Counter Course Handbook 2013

Students’ Representative Council The University of Sydney

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Student Central Wentworth building

The SRC’s operational costs, space and administrative support are financed by the University of Sydney.

www.src.usyd.edu.au

The University of Sydney Students’ Representative Council acknowledges the traditional owners of this land, the Gadigal people of the Eora nation.

We stand on this land today as beneficiaries of an uncompensated and unreconciled dispossession which occurred over 200 years ago.

Many of the descendants of those dispossessed live just down the road in abject poverty, and as young people it is important to recognise how this history of dislocation and disenfranchisement has contributed to the inequity we observe in contemporary society, particularly in the area of education.

We acknowledge both our privilege and our obligation to redress the situation at best we can: to remember the mistakes of the past, act on the problems of today, and build for a future for everyone who will not call this place home, striving always for practical and meaningful reconciliation.

If you are reading this, you are standing on Aboriginal land. Please recognise and respect this.

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DEAR READERS, THIS PUBLICATION WAS DONE IN A COUPLE OF DAYS BECAUSE SHIT HAPPENED AND CURRENTLY AT TIME OF WRITING WE HAVE NOT SLEPT FOR LIKE 24HRS SO PLEASE EXCUSE US DON’T SUE US GOODNIGHT LOVE YAZ :’)

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To those of you are new, “WELCOME! And congrats!” To those who are back for more we say why?!? No, seriously folks “Welcome BACK!”

benefit. Welcome to Sydney University, a university that is groaning under the weight of vicious cut-backs and suffering from a lack of democratic decision-making.

Welcome to the Counter-Course Handbook, a publication produced by your Student Representative Council’s Education Officers and co*. The idea behind the counter course is to give students a realistic look at the courses offered by outlining Sydney University courses from the perspective of students who have experienced them. In almost every response, students focused upon their tutors and lecturers as the formative component of their study. With staff cuts permeating all faculties, the CC hopes to question the logic behind firing teachers in an environment of over-crowded classes. The CC also contains some articles on burning issues in the world of higher education as well as survival hints and revolutionary propaganda that you will need to get through university this year.

Read the things your faculty would never dare tell you about the costs of your course, relative merits of various subjects, the quality of teaching and learning and much, much more.

Welcome to your education - to a time when you have the opportunity to become politicised (it’s not such a scary word) and critical about what it means to be a student in the current education system.

We challenge you to consider the role of education in a society rife with racism, sexism, homophobia and other profound social inequities. We ask you to reflect on your position of relative privilege in being able to access quality tertiary education when political parties across the board have abandoned any pretense to a commitment of free, accessible education.

You have the ability to be a critical thinker, regardless of what course you study, and an ability to contribute to a better society for all through your education.

Welcome to 2013. Welcome to the tertiary education system, in which you get to pay for the privilege of your participation particularly if you are an overseas student.

Welcome to a User-Pays system, where you pay money you may never have for an education that’s meant to be a community

Welcome to the counter course handbook and to University. Be informed, be interested, be challenged, be politicised, be critical, be elated, be safe, and get involved in university life.

Love and Solidarity, The editors.

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Congratulations on getting into the most prestigious university in Australia. I still remember why I went to Sydney Uni – I made the decision because of the pretty sandstone buildings, and I’m sure it was the same for almost all of you as well. Be proud, you’re a Sydney uni student now.

We’re the uni with the most active student life and the best alumni. We have the bestmaintained squash courts and the most exclusive colleges.

We’re the university that last year invented a financial crisis just so it could sack 300 staff, and replace them with casuals.

We’re also the university that wants to strip academics of their intellectual freedom, sick leave and superannuation during ongoing bargaining with the teachers’ union (the NTEU). I’m sure they want to bust that, too.

This has been a long-term trend. As my erstwhile predecessor wrote in 1997, “you will also notice a gross misdirection of funds within the University, for the priorities of this University administration are often somewhat warped – cleaning the gargoyles takes priority over providing tutorials; the Vice-Chancellor’s garden receives more care than the library; students are crowded into lecture theatres while the Vice-Chancellor lavishes in his luxurious lifestyle; general and academic staff remain underpaid while the crème de la crème of the University bureaucracy receive more than their fair share.”

We are a student union in the same way that the NTEU is the trade union for university staff – the SRC exists because of the need for students to work together to defend our interests. We have a long history of fighting for student power. We stand for a free, fair and funded education, universal student unionism and a society free of discrimination and oppression.

We work with the National Union of Students to represent students to the university and government, and our collectives are the hub of student activism on campus. Our staff provides vital services, such as SRC HELP (academic, Centrelink and tenancy advice), a secondhand bookshop and our FREE legal service. We also publish Honi Soit, the only weekly student newspaper in the country.

I do Law, so I never got a chance to choose most of my subjects. But I remember in first year, the Counter Course handbook was an invaluable tool in deciding which electives I would do. Australian history was something I would have steered totally clear of if it weren’t for this handbook telling me to give it a chance. I promise you that student feedback is not something to be ignored.

This an institution which is geared towards creating an intelligentsia without ideas, so I wish you good luck in finding some.

David Pink SRC President

president

Welcome to the University of Sydney! My name is David Pink and I’m the President of the Students’ Representative Council (SRC).

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DEgree planning PAGE 4

We don’t know whether it is that, come enrolment time, students are overwhelmed by the exciting sounding names of subjects, or are just put off by the mind-numbingly boring course requirements document, but degree planning is something that too few students actually devote time and consideration to. A common piece of feedback in the Counter Course handbook was that many students were being caught out.

Degree planning isn’t about locking your future career in at the start of first year, or just listing subjects that you think will make you employable.

Degree planning (particularly in more generic degrees) is as much about thinking of the overall experience of University, and the attributes you wish to acquire as a graduate. Lets face it, its also important because your Faculty will fuck you over if you don’t fulfill the occasionally specific requirements of some degrees.

So, this is our very brief guide based on common experiences of students as found in the Counter Course survey. We hope it helps!

Units you ABSOLUTELY NEED These ones are, generally speaking, the most obvious, but they are also the ones that can be the biggest cluster-fuck to change if you enroll incorrectly. These can roughly be divided into three categories: a. Prerequisites A subject with prerequisites requires you to have completed other subjects in previous years or semesters in order to be eligible to enroll. For example, in order to take ELEC3204, ‘Power Electronics and Applications’ in the School of Electrical and Information Engineering, you must first have completed ELEC2104, ‘Electronic Devices and Circuits.’ Sometimes, prerequisites are specific courses, whereas others simply mandate a certain number of credit points (usually junior credit points) in a specific discipline. b. Corequisites A subject with corequisites requires you to complete other units of study at the same time as you are enrolled in that particular unit. For example, to enroll in GEOS3053, ‘Asia-Pacific Field School – Assessment A’, you must also enroll in GEOS3054, ‘Asia-Pacific Field School – Assessment B,’ which seems straightforward enough. Typically, corequisites are only a thing for exchange, internship and Honours units of study, but just

make sure your other subjects don’t require them as well or you may be caught out. c. Degree Requirements These are the requirements most often fucked up by students come enrolment time. Many degrees at the University (typically more specialist degrees, practical degrees or the various strange permutations of the B Arts, like the B International and Global Studies) require that you take certain subjects, or a number of subjects in certain disciplines, in order to qualify for your degree. For example, to meet the requirements for the absurd B Political, Economic and Social Sciences (we are so sorry for you if you are already enrolled in this, by the way, what an error from you), you must complete study in Government and International Relations, Political Economy and EITHER Sociology or Anthropology in your first two years, before selecting one of them as your actual major in the third year. CRAZY! You will find many degrees have very specific course requirements, which can all be found in the regulations for those degrees.

Units you will FIND THAT YOU NEED This is where you start to get the flexibility in your degree and you have to make decisions not given to you by your Faculty.

Starting with the basics, everyone knows that most subject areas will have first year courses. These are generally quite generic and designed to give you an introduction to the discipline and its subject matter.

They will then offer a series of senior units, and potentially advanced and Honours units, which will further refine and specialise your knowledge of the given subject matter.

In most instances, you will find that you require twelve junior credit points in a given subject (usually two junior units) in order to major in that subject. Your “major” will then be made up of a specified number of senior units in that particular discipline, which is usually 36. Keep in mind that the requirements for some majors are a little more complicated (e.g. if you wanted to qualify for Professional Practice in Accounting, you will be required to do a different set of units).

Once you have yourself a pretty little major, you may like to indulge in some extra academic nourishment, and enroll in an Honours year. Honours is, generally

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The only other consideration you should give in relation to things that you may find you need is that if you are intending to go into a fairly specialised area of practice in whatever field, you could find that your employment will require (or “highly recommend”) that you have completed certain units of study in your degree. This is particularly true when, for example you are able to specialise in the later years of engineering degrees.

Units that you may WANT This is more a collection of hints and tips that we have picked out of the Counter Course survey this year, about things that you might like to consider when selecting subjects, particularly if you have a bit of room to get creative in subject selection.

One thing that you may like to have in your mind, particularly in more generic degrees like B Arts and B Science, is what skills and knowledge you can acquire over your entire three year degree, and what employment opportunities that will present. You should identify, irrespective for the moment of what subject areas they actually fit into, what skills and attributes you require for your dream profession, and aim for those. Increasingly, employers value graduates with interdisciplinary skills, who show that they can think critically about a wide range of complex ideas.

We know what you are thinking. You just love University so much that you wish it wasn’t only confined to two semesters. Well, we have the solution for you! In all seriousness, some students find that Summer and Winter Schools are a good

way to catch up on prerequisites if you have cocked up your subject selection. Also, if you are an eager beaver and can’t wait to get out into the work force, they are a way to rush your degree.

You should be wary of a few things first, the first being YOU INSANE PERSON, HOLIDAYS ARE FOR HOLIDAYING. The second is that Summer and Winter Schools can’t go on HECS, so you will be a bit out of pocket (to the tune of thousands of dollars).

It is often said that sometimes University is just about knowledge for knowledge’s sake, and there is nothing wrong with that. Many of the degrees at USyd provide students with the flexibility to pick subjects which may just randomly tickle their fancy, but are unlikely to define their entire life from this point on. Make sure you pick (at least some…) subjects that interest you, or your degree can become a form of torture befitting the University’s gothic architecture. You know what they say, all Advanced Mathematics and no Manning makes Jack a dull boy.

Many students also find that building a semester or two of exchange into their degree (if you can afford it or get financial assistance) is another excellent experience offered by the University. The staff in the International Office are very helpful with all your degree planning, but you should bear in mind that that you are unlikely to find reciprocal agreements for prerequisite units (though stranger things have been known to happen). This is something you will eventually have to negotiate with the faculty, but you should try to get them all out of the way to just avoid the hassle.

This has in no way been a comprehensive guide to subject selection. We don’t claim to be experts in every single degree program or set of prerequisites (but after writing this handbook, we may be doing better than most!). Ultimately, if you have questions you should consult your Faculty. If you find yourself stuck in a rut, don’t stress. The SRC caseworkers, located on level 1 of the Wentworth Building have probably been through your problem before with a hundred other students. Go see them, they’re always able to help. You can also email them at help@src.usyd.edu.au, or phone our office 9660 5222. If you are on one of the satellite campuses, they will be out there for at least one day a week, give us a call to find out when. Happy planning!

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speaking, a research project of some kind on a particularly narrow, and high level subject area. You will need Honours to qualify for a PhD or an MPhil.

Some disciplines require that you take more credit points from their subject area if you intend to do Honours than if you just wanted a major in it. For example, to get a Government and International Relations major, you only need 36 credit points in the subject, but you will require 48 credit points should you intend to do Honours. Many subject areas, like Government, also require students to take several preparatory units in their senior years to qualify for Honours. Many people find that the more general undergraduate subjects do not prepare them well for the specificity of the Honours year. For this reason, you should think about picking subjects in your senior years which compliment any areas of interest that you may like to explore in your Honours year.

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Is it the truth?

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The university never fails to come up with outrageous and unexpected twists of bureaucratic insanity, so what I’m about to provide is not a complete list. It is, however, a decent guide for first-­‐time uni students in standard university bullshit, and the lies every student’s going to hear at least once. Hopefully this guide will help you take everything with a grain of salt.

1. You can’t change your tutorial times ever, not even if you have to care for you elderly, blind one-­ legged mother.

This old chestnut’s a particular favourite of the Law faculty, who insist that UNI COMES FIRST OMG even if your 6pm three hour seminar on international haberdashery law conflicts with your job, or your caring responsibilities.

This is a lie. You can always change your timetable, for whatever reason you want even just not wanting to start before twelve. If the faculty office is giving you a hard time – just do it online.

2. There will be no extensions on this assignment for anything except the unexpected loss of an organ, and even then it has to be an important one.

This is also massively untrue. The overwhelming majority of university academics will give you an extension if you ask politely enough. Even if you’re unlucky enough to come across a hard-­‐ass the SRC can help you appeal if you’ve got a halfway legitimate reason.

The point is, you shouldn’t feel bullied into not asking for an extension. It’s not like you’ve got anything to lose. You’re just trying to avoid handing in a half-­‐arsed essay and actually have a chance to put a bit of a thought in and actually (crazily) learn something.

3. Miss the exam, fail the course, no questions asked, get shot in the face for good measure.

Puff. I once missed an exam worth 60% of the final mark because I’m too dumb to read a bus timetable properly. They let me resit it, possibly stunned into helpfulness because I admitted to doing something so idiotic. Ignoring the fact that it’s relatively easy to fake a family trauma if you’re desperate, most excuses that don’t involve the word ‘hangover’ will get a decent hearing. Even then, if you’re an arts student, you’ve got a shot.

The real trick is to be honest. Don’t lie to your lecturers – they’ve heard better excuses than you can think of.

Just say what happened, apologise if appropriate and beg for mercy.

4. You will fail the course if you don’t talk heaps in tutes, even if you don’t really like speaking huge groups.

Tute participation is a joke. Mostly it involves two smartarses yammering away at each other for an hour while everyone else nods awkwardly and pretends they did the readings.

Sometimes you’ll be lucky enough to have a tute where people actually discuss things like civilized human beings. Mostly not. Even if you’ve been sitting up the back trying to work out what subject this is the whole time, you can pretty much

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If you’re really uncomfortable talking, have a chat to your tutor outside of class. Generally, you can work out something to make things for you, like breaking into small groups. Remember, nobody else knows anything about anything anyway.

5. Your mark is final, FINAL DO YOU HEAR ME, FINAL!

Even if you think you’ve been marked unfairly, or discriminated against, or had to struggle to keep up with your studies because the real world was rudely interrupting, your final mark is final? Filthy lies. This is where the SRC comes in. Come down to our crazy basement offices, and we’ll help you appeal your results.

You could be remarked, or receive special consideration, or possibly even have the result removed from your academic record. Don’t just suffer in silence. Tell us. We can help.

6. If you don’t submit the essay by EXACTLY 4.30 you will lose 400%

Generally it’s a good idea to follow the drop-­‐off deadlines, unless you have an extension. However, a lot of faculties won’t actually collect the essays until the next morning. So, if you’re desperate, turn up really early the next morning, backdate the cover sheet and deposit it before the staff turns up. There’s no guarantee this’ll work every time, but it’s worth a shot, and when it does work, it’s bloody awesome.

7. Plagiarise, even by accident, and you’re out of uni, and you never get a job, and nobody will ever love you.

My advice here is DON’T DO IT FOOL! However, that can be easier said than done. The university’s plagiarism policy is not the most consistent thing around. Different academics have different ideas of what constitutes plagiarism – and so do a lot of students. The SRC is working to deliver a fair and reasonable plagiarism policy with the university – one that focuses on helping students stop nicking other people’s work, rather than just immediately throwing them out.

If you’ve got plagiarism problems, come to the SRC immediately. We’ll help you get a fair hearing, and represent you against the university.

This is nowhere near a comprehensive list of the kind of nonsense that the university will throw at you over the course of your degree. But it’s a start.

The point is, university administration likes to pretend that there’s cold, hard rules that nobody can or does deviate from. But here in reality-­land nobody’s perfect, and students fuck up, or have real-­life dramas and issues that interfere with their studies. The Counter Course handbook is here to remind you that the university administration are most likely human and not killer androids from outer space, and that there’s always an alternative to what the university says.

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Is it really...

save your tute participation mark by saying a few relevant things towards the end of semester. If the tutor learns your name, bonus marks for you.

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Another thing enabling a sense of community in Agriculture is the practical experience learnt through going on field trips. Some suggest that it’s worth doing it in your first year in order to gain direction in your degree, and respondents suggest that Southern and Northern NSW are good destinations. Most students had a positive view of these field trips, commenting that they were fantastic opportunities to socialize and network within the small agriculture community - this sentiment remained for one student even when it did leave them stranded outside in the rain, collecting soil in the Hunter Valley. One downer is that ancillary course costs for equipment and travel will pull on your purse strings.

Unsurprisingly, students preferred to be assessed on the practical (as opposed to the theoretical) aspects of Agriculture. With exams generally weighted at 80% a negative of this subject - like many subjects at this university- is that assessment structure is too heavily skewed towards exams, leