, marginalists, Keynes, Neoclassicists and all the variations of the final two that have since emerged.
Economic Theories of Modern Capitalism gives students a solid theoretical basis that is invaluable in subsequent units and understanding economics in general. The course notes are detailed and lengthy and the course itself focusses a great deal on various macroeconomic models – so be prepared for an intensive semester of study.
USYD’s strategic paper ‘Developing an Distinctive Undergraduate Education’ is a failed attempt to hide a corporate agenda under the cloak of student expierence
Neoliberalism w/ Damien Cahill
This unit is taught by one of the most effective communicators in the department and the content is extremely stimulating. Damien is very talented in distilling the key elements of arguments made about neoliberalism and conveying it in a clear way. He does this in a way that is interesting and engaging.
The readings supplement the course well, allowing the student to clearly follow the various arguments made about the source of neoliberal processes. The theme of the course centers upon the importance of utilising all the key arguments to comprehensively understand neoliberalism. I would highly recommend finding Damien’s book (The End of Laissez-Faire) which can be found as an ebook in USYD Library as it clearly outlines the argument that the course is based upon.
This unit is crucial to understanding the contemporary economic and political environment in which we live. It is highly enjoyable and very rewarding. PAGE 2 9
Economics Economics in first year is a bit like Ferrero, a bit dry at first but if you put in enough effort and keep crunching on you’ll discover some delicious rich rewards before getting to the real nuttiness of the course. Studying economics at a university level is like doing economics in high school, except the maths goes on steroids.
Jokes, it isn’t too bad – just mainly algebra and a bit of calculus, but if you haven’t done maths since the golden time of dropping it before senior school or you have no idea what calculus is – get familiar. Not to worry, though, for the Economics Department provides free catch-up math classes outside lecture and tutorial times.
Make sure you attend if you need it – the Economics Department does little to force students to go, meaning you have to put in the effort yourself. For those of you who are starting the degree from acing economics in high school or fresh out of Extension 2 Mathematics, the first few weeks might seem like a breeze but before you know it the content gets hella hard and diverges from the HSC Economics syllabus pretty quickly. The lectures aren’t compulsory and sometimes the two hour hits might be draining so I would recommend trying to get morning lectures and forcing yourself to turn up...otherwise by the time mid-sem turns up you’ll realise a lot of diagrams and words you had never heard or seen before are being assessed.
US Studies Overall, a major in American studies and the corresponding USSC and AMST units wered highly recommended by students. The benefits are pretty clear: not only can one cross list a great range of fascinating units from a multitude of disciplines but the United States Studies Center offers some of the most unique, creative and respected units you will undertake during your study. Unfortunately these courses come with a caveat, as one respondent noted: “If you’re good with the whole questionable way the USSC gets their money then there’s no issues.” Essentially the USSC is a pretty shady institution. It’s been labeled a propaganda machine – it rarely truly critiques the US. Worse, it’s funding by some seriously suspect sources. BUT as one astute respondent opined “For a start, everything that Honi says about the USSC and its association with drug companies/weapons companies/Satan may very well be true, but it is utterly irrelevant to their undergraduate units.” This presents a dilemma for progressive students – do I sacrifice my values to enjoy some of the best units available? It’s your call. The junior unit, Global America was praised as “easily the best subject I took this year - it was fun, engaging, interesting, relevant, and I really enjoyed writing essays for it” with another student remarking it was “my favorite subject of the year.” PAGE 3 0
Microeconomics and Macroeconomics are the most similar subjects to the HSC course but Introductory Statistics and Introductory Econometrics are pretty different and really start to rely on your maths. Introduction to Econometrics is a silent killer, close to 50% of the cohort fail the course- most commonly due to a lack of effort. Kadir is one of the course lecturers and if you are lucky enough to have him, or any other lecturer, make sure you email them as soon as you fall behind on work. Well, if that dazzled you, then surely you must be an economics major! Pray do keep reading then, as we introduce second year: Intermediate Macroeconomics and Intermediate Microeconomics!! HOW FUN!! Seriously though, this is heaps of fun, and you do get to do some more challenging stuff, though if you plan on pursuing Honours then you’ll need to take a closer look at the subject handbook. You have way more interesting units ahead of you <3 These units were described as more entertaining, maths-focused and exhaustive (of the material, not you) components of the junior and intermediate micro and macro schools of thought. Be aware of textbook prices if you can.
The Economics School used to be one of the best in the country; however, due to the funding cuts, university management seems to keep having to serve to every department the faculty is kind of all over the place, with more generic and broad subjects and lecturers taking all kinds of courses. If you can figure your way around it and maybe be a bit more autonomous about your subject selection we advise exercising caution in this area. That would be good. Significantly, the “the interdisciplinary nature of the subject it meant that you could always find something that suited your interests to focus on.”
The senior USSC units generally drew praise, with one student noting that they “haven’t taken a UOS I haven’t loved”. Sex, Race and Rock in the USA is the obvious standout, especially “if you’re passionate about music.” The diversity and depth of the course and the fascinating way in examines American culture make it an essential experience. I’ve heard great things about things about Stand Up USA: American Comedy and Humour on facebook, surely the modern Counter Course survey. Americanism and Anti-Americanism was described as a “very interesting subject with an enthusiastic lecturer… engaging tutorials that provide the opportunity to hear other people’s opinions on America”. However, this course attracted criticism previously for poor assessment and complicated readings. A big selling point: “All the teachers, whether they be the lecturers or tutors are complete professionals.” My tutor, Anwyn Crawford, was sharp, insightful and challenging, three qualities any student should prize tremendously.
All considered, one should definitely dip their toes into these subjects that attempt to comprehend and attach meanings to the land of the free. America may be in decline, but it still holds incredible sway and power throughout the world. To ignore it would be foolhardy. Besides, no other subject would routinely give me HDs for essays discussing Rihanna, Rupaul, extreme pornography, Barrack Obama and American Horror Story. SRC Counter course handbook 2016
Business
So you have decided to sell out and do a major from the Business School in an effort to make you more employable and guarantee that you will get a high-paying job, even if some of the majors can be downright boring and tedious at times. With a plethora of majors and disciplines to pick from, there is bound to be at least one major that you can stomach. Be warned, the Business School is the most pro-restructure faculty, with it’s management favouring the adoption of a fouryear degree model for its students and cutting down staff jobs. In addition, Business School units are extremely expensive, with a set of 8 increasing your HECS debt by $10,500 as opposed to other disciplines. Accounting and Finance
Two majors that go hand-in-hand with each other, represent some of the most math-orientated courses in the school. Both majors were praised for their exam styles, being challenging but easily prepared for. Prof. Abdul, from first-year accounting and the financial accounting sub-discipline was also given good reviews due to his engaging teaching style in a subject thats content is often drier than the Sahara desert. For those who have selected a commerce degree, the compulsory first-year course Accounting, Business and Society, has free additional tutorial sessions known as PASS sessions that respondents found very if not more helpful than some of the actual tutorials. Behavioural Finance is also recommended due to its distinct content as compared to the stock standard finance route.
That being said, one does need to be a millionaire to study marketing as textbook costs are high, though make sure you check with friends the need to actually purchase the textbook for yourself as most courses don’t require knowledge of the textbook for assessments. Additionally, if you don’t like public speaking then Marketing will be a harder challenge than climbing up Mount Everest. Work and Organisational Studies
Despite having the worst name for a discipline, Work and Organisational Studies is a diverse discipline marred with conflicted opinions. On one hand, this area of study is well received by those students who prefer to study Psychology with a business focus. In addition, Marian Baird is the Associate Dean of this Faculty, and ensures that all her courses try out new teaching styles that focus on more interactive learning. On the other hand, this discipline is criticised for its lack of practical elements, with students desiring a more hands on approach particularly for a discipline that includes a management major. Furthermore, as you can probably tell by now, one has to have money to be able to make money, so be prepared to blow your savings on textbooks just to be able to successfully complete the course.
But wait on, surely there are some downsides to these bastions of the stock market and you would be right. In the words of Jessie J, “it’s all about the money” with the price tag of external courses costs such as textbooks and workbooks around $250. What’s more, the use of online content means that in order to access the code, of which you have to complete the course, you have to buy the most recent edition of the textbook. These courses have also been criticised for an excessive homework to mark ratio, which will surely frustrate you for hours on end. Marketing
Want to do a commerce degree but hate money and maths related concepts, and just like public speaking? Welcome to marketing, a subject that is founded upon group presentation after group presentation. First piece of advice is to select a group that matches your expectations for the subject. If you want to do minimal effort find other like-minded enthusiasts and you can scrape a pass while at Hermanns or Manning.
Marketing subjects are commended for their engaging lecturers, who often supplement their teachings with marketing professionals in order to provide industry insight. That being said often of the time these marketing ‘professionals’ are little more than former students who provide irrelevant information to the subject area that is being discussed. Public Relations and Services Marketing were praised primarily due to their good course content, but also being relatively easy to score high marks in. PAGE 31
Engineering
If you ever walked past ugly old buildings in Darlington campus on your way to Redfern station, chances are you’ve gone past Engineering Faculty. The lifestyle of an engineering student is truly worthy of serenades for its ruthless academic pressure, but if you manage to do your 4-5 years imprisoned in the libraries (and labs and learning hubs) and chained to reference books then you might enjoy a future of assured job security and boasting about your career opportunities to blaze arts students. Gender balance still is and will be an issue, however there was a slight shift towards gender awareness in the recent years. If you are going into your first year at USYD Engo, prepare for brutal timetabling and expect 15-20 hours from Semester 1. If you have a solid background in STEM subjects and are interested in pushing yourself right from the start, then try to avoid subject-fillers like ENGG1000, ENGG1111, ENG ENGG1800, ENGG1803, ENGG1805, ENGG1813 and ENGG1850.
Try to at least do some research into the courses (assessments/hours/course outcomes) before you begin week 1. If you haven’t done that, don’t worry – you can still enrol in the new subjects before the end of week 2. Talking to lecturers is a foolproof strategy, as they are the ones teaching the courses and know the highs and lows of engineering education. Course and Units of Study Database (CUSP) on uni website is your guardian angel that makes sure you do not go astray from very rigid degree requirements so do yourself a favour and check up on your course progression frequently.
Engineering is a huge faculty with a wide range of disciplines, so how can you pick one straight out of high school? Well, you don’t have to. Flexible First Year at USYD was designed to give you a flavour of as many streams as you can chew. It has two streams: mechanical and electrical; and gives you some time to consider what kind of industry you want to enter as a professional engineer. Since it is a first-year-only program, the subjects you have to complete are not difficult and could be aced with minimum effort.
Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic
AMME is notorious even among the engineering campus for having the most contact hours, difficult assessments and awful gender balance. First- and second-year will prove to be very difficult and explains high dropout rate, but in third- and fourthyear things get quite a bit more interesting, provided you get that far.
All three branches in this School have quite similar syllabus, especially when you combine your Engineering with other degrees. A few first-year Maths subjects are an absolute must as well as introductory engineering units. Prepare yourselves for lots of out-of-class hours in a desperate attempt to keep up with the material. This entire degree is designed to be anticramming and there is no other way to pass any subject unless consistent effort is applied weekly. Group assessments are very common so be very selective in choosing your partners for the reports and presentations, otherwise you’d find yourself raging at your peers much more often than socially acceptable. The lecturers are geniuses and are absolute gurus when it comes down to their areas of interest, but they are, in general, quite dry when it comes to delivering the material in class. Tutors, on the other hand, who are responsible for smaller classes and applied component of your courses, always seem very eager to explain to you any concept from lectures and are your lifeline when exam time hits. Civil
Civil Engineering is viewed very positively by its undergrads. The units of study seem to be less time intensive (at least in its first couple of years). The difference in delivery of the material in class is noticeable – lecturers manage to present even the most basic and driest concept with very high student engagement. The course area offers a very wide range of specialisations: Structural, Environments, Geotechnical and Construction Management.
Engineers: Fully Employed, But Never Fully Loved
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SRC Counter course handbook 2016
Chemical and Biomolecular
The benevolent School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering has many pleasant surprises waiting for you. This degree is well known within the Engo campus to have very breezy subjects, many of which are Pass/Fail. Other notable features of this school include fair gender balance and fascinating social life. Rumours about delicious BBQs and jelly alcohol have perpetuated Chem Eng building for years. Beer brewing with distillation towers is still a phenomenon yet to be confirmed. The Chemical Engineering cohort tends to be pretty small, which is great for establishing social circles and study groups from the very start of your degree. The degree itself offers a surprising degree (haha) of flexibility with many new specialised subjects, such as applied mathematics, nanotechnology and programming. So next time someone tells you that Usyd Engineering is ‘out-of-date’ and ‘too theoretical’, feel free to laugh right in their face! Advanced Engineering and Space Engineering
Advanced Engineering students are like ghosts – you don’t see them very often. If you managed to get in and accepted the offer, grab a pillow and prepare to sleep the next 4 years in a library on campus (you can also sleep in labs). You may not get to socialise that much, but the employment opportunities are remarkable. Assignments in AE take up dozens of off-class hours, but their completion will give you unreal satisfaction. Space Engineering is an AMME-only ultracompetitive specialisation that opens doors to the students that want to work in places like NASA or SpaceX. Biomedical
Biomedical Engineering is where it’s at. This relatively new degree is successfully meeting industry demands in providing engineering education that is more tailored towards health sciences. As with every other engo degree, you’ll have to put yourself through some core engineering units, but the Biomed electives are really the ones that make you get up in the morning and go to the lab before you classes start. It probably has the best gender balance in the entire faculty and on the whole has very positive feedback from the students. Project Management
Project Management at USYD is a great cherry on top for many engo students. While many students study it in conjunction with other Engineering degrees, you could
always have this degree finished in 3 years if a single degree is what you want. This concoction of a degree involves many interdisciplinary subjects, such as management, risk analysis, statistics and psychology. Information Technology
If you haven’t seen IT building – go check it out right now. The subjects you can study here are just as amazing as the air-conditioned state-of-the-art seminar rooms that you’ll be going to. The two degrees, Bachelor of Information Technology (4 years) and Bachelor of Computer Science (3 years) are so diverse in the subject variety it’ll make your head spin. The lecturers are very engaging and encouraging. Class sizes are pretty optimal too. Well-performing and intellectually curious students will have time for a range of activities to keep themselves occupied. Electrical and Information
The Electrical Engineering building may seem like it’s about to fall down, but it’s the courses it provides to students that counts. Courses cater for every aspect of electrical engineering and if your grades are good enough a couple of years into your degree, you might even specialise in one of the electrical disciplines (computer, power or communications). There are plenty of opportunities for keen beans to get involved in extracurricular projects with lecturers (those can be persuaded to mentor passionate driven individuals). Life at Usyd Engineering
Life of an engineering student on Darlington Campus could not be more diverse. You could spend 60+ hours in learning spaces and learn by heart libraries’ opening hours. You might go to a pub and discuss latest Star Wars with your group partner until you get kicked out. You could join some of the wild Engineering Societies on campus and have an afternoon bevvy on a sunny Thursday (Thursday is an Engineering go-out day).
Collectively Engo Societies run BBQ multiple times each week. The Societies (more than a dozen of them) run fun annual events like Engolympics, Engtoberfest and the President’s Party. They also arrange sponsored events like Engineering Ball and cocktail nights and give you a platform to start building connections and networks before you graduate. Don’t forget to sign up for and go to a First Year Camp – chances are you’ll meet your lifelong friends that weekend!
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Education Social Work
Political Economy A degree in Education is largely a series of mandatory units
and as such a typical review may not be as helpful or applicable, so here are some general tips, warnings and comments about Education. They are completely serious about attendance and do not want to hear your excuses – if your lecturer says they mark attendance, then they do and you will fail if you don’t meet the requirements, particularly in EDSE units.
Good lecturers usually have at least two of these key elements: they are contactable outside office hours, they have a predictable marking scheme, they are willing to give simple extensions, and they update their content at least every year. Notable lecturers who have been specifically mentioned include Remy Low, Jon Callow, Debra Hayes and Victoria Campbell.
Assessments in Education are peculiar because although they appear incredibly easy and undemanding, it’s still very easy to get a bad mark or have a miserable time doing them. This is partly because of the Education Department’s insistence on group projects and partly their fascination with multimedia. All the standard complaints apply to group projects, essays are often unpredictably marked, and the questions are too vague – it’s usually best to ask for some examples of prior work. Practicum placement, by the time it comes around, is overwhelmed with students and few rewarding contacts. It’s best to start forging your own connections with schools and teachers.
In terms of courses, the first two years of an Education degree are essentially spent validating your choice to study education without ever putting you in a classroom – the courses are highly theoretical and most responses found them incredibly interesting.
Generally, for Education subjects, though you may initially want a bludgy subject for its easy marks and basic content, you will later realise you’re required to sit through every lecture about it and end up wishing you picked something that teaches a bit more than common sense. On this list are the recently introduced EDGU units, though that may be because they are still being developed.
Presented with no comment because they were submitted with no comment is a list of subjects some people liked: EDUF2007, EDSE2002, EDGU1003, EDUF2007, Edec2001, EDUF1018, and that they didnt like: EDSE2002, EDUF 1019, EDEC 2003. Good luck.
In order to enjoy your Social Work degree, it’s imperative that you have a passion for community organisation, belief in the local and a desire to help people. If you don’t, you’ll just feel more and more alienated the further you get into the department, as coursework tends to get increasingly more specific the further on your study goes. Whether you are doing the single Social Work degree (four years) or a combined degree with Arts (five years), if you are passionate about social work, you will enjoy yourself. Although Arts degrees are only three years, a lot of other degrees are five years and social work is one of few vocational courses you can do, therefore you can leave after four/five years and go straight into pursuing a professional career. In first-year social work, you probably will not feel like a Social Work student at all. This is because you have to take Arts subjects and your only compulsory subject is Sociology, which most Arts students do with you. Advice from the Head of Departments can be a little patchy, according to some responses, so it’s best to enrol in compulsory courses ASAP in order to ensure you don’t end up with an incomplete degree because you forgot Sociology. After finishing these junior units some of the fun starts as you now go on to doing core subjects for social work, which many students praised as being more progressive than other subjects. You are required to do Indigenous Studies, social policy, research skills and psychology for social work. This year students recommended Psychology for Social Work 201 and Psychology for Social Work 202. The latter and its head lecturer, Emma Tseris, received praise for lectures that “were thoroughly engaging and insightful and covered a very diverse range of critical perspectives in mental health, many of which I had not encountered previously in my psychology units.” However, although teaching staff generally managed the large tutorial sizes of often over 30 students, respondents believed this made it difficult for students “to participate and engage with the content and lecturers.”
Third- and fourth-year (or fifth- and sixth-year for the combined kids) is where placements start. There is a lot of prep to do for these placements with paper work, ensuring you have for vaccinations, a police certificate and a working with children certificate, amongst other paperwork. You will have a lot of assistance with all of this but it is important to be proactive about getting a lot of this done as well in order to get the first pick of placements.
Meme credit: chokinandtokin PAGE 3 4
SRC Counter course handbook 2016
Pharmacy
Pharmacy receives the same complaint every year: that this is an incredibly time intensive degree, that is challenging, has little flexibility, expects attendance up to five days a week due to high contact hours and contains gruelling final exams. On a more positive note, the degree leads to a good and secure career as “one of the top pharmacy school’s in the world” which provides a “great base to go into Medicine or Dentistry.” Additionally, the cohort is famously tight knit as one respondent explained that “everyone’s really close, so don’t feel too apprehensive about not being able to make friends!” A Bachelor of Pharmacy is described as a “four-year, fulltime professional degree combining advanced scientific investigation with training in clinical practice and optimum patient care”. Like most “professional” degrees, there’s little room for flexibility in content, but if you know Pharmacy’s your gig, this could be a great degree for you. However, the Faculty will unfortunately be collapsed into the Medicine super faculty - that will also include Nursing and Dentistry. Support staff have already been cut so things are looking very bleak.
Course content was also cited as “pretty interesting.” Organic Chemistry received strong notices for teaching, with lecturer Chris McErlan described as “amazing.” Similar praise was heaped on pharmacy lecturer Nial Wheate. The third year of the degree, where the major clinical sciences are covered was described as the “best year by far.” Basic Pharmaceutical Sciences and Pharmacology for Pharmacy were recommended. Social Pharmacy was criticised for excessive group work and
Dentistry
Being aware of the level of commitment needed for a dentistry Sociology degree is paramount to you undertaking the specific and very mouth-odoury subject area. In order to wear a nice white medical apron and have a cute practice, clean silver tools for miles and millions of bucks, you have to be willing to be at uni for up to 45 hours a week for the next few years. First- and second-year for Dentistry are teamed with medicine subjects with more contact and lab hours than a lab rat sees in its few short weeks of life. One student commented “dentistry is very fiddly and time-needy, with a bunch of contact hours and exams. It’s difficult to make time in your schedule for anything else like university activities or society functions or time with your friends and family. It can be really stressful, though it’s usually worth it when you get the marks you need.”
Students responded that complete face-to-face clinical placements were the most invaluable and important learning experience for their degree and all-round pleasers in the course. “a good example of this is the radiography department in the detail part of Westmead. If you have a bit of a problem comprehending the radiography course you can apply to have a consultation with them there and they take care to try and teach you as much as possible.” Some difficulties arise with the cost of dentristry however, averaging at about three thousand dollars a year, and with the long contact hours and frequent practical placements, itreally take a toll on student’s mental health. Participants report
for being “pretty full on sometimes.” Unfortunately, the degree offers no choice and is completely prescribed. Additionally, the special consideration policy is very strict. Students also critiqued the lack of clinical placements in favour of a focus on community pharmacy despite decreasing internships. The degree starts with a “foundation year” where students study biology, chemistry, basic pharmaceutical sciences and are introduced into the profession of pharmacy. Higher levels of biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences are studied in the following years, with much of third- and fourth-year spent in clinical placements for practical experience. We didn’t receive any responses from the higher years, so unfortunately you’ll have to figure that out for yourselves, as you choose between a major in rural, international, and industrial pharmacy.
Additional course costs involved with studying Pharmacy certainly add up, through the purchase of textbooks, lab coats, etc., which makes studying Pharmacy tough if you also need to work to support yourself. This is a real shame! Lab coats, dissection kits, safety goggles and calculators are all on loan free from the SRC if you find yourself in a pinch, but otherwise you can get subsidized equipment from Sydney University Pharmacy Association (SUPA), which is in the Pharmacy building. I’ll end with a particularly astute summation from a pharmacy student: “Don’t do Pharmacy, unless you really want to be a pharmacist. Otherwise, it is a waste of time and a degree.”
rarely having spare time to work to pay for lab materials and textbooks, however if you can manage it, dentistry students do recommend getting some occasional part time or casual work. One student confessed she was lucky enough to be hired as a dental nurse when she was in high school, however due to the fact that dental nursing doesn’t require any previous study or qualifications means that dental nursing jobs are quite rare and lucrative if one is lucky enough to bag one. Students were glowingly positive in their rating and responses to their tutors and lecturers, with one student writing “the tutors so far have been exceptionally helpful in getting the learning process going”. The Tooth Conservation course was highly recommended due to the “outstanding lecturers, Dr. Dracopoulos and Prof. Bryant”. Practical labs were also a massive hit with students, with many commenting that it enhanced their comprehension of theory and helped with the sometimes confusing assessment tasks. Exams were criticized for being oddly-heavily weighted (sometimes up to 80%!) and assessments were reported to have been lumped awkwardly together at the end of every semester- not something that really aids in preserving student’s stress levels but hey- as long as sugar remains one of the most highly consumed foods by university students, dentistry will keep consumers and dentists happy for years to come. DISCLAIMER: This review was reprinted from last year’s 2015 review. The Education Officers will take steps to ensuring that there will be submissions next year from dentistry students.
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Law First Year Law
Both the subjects for first year law – Foundations of Law and Torts are compulsory units, with Torts being a pre-requisite for most other law units throughout the degree. Foundations of Law is described as the introductory law unit for first semester, first year law students. The general consensus is that it is a summation of Year 12 Legal Studies concepts, with very little relevance to the tough reality of an actual law degree. This smooth ‘babying’ of first year law students through this subject is reflected in the fact that the unit has no exam, but rather a HSC style final essay question worth approximately 50% of the final grade.
The general consensus therefore is that despite spending upwards of $500 on readings for your first year of law, this subject does not prepare you for the heavy reading load, the case analysis and the critical thought which epitomises law – and all other future law units. Basically, don’t get into a false sense of security, the rest of law is not as easy as this unit.
Torts is where law students really start to experience the reality of their degree. Once again, you spend upwards of $400-500 on textbooks that are thicker than your face. The reading load is quite intense and must be kept up with week by week. If this is not done, you WILL fall behind. Furthermore, the lectures for this subject are informative but quite heavy in content, and therefore you MUST attend every single one and summarise the lecture weekly to maintain a consistent understanding of the course content which all flows on from each other.
The issue with Torts is that given how fast paced it is, you are not given proper preparation for your real first law exam. You really are thrown into the deep end, and expected to swim. Further down the road
Unfortunately, it as noted that “most law subjects in general did not provide avenues for students to get feedback and improve before finals period.” Teaching standards were also critiqued as apparently “almost all tutors were non- academic staff, just a bunch of working professionals who would not have the time to give consultations.” Students strongly disliked ‘ Civil and Criminal Procedure but found - Criminal Law “really interesting.” Don’t forget that law can be fascinating “when you strip away the pretension and bullshit law, especially when you’re looking critically at it/examining its philosophical underpinnings”.In sum, Law students are encouraged to “take the good with the bad, and remember its a marathon not a sprint.”
Assessment are harsh. Exams can be weighted at 100% and are often closed-book. Feedback during semester is rare. Lectures are not recorded enough. Figure out whether a lecture is recorded and accessible before you decide not to attend. Contracts is tough, not because of the content, but because of the work load. The tutorial participation requirement, among other things, is “unreasonable”. To close the case, some advice from a recent graduate
- Many people with a law degree do not work in the law. The job market is tight, and law is increasingly a general degree rather than a professional degree. - Studying Law involves a lot of studying law. You should be prepared to read a lot of banal case law that you later discover has been made obsolete by a convoluted legislative instrument. - There are a lot of wankers at Sydney Law School. It’s better to resist them than to join them. - Across the country, thousands of new law students are aspiring to reach The Hague. They believe they can change the world by becoming the next Geoffrey Robertson, Michael Kirby, or Erin Brockovich. The fact is, most lawyers who actually make a difference don’t have fame or money. Moreover, if you want to change the world, start right now by joining an SRC collective. For example, join the Education Action Group to fight for a universally accessible, free higher education. So there you go, chew on that for a while. If you do a full study load, you’ll be here for five years (three for JD students). The best advice I can offer is this: the road is long and there are many ups and downs, but if you throw yourself into uni life, it will be worth it. Don’t conceive of your life and your worth purely in terms of the degree that you’ll get at the end. And don’t take yourself too seriously.
The day-to-day tips: Textbooks are very expensive and not always as useful as notes from other students. If you can’t find a recent set of notes, collaborate with some friends to prepare a set as the semester unfolds. Include class notes and case summaries. Most cases can be read online. The Law School is not interested in making students’ lives easy. Compassion is not a strong suit. Special consideration is “obscenely hard” to get. Although there is a DNF policy, it can be applied arbitrarily. If you are applying for special consideration or the like, it’s best to have your paperwork in order, together with clearly enunciated reasons. PAGE 36
SRC Counter course handbook 2016
I will lobby for public defunding of universities and an unlimited cost to education.
INSIPID
Michael Spence Current Vice-Chancellor and fee deregulation proponent BA ‘85 LLB ‘87
USYD’s Leadership campaign is a thin veneer over a rotten core. Oppose the USYD restructure. For more info, visit: facebook.com /sydney university education action group PAGE 37
SCA (Rozelle) Sydney College for the Arts (SCA) is located in the not so distant suburb of Rozelle in the spooky ex-mental hospital Callan Park. The contemporary art school has built up a farreaching reputation by producing quality artists and curators like Archibald winner Ben Quilty. The site at Rozelle covered late 19th century sandstone builing provides its 600 odd students with plenty of studio and a better than main campus staff to student ratio.
Some students praised the receptiveness of staff noting their approachability and a willingness to be social yet professional. However, the data reporting on the social aspect of SCA has been mixed. Some saying that the campus set up made it tricky to meet students outside of your studio or area, with exception to the lively campus café. Others noted how they’ve come out of SCA with strong friendship groups and links with staff from all around the campus from glass blowing to photography. Many students noted a strong disconnection from the Darlington / Camperdown campus to acess student services and admin. SCA Student Society (SCASS) does a good job filling in the gap left by the USU in terms of social events and
with its monthly magazine SCAM. It also provides a gallery space called DedSpace which is manged by students. Due to USU providing some funding for this project SCA students are meant to have an access card to use the gallery but, just like main campus, I have heard reports you can get away with using your mates.
Not noted in the data for this years Counter Course Handbook previous years have noted the finicial burden that placed by course with ‘major works ranging up to $3000’ and that some students thought that ‘the amount of money spent on works did correlate with the mark. There was also some negative feedback regarding marking with subjectivity playing a strong roll. It was noted that disputing marks at SCA was a draining process and that the appeal system seemed inaccessible. With this feedback in mind confirmed closure of SCA site at Rozelle and its merger with FASS should not be viewed as a positive change adding to student expierence but as cost cutting. Simple question where will studios be put on main campus?
music @ the con
Congratulations! You’ve made it into The Con, “one of the world’s leading tertiary musical institutions” as you will be constantly told by the institution’s PR department. Nobody really knows what this claim is based upon, but with a history of spending exorbitant amounts of money on publicity and marketing surely it has to be a first-class institution? If you disregard the fact that budget cuts have been a recurring theme over the years (let’s see what they cut this year) or that many important student support services are inaccessible or non-existent at The Con.
But don’t panic! If you learn to navigate your way through this mess – be sure to ask the Conservatorium Students’ Association (CSA) for tips and support! – you can get to the other end of your degree reasonably unscathed. You still won’t have any career prospects, of course. I mean, you’re studying here purely for the love of music, right? (If not, run away now while you can!) In all seriousness, as former students will attest, the hard work and hours of practice you put in to your music degree will be fulfilling. And there are also great academic staff members who will help you along the way. Lewis Cornwell has received very positive evaluations from students. Which is lucky because you don’t really have a choice – you will all have him as a lecturer for 2 years of Harmony and Analysis (unless you’re a Jazz student). Another popular lecturer is David Larkin. This may be, in part, due to the fact that every second student has a crush on this Cambridge-educated Irish heartthrob. Apparently his lectures are also engaging, so consider taking his courses when selecting Music History subjects.
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There are certain courses that you need to look out for. Orchestral Studies (compulsory for most performance students) does not set out course requirements very clearly. You could be asked to commit to more concert programmes than you need to. If you think this may be the case, but are unsure, contact the CSA for guidance. Honours is another grey area. Unlike most honours programmes, Performance and Composition honours require students to complete a recital or composition portfolio in addition to submitting a thesis. Students have noted that the course is not structured well to allow you to juggle both major components. However, Music Journalism was described as one student as “the most rewarding unit I have ever done. We had constant feedback from peers and our lecturer, learning was dynamic and there were clear results of improvement.”
There are also additional costs involved in studying at The Con. Accompanist fees can be quite expensive, especially if you regularly require one for lessons. Composition students are expected to organise concerts and have their pieces performed each semester. Paying performers and hiring venues can be very costly. Be sure to look out for the many scholarships on offer to Conservatorium students - they’re not too well advertised but they are there, and many are equity-based. DISCLAIMER: This review was reprinted from last year’s 2015 review. The Education Officers will take steps to ensuring that there will be submissions next year from Music students.
SRC Counter course handbook 2016
Physiotherapy When a physiotherapist covers a sporting event, most of their time is spent sadistically awaiting an injury on the sidelines. The University of Sydney has wholeheartedly embraced the “sadistic” and “sidelines” aspects of physiotherapy, condemning its study to Cumberland Campus, located in Lidcombe. “Cumbo” has little going for it and is scheduled to be closed down by 2018. To make the most of your time at university, venture frequently to Main Campus and seek out bars, societies and sporting teams.
The first-year of physiotherapy is the toughest. It is mostly theoretical and tedious rote-learning is the only way to learn the name, insertions and actions of every muscle in the body, which you will be expected to do for Functional Musculoskeletal Anatomy A and B. Make tables. Neuroscience and Body Systems: Structure and Function don’t move through content at the same rate of knots, but concepts are complicated and necessitate spending some quality time with Martini’s textbook and Youtube. Apply yourself in firstyear and this will hold you in good stead for later years – a comprehensive theoretical understanding of anatomy makes the practical side of physiotherapy much easier. You won’t write too many essays in physiotherapy, nor will you be asked to do many presentations. But you will pay the price come exam time. Each semester you’ll typically be slugged
nursing
There’s a lot to like in Nursing. Mental Health Nursing Practice gets rave reviews, particularly thanks to fantastic lecturers and great tutors. The unit is valued for real life examples and practical advice on mental health nursing.
Nursing the Acutely Ill Person is the unit for you if you’re not a fan of group work. Labs are highly rated and the lectures are relevant, useful, and accessible. All assessments are tests, which some students find ideal.
The one unit you want to look out for is Illness Experience and Nursing Care. One word was frequently used to describe this unit: “bullshit”. Unfortunately, it’s mandatory, but it in the words of one student, it’s a “waste of time”. You’ll find that Understand Health and Managing Disease can sometimes feel like a Pharmacy unit in a Nursing degree. The material goes into far more depth than is necessary, and the tutors (pharmacists, not nurses) bought down the quality of the course as a lot of relevant concepts for nurses were sidelined. Tutorial slides weren’t made available, and no supplementary
with four practical exams in Week 7 and eights exams (four practical, four written) across Weeks 15-16. Written exams are generally fine and can be crammed for. Practical exams (where you have ten minutes to demonstrate practical skills in front of an examiner, with the student ahead of you in the roll simulating a patient) are high-stress. Avoid reciting a prepared script as this will leave you vulnerable to examiners’ curveballs and your communication will seem robotic. Instead, make sure your practical skills are technically sound, maintain an open line of communication with your “patient” and attend all tutorials in the week before exams. After a strong theoretical focus in year one, subjects become increasingly practical. Neuro subjects are the weakest of the “holy trinity” (musculoskeletal, cardiorespiratory, neurological) because tutorials are boring and repetitive. Lecturers throughout the course are overwhelmingly dedicated and happy to help. Preferencing hospitals for clinical placement is always tricky – check the Physio Society’s placement site reviews for a rough guide. Try to land a job as a receptionist/physio aide/team strapper whilst studying, with a view to making industry contacts and lining up employment after graduation. Innumerable masters students and the birthing of many new courses at other universities mean it’s getting tougher to find a job. Stay flexible.
information was suggested, such as online resources. The unit administration is also slow, with assessments taking too long to get back, and the unit coordinator failing to reply to emails. On the plus side, Vanessa Hughes is a stand-out lecturer in this unit. You’ll enjoy clinical placements – and the facilitators are all great – but you’ll hate the placement office. They tell you they’ll give you six weeks notice, but you generally end up getting less than two. They miss allocation deadlines, and change placements without warning. You’ll be placed in stupid areas, and you won’t get your shift times until the first day, which is a problem if you need to make plans for work or childcare. There’s also not much flexibility for special consideration or other arrangements. Overall though, clinical simulation labs are great, and you’ll enjoy a lot of the course.
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Science Biology When this writer first started studying University back in 2012, Biology was facing severe staff cuts, the School feared to lose its subject long field trips allowing students to conduct wildlife surveys in the Northern Territory or study coral in Queensland. While in 2016 these field trips are still offered, the school biology has suffered from a long term campaign of staff cuts and poor funding. In 2017 the University plans to have Biology amalgamate with Veterinary Science and Agriculture. We expect this will have a disatourous effect on the Department’s character praised by students in the Counter Course Survey, as you’ll see Biology is definitely worth defending in 2016. First-year Biology offered flexible streams tailoring to student with different levels of prior knowledge. Standing out between Concepts of Biology, Living Systems, and Human Biology was the quality of the labs. Whilst at times the oversized lectures Biology subjects and tutorials for MBLG saw highlighted a lack of intimacy, the quality of staff with lab supervisors and lecturers being both approachable and helpful seemed to rectify some of the damage left by years of funding cuts.
Biology has the ability of making dry-sounding subjects fun. Experimental Design and Analysis on first sight sounds like a subject I’d avoid, or grudgingly take to acquire skills essential to my major. However the subject was noted for its awesome lecturers and hilarious practicals featuring a categorisation and analysis of UTS and USYD beards. This years Counter Course saw Botany continuing its legacy of positive feedback, praised for its fun and useful lab sessions, popular teaching staff, and better than most staff-to-student ratio. People found Botany accessible and came out of the unit haing learnt something.
Zoology received mixed reviews one student noting that ‘DIETER HOCHULI IS AMAZING. Wizard-like, makes everything fun and includes just enough kooky animal videos and facts’ while praising its unique major assessment (bug collection). Other students found that the major assessment let the unit down since it took up too much time, which resulted in intensive exam-cramming. It is also important to note that chemistry knowledge should considered as a prerequisite for Cell Biology, and that Ecology was reviewed as being a bit dry and overcrowded. Overall Biology is a strong department and we see no reson for it to be amalgamated and lose its character, we need to defend Biology by rallying on March 16 against the Restructure and we need to fight for greater funding and more staff in years ahead!
Chemistry I did the equivalent of HSC Chemistry in a Tafe course and had a lot of fun but University first-year Chemistry is a bit more competitive and not what I expected. The lectures are packed. Absolutely no room. Like people sitting on all the stairs all buddied up with one another packed. But the lectures were for the most part very good. The lecturers ALWAYS have time/make time to answer your questions after lectures and they break up the lecturers with demonstrations too.
The tutorials were the least enjoyable, as some tutors were better than others and there was a lot of work (like in other subjects, but harder to get on top of). If you chose this subject attend lectures and just make the time to read along in the textbook and do all the practice questions they suggest because the lecturers set aside a lot of revision material on blackboard and I don’t think it is made use of enough.
the lab manual properly while doing the prework and follow their instructions on how to write and do your lab notebook... it is basically free and easy marks. Going into second-year labs start to count; unlike first-year where marks flow freely the supervisors crack down. In intermediate Chemistry analytical practicals you are assesed on the quantity of your synthesis, your calculations and yield. From second-year chemistry it becomes easier to fail practicals and thus fail the entire course. It is a pretty hard unit at times, but if you do the revision material they provide and set aside some time to do dome extra study from the textbook, you’ll do just fine.
The labs are the best way to learn if you do the prework/ accompanying work. It is a long few hours, but if you read
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SRC Counter course handbook 2016
Psychology The Psychology surveys celebrated many units as “interesting” with the caveat “a lot of home study is required”, so roll up your sleeves guys! The spread of courses cover the basics through to advanced understandings of cognitive, social, perceptual, abnormal, behavioural and developmental psychology; personality, intelligence and statistical research methods. There’s a lot to choose from folks!
Psychology houses some of the most popular units of study at the university, with first year units enrolling 2300 students. So if you’re a bit abnormal, it’s a great way to meet people who are also that way inclined! The introductory units PSYC1001 & 1002 provide a glimpse into all the subsets of psychology, plus some history. Students in these units meet for the first time two contentious lecturers, Niko Tiliopoulos and Caleb Owens, sometimes described as “nutcases”, other times with ardor. My overall recommendations are: attend all lectures and tutorials; the multiple choice exam is designed to undermine your confidence, so know your lectures intimately!
If you’re taking a Psychology major, you’re required to take four compulsory intermediate units in second year, which overall get a good wrap. Although, Personality and Intelligence does divide a crowd into love and hate based on Freudian studies with Fiona Hibberd and statistical studies with Niko Tiliopoulos. Statistics and Research Methods can open the gates to hell for some Arts’ students, as they begin to learn the philosophy and practise of psychological measurements. Not to be missed subjects include Brain and Behaviour which introduces brain function with “great content and lecturers” and Cognitive and Social with beloved lecturers including Fiona White.
Third year psychology got a lot of student love. Psych majoring students are required to do Advanced Statistics, which is “content heavy” and “difficult to stay on top of”, but is balanced by Abnormal Psychology which most students found “fascinating”. If you want to go on to become a psychologist, remember you will need to do honors and clinical masters, which require a minimum distinction average for your undergraduate psychology Weighted Average Mark (WAM)! If you like challenging and stimulating topics and you can cope with an insane content load, then Advanced Statistics, Developmental, Social and Abnormal are for you. Third year subjects Learning and Behaviour, and Behavioural and Cognitive were complimented for their “compelling content” regarding human behaviour, learning and memory. Developmental was scrutinised as partly abstract that lacked study guidelines and objectives. Social was routinely praised by students as clear and well-delivered, but half the course mark is based on a group project so be prepared for teamwork!
The cost of psychology textbooks can be high, at around $150 per textbook, however the School of Psychology is excellent at making multiple copies available in the library. Textbooks are also sold second hand with reduced prices through the Usyd SRC secondhand bookshop: http://srcusyd.net.au/src-books/. Lecture and tutorial sizes for psychology are some of the largest, with more than 250 people per lecture and 30 people per tutorial. I’ve found this can be useful, because if one tutor’s teaching doesn’t suit you, there are always other classes you can move into on any day. In terms of organization the School of Psychology is one of the best. Guidelines are generally clear, students are prepared well for assignments and assessment feedback is always thorough.
Medical Sciences The Bachelor of Medical Science offers undergraduates unique medical science units, where lectures, tutorials and labs are held in the shiny new Charles Perkins Centre. This includes access to fancy microscopes and sophisticated labs, where you can create antibiotic-resistant bacteria and perform pharmacological experiments on animal nerves. Prerequisites for most third year subjects. These subjects cover biochemiswtry to cells and systems, as well as diseases. Theory of Practise and final exams form most of your assessment mark, but there are also points to be scrounged by keeping your lab books up to date and doing practical lab assessments, group presentations and reports. Feedback for the degree was overwhelmingly positive, with students saying they developed a cohesive understanding of the science underlying medicine, which they wouldn’t have achieved in a straight science degree. The wet labs, anatomy and microscopy sessions were always well organised and strongly integrated with lectures, and students who prepared well could cement their understanding of concepts. The recurring criticism submitted was that students didn’t receive much qualitative feedback from assessments.
However, this experience was vastly outweighed by instructive and engaging lectures as well as support and encouragement by academics to continue study beyond the degree. While the course is very specific, there is also the opportunity to dip your toes into a few Arts or Education subjects in second-year. This will lower your contact hours, boost your WAM and develop your writing and analytical skills – useful for the GAMSAT, scientific writing, and being a functioning social being outside the lab.
The course has a high number of contact hours (21+). In terms of costs, there is lots of printing for practical sessions, and you must remember to bring disposable gloves in addition to your lab coat and safety goggles. (Remember: if you forget your lab coat or goggles, you can borrow them from the SRC). Messy – The Medical Science Society, provides a table of the many recommended textbooks and for which subjects they are used. Overall, it is a heavy course, but will train you up with a strong skill-set and knowledge base. It’s important to bond with your cohort – they will save you in labs and at exam time! In second-year your cohort will bond in classes, but jumping the gun and attending social and academic Messy events will make your B. MedSci time even more enjoyable!
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Geosciences The School of Geosciences offers two majors – Geography, along with Geology & Geophysics. Many units are able to be included in an Environmental Science major, which also includes subjects from the Biology department. These options include units from a wide variety of different fields and disciplines, making the school one of the most diverse at the university. Geoscience students are similarly diverse, coming from a wide variety of different degree pathways, career aspirations and socio-cultural backgrounds. Many respondents felt that this diversity led to consistently interesting tutorial discussions and also felt that studying Geosciences would present a variety of useful career options. Geography represents the more social science side of the school, engaging with the complex social, cultural, political and economic aspects of the human–nature relationship and tackling questions of environmental sustainability and justice. Geology & Geophysics focusses more on the natural science side, discussing the physical and chemical dynamics of landform formation and applying this knowledge to issues such as natural hazards and resource exploration.
Whether you’re interested in coastal geomorphology or the changing dynamics of urban space under neoliberalism, if you love thinking about the earth and our relationship to it, this is the place for you. There’s a compulsory junior unit – Earth, Environment & Society – and then students pick between Introductory Geography and/or Introductory Geology.
With senior units, students basically choose between the two majors on offer and pick either specialised human or physical geography units. The first-year subjects were generally
well-received – students found the variety of case studies kept them interested and found staff friendly and approachable. Introductory Geography was particularly recommended for its helpful engagement with the foundational “what-does-it-all-mean” aspects of geographical inquiry. Several respondents recommended the advanced streams for both junior and senior subjects, which offer the chance for more self-directed research projects and were more rewarding than the mainstream versions. Geography of Cities and Regions and South-East Asia Field School were both highly recommended senior units, not least because they are run by Kurt Iveson who was universally praised by respondents. Environmental and Resource Management, Environmental Law and Ethics and Geographical Concepts, Skills & Methods were all more ambiguously received, with some students feeling that course material was dry or that the subjects were poorly organised. Other concerns were with vague assessment guidelines and late or unhelpful feedback from assignments – in one case, students only received marks and feedback from an essay assignment two days before the final exam. Another thing to keep in mind for the socially/environmentally minded is that lots of mining companies essentially use undergrad geoscience as a recruiting ground through sponsored events and scholarships. Overall, students strongly felt that their experiences studying in the Geosciences school were some of their best at Sydney Uni, and strongly encouraged others to give it a go.
History & Philosophy of Science History and Philosophy of Science (HPSC) is by far the smallest subject area in the Science Faculty, occupying a small corridor in Carslaw. It is not a school or department, but has been named a ‘Unit’. Some academics have raised the question of whether History and Philosophy of Science belongs with the Science Faculty.
The ‘Unit’ of History and Philosophy of Science must remain in the Science faculty. Our data showed that the popular subject What Is This Thing Called Science offered context and understanding to the scientific method, something easily lost to students who spend 10+ hours a week in rushed labs. History and Philosophy of Science was noted to have helped students take in the content-heavy courses like Chemistry, MBLG or Physics, offering a reminder in WHY and HOW we do science.
It is not only Science students who can benefit from HPSC subjects. When I first started studying the subject area there used to be a strong interdisciplinary linkage between the ‘Unit’ and the History department. History students were able to add history-based subjects like the Birth of Modern Science and the Scientific Revolution to their major. This linkage, all but lost, is something I’d like to see returned. PAGE 4 2
Many students gave positive feedback on HPSC’s assessment criteria. Some subjects like the Birth of Modern Science and the Scientific Revolution place a heavier weighting on tutorial participation by introducing a continuous weekly assessment on the readings. Some students noted that they found meeting the required readings for History and Philosophy of Science difficult to keep up, others noted that the heavier reading and writing requirement was good practice for writing papers in the senior sciences. History and Philosophy of Biomedical Sciences recieved postive feedback despite many students struggling to keep up with the readings. It was praised for its content and enthusiastic lecturers.
The Counter Course Survey revealed that the Unit of History and Philosophy of Science has to do more to engage female students with clear gender imbalances in many subjects. One student noted on her subject that ‘The whole course would fail the Bechdel test’.
SRC Counter course handbook 2016
Mathematics If you are doing any kind of Science degree, chances are some Maths subjects will be involved. But fear not since the School of Mathematics and Statistics is quite flexible in catering for students of all mathematical backgrounds.
If you feel like maths ain’t your forte, you might want to consider taking a few Fundamental units in your first year. On the other hand, if you consider yourself an unrecognised genius that devours textbook after textbook, check out Advanced math units and or even Special Studies program (although you might need to apply for Special Permission to be enrolled in those). As a rule of thumb, Standard Maths taken for your HSC will allow you to complete Normal units (MATH1001, MATH1002, MATH1003, MATH1005) without much difficulty, provided that adequate time is invested in them. Extension 1 or 2 Mathematics in your HSC will probably give you enough grounds to be enrolled in first-year Advanced units, and they probably are the best structured and run courses in the entire School.
There is a noticeable difference in the attitude towards the classes between ‘Normal’ and ‘Advanced’ kids, since the former are often just fulfilling course requirements and the latter are typically genuinely interested in the subject.
Keep in mind that you can change your subject before the end of Week 2 if you find it too easy or difficult! By the end of your first year you will have pretty solid idea whether or not you want to pursue a life of a mathematician and will be more skilful in selecting the subjects you’re interested in (USYD’s website is your best friend!). As for the lecturers, the teaching gurus you’ll love listening to are: David Easdown, Stephan Tillman, Clio Cresswell, Daniel Hauer and Daniel Daners.
Big tip: Maths Learning Centre is basically a free one – one tutoring service offered to first year students who don’t meet the recommended background knowledge for the courses they’re studying. Whether you haven’t studied maths in a few years, skipped the HSC, or are just way out your depth in first year calculus the Learning Centre could be the place for you.
Physics We got really good feedback for Physics 1, with students saying it was really enjoyable and really well organized. The tutors are all really helpful in labs and the lectures are a good size (not too big) so everyone has the chance to ask questions and participate in demonstrations. The demonstrations make the lectures worth attending if you don’t normally make lectures. Driving a fire extinguisher car was probably one of the more entertaining things I’ve done in a lecture! The lectures also have little quizzes as you cover different concepts, which are anonymous so if you don’t understand a concept, the lecturer knows straight away and re explains/tries explaining a different way. There is a lot of hard work involved including an online assignment with ten long questions every two weeks to submit, so you do need to put in the work. But it is really achievable; if you attend lectures and try to answer at least one assignment question every night.,you’d easily get it submitted in time and wouldn’t be stressed out leaving it to the last minute. The whole first-year physics department is really well organized and really fun. Well worth doing.
Astronomy
At the start of almost every lecture there is a display of apod (astronomy picture of the day) on the projector screens and the lecturer goes on really lovely tangents about the photos, explaining how they are taken. The lecturer is always happy to answer questions. The labs are really well structured, but the best thing about this subject is getting to view sunspots or looking at Saturn. I don’t know if I’ll ever see the moon in such detail again, but using those telescopes was so much fun. The course content is not as hard as you’d think. They take you through it really well so it doesn’t get too overwhelming.
The labs in Astronomy could be a lot better. The computers used at times had a lot of problems so one week you’d have a computer and the next you’d be buddied up.. But that’s just what the computer labs in Madsen are like I guess. I hope that I keep my job during the restructure
The lecturer sometimes explains concepts using paintings of an astronomical setting, and why or why not the painting is accurate and when/where it was likely to be set if it was real...then explains why. And that was one of the best ways I learnt difficult concepts in this subject. So worth doing, even just as an elective because no prior physics or maths knowledge is required.
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Neuroscience Neuroscience is a wonderful, mind-blowing journey but be prepared, your qualification only assists in becoming a neuroscientist! Jobs begin and end here.
No neuroscience specific units are offered in first year, so it is just required that students take the general science subjects including chemistry, molecular biology and genetics, biology, maths and either psychology or pharmacology. Neuroscience is therefore a multidisciplinary field. This means it’s important to read the specific requirements of the major so as to ensure you satisfy them!
Your first specific unit on the way to a neuroscience major is Neuroanatomy and people love it! It is both “excellent and thorough”. There’s a lot of practicals involving brain specimens, online/interactive practice quizzes and great tutors. Karen Cullen has historically been the course coordinator and facilitates easy learning and understanding of the fundamental concepts of neuroscience. There are four third year neuroscience units offered by the disciplines of physiology and anatomy. At least some of them have been renamed in 2016, but it is unclear whether there will be many actual differences in course content. Generally, by third year people are taking at least 3 of the 4 neuroscience units and 1 or more pharmacology or psychology. The third year, first semester units have wet labs similar to those in Neuroanatomy where you handle human brain specimens. There is a lot of “interesting content” in these units so you come away really well-informed, though as a general rule, people prefer the unit which focus on the senses
Vet Science
As well as being one of the most sought-after courses at Sydney University, Vet Science is distinguished as being one of the only courses in which the lecturer has a ‘Lizard of the Day’ segment to every tutorial. People seem to assume that Vet Sci isn’t as competitive or difficult as Medicine or Law, but if you think about it- there are about a million different kinds of animals and only a bunch of laws an even less species of human. OK, there’s only one species of human but still. You get my point. Academic staff get a massive thumbs up in this department, with many praising their teaching styles as well as their ability to engage students and provide careful and rigorous analysis of theory and other course content that allows students more reliable info for assessments.
You don’t really begin to start interacting with animals until much later in your degree but with lecturers like Corinna Klupeic “nice and interesting/interested in her students” as well as taking a few different approaches to teaching anatomy, a notoriously dry segment of the degree that remains ongoing until grad. Glenn Shea was also highly praised for his rapport with students, with many praising him for his friendly manner.
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(e.g. vision, taste, audition, smell etc) and I concur with the majority! They are also foundations for the second semester units Cellular and Developmental and Integrative Neuroscience. There are a lot of lecturers for first semester neuroscience units so the quality of a lecture is dependent on the lecturer for that particular day. Most of the lecturers are men (sad face). If you have the opportunity to do advanced units I would suggest you take them. They give you a chance to do research alongside an academic which gives you a feel for whether or not you want to do honours. Second semester units (Cellular and Developmental and Functional Neuroanatomy) were a lot more hit and miss and had less overall content. Cellular and Developmental left some students disappointed regarding content and lack of diversity in lecturers. The Integrative NeuroScience cohort is split into smaller groups of 10, each with their own area of research and content. Some students had positive experiences with their mentors and subjects and others felt gypped by the subject area they were dealt and by inequalities in both expectations and marking. My advice for this subject is sign up to the seminar group you are most interested in as soon as the poll comes out online, to ensure you are doing something you’re fascinated by! Unfortunately, the upcoming degree restructures will funnel resources out of the undergraduate programs and into the postgraduate ones. Inevitably, 2016 neuroscience units will suffer as a consequence; how much exactly, we are yet to find out.
Kate Bosward and Jacqui Norris were lauded for their thorough exploration of microbiological animal diseases, which many thought proved challenging but fulfilling. As we’ve already said, Vet Sci is competitive and often dry, as scientific terminology grinds your brain when all you want to do is touch kitties, but subjects on Vet Ethics and the Industrial Agriculture in Australia really help keep students focused. Cell Bio 1B was a more science-heavy subject but surprisingly was also enjoyed by students, with many saying they were glad they took it. The subject explores the more avant-garde cutting edge forms of molecular biotechnical developments that are in the works to help vets diagnose tricky diseases.
Sadly, as it is competitive, some assessments in Vet Sci are really heavily weighted, including some exams of over 80% to be competed in a few short hours. Therefore, the resounding feedback was that although it’s challenging, Vet Sci is worth the effort. DISCLAIMER: This review was reprinted from last year’s 2015 review. The Education Officers will take steps to ensuring that there will be submissions next year from Vet Science students.
SRC Counter course handbook 2016
The Supra PAges Disclaimer: The report on this and the next page is a contribution by the SUPRA Education officers. SUPRA is the association for postgraduates at USyd. The SRC and its Education Department are not authoritive figures on postgraduate study and do not necessarily hold the opinions written below.
Welcome to the SUPRA pages of the Counter Course Handbook where we bring you all the deets on postgraduate courses and research experience offered at the University of Sydney. To provide a bit of background, SUPRA is the SRC equivalent for postgraduate students and we represent the 25,440 postgraduate students at the University, 20,000 of whom are coursework students. Many Postgraduate coursework students take the same courses as undergraduate students, so do read the rest of this handbook because it is very likely that you will be doing those units. For this spread, we will focus on the two faculties where lots of concerns were raised with SUPRA in 2015: the Business School and the Law School. We will also give a heads up to all the new research students at the University. Business School
Let’s start with the good: University of Sydney’s Business School is one of the best in the country and is ranked among the top 40 business schools in the World. The Master of Management program has been ranked 39th in the world by UK’s Financial Times, and Australian Financial Review BOSS Magazine has named Business School’s Global Executive MBA number one in the country. This may be the reason why more than 50% of International Students choose the Business School for their Postgraduate degree but that does not mean that the school doesn’t have its share of problems. General feedback that was received from students was that the Masters courses covered a lot of content and allowed students to gain a lot of knowledge about their relevant majors. However, complaints were made about the inflexibility of the Business School with one student going so far as to say that the staff were quite rude to students if they ever sought leniency or asked for special consideration. Another student pointed out that there were no exchange programs offered to postgraduate students by the Business School which many students were interested in. The lack of academic and educational support offered to students was a common complaint.
In the past few years the impression of students has been that the business school has been enrolling more students than it could accommodate and this has affected the quality of teaching. Classes have been overcrowded and students feel they are missing out on teacher-student interaction. To compensate for this, the business school has increased the number of tutorials they offer but this has lead to an impression of inconsistency in teaching as some tutors are perceived as better than others. Last year BUSS5000 Critical Thinking in Business generated the most complaints by students. More than 400 first year Commerce and Accounting students taking this mandatory course in semester 1 of 2015 failed it due to inconsistency in teaching, non existent practice exam, and inconsistent marking criteria. Students were annoyed that this course had no text book and felt the lecturers did not provide them with sufficient examples in relation to critical thinking. Students felt their tutors had different views on course criteria and how to respond to answers, leading to a lack of clarity in expectations. Moreover, the lack of practice exams left the students blinded for their final exam. In the second semester, students were given a practice exam but they complained that the feedback provided was not helpful. Students also complained that throughout semester they were given affirmative feedback, but during the final exam marks were taken off for doing the same thing. Another course that received a lot of complaints was BUSS5100. Some students called this supplementary unit useless. The two tutorials on English language that the unit offers were not felt helpful in preparing them for BUSS5000 or any other business school units. Lectures are not recorded and students are telling us there is inadequate online support that could help students improve their language skills. Students complained that in the rest of the course students learned simple management skills that all students pick up during their bachelor’s degree. SUPRA is working with students to understand your issues, and has in the past and will in future take concerns to the Business School to press for improvements. Till then you have been warned. Law School
Sydney Law School is one of the top law school in the country yet students in the JD program have wondered to SUPRA if the treatment they receive is to toughen them for industry or just bad administration. Either way, the Law school is percieved as a tough Faculty to navigate, and students feel their success depends on getting good lecturers. Postgraduates liked Andrew Dyer for his iron trap mind, Cameron Stewart for his wandering narratives across the law landscape and Olivia Dixon for getting into Corporations law persona when giving lectures. JD students like to point out that clerkship positions depends on your first year studies, and the second semester of second year is the hardest. With that said, hard work and enjoying this work will ease the burden.
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Masters
The Master of Laws degree is mostly done through intensive units which is both a positive and negative at the same time. For students who are working full time, they are a great way to manage both work and study, however, for fulltime students, they leave much to be desired. Having to finish an entire semester’s worth of content in four days is no easy task and it also minimizes the interaction with your lecturer. Students tell us it also feels like you’re not getting your money’s worth given how expensive each course is. Despite the disadvantages, the degree was felt to be otherwise well-structured and the quality of teaching was described as excellent. There are also options to do units in Europe, China, Nepal and Japan which students liked. The Law School is notorious for being hard on its undergraduate and Juris Doctor students in terms of extensions, but for postgraduate students in the Master of Laws program, there is a lot more flexibility and the recognition that a lot of these students have other commitments such as work, children etc. The flexibility given by lecturers around assignments and even the ability to choose assessment structures in a few units based on your individual strengths is the biggest advantage of the Masters degrees offered at Usyd. Lastly, Law student feedback was to recognize Christopher Pile, the guy who staffs the front desk, for his tireless effort in helping students. He puts up with impossible student requests and does it with good grace. Respect this oracle of law school knowledge and your journey will be more pleasant. Other Faculties
Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning is notorious amongst students for its ugly building and awful organisation. Students have complained that assignment criteria are not given to them in time, and marks for half of the assignments are never handed back to students. Students tell us there is an impression that most assignments in this faculties are done in groups so make sure you find a good group early in the course.
Ending on a good note, School of Public Health is praised by students for having a great lecture team that is supportive and helpful. Students have raved about the school for generating a learning environment that encourage students to ask questions and take initiatives in their courses.
thank
Michael ‘the weapon’ Rees and Riki ‘inspired’ Scanlan, Lachlan Ward for staying up with us over night until 10am, Amanda and Mickie, Julia, Chloe Smith for approving our handbook, Justine Amin, Matthew Campbell, Kim Murphy, Declan Maher, Adam Ursino, Adam Adelpour, Ahmed Subaib, Alexandros Tsath, Andy ‘bat’ Mason, Ann Wen, Anna Hush, April Holcolmbe, Blythe Worthy and David Shakes for being comrades and letting us steal from your Counter Course, Dylan Williams, Ellie Rodgers, Fatima Rauf, Georgia Grace, Grace Lovell-Davis, Isabella Brook, Cameron Caccamo, Kelton Muir, Kitty-Jean Laginha, Lily Matchett, Freya Jansen, Liliana Tai, Llewellyn Williams-Brooks (and EcopSoc), Matthew Campbell, Pelin Ersoy, Peter Walsh, Philippa Specker, Monique Newberry, Siobhan Ryan, Tahlia Chloe, Una Madura Verde, Zahra Makki, Marat Nuriev, and USYD security (WTF?) because they let us in to the SRC!
no thank InDesign, laptop charger, the power point which short circuited, swipe access for locking us out, no thanks Sydney Council for closing Newtown Kebab stores early, NO THANKS PAGINATION. NO THANKS TO THE DECEMBER SECRET SENATE MEETING!
Research
New research students, welcome to what can be the most wonderful, but also potentially the loneliest thing you will ever do. Research is already considered an isolating experience, but there are some things that make it a little more challenging in parts of the University of Sydney. In some quarters there is not adequate office or desk space for your research, the university lacks enough dedicated research student facilities, and access to things like adequate printing facilities is patchy at best. With limited clubs and events dedicated to postgraduate students, you will need to be proactive about attending events and seminars. Things are changing with University launching Research Bazar for postgraduate students that will also introduce social events for researchers. Events include Hacky Hour, a weekly hour when you can get together with postgraduate community to discuss data analysis techniques, and Nerd Night, a night when you can talk about your thesis with fellow postgrads over drinks. To learn more about how to survive this lonesome time, don’t forget to pick up the SUPRA Survival Guide from SUPRA offices or download your copy from the SUPRA website. SRC Counter course handbook 2016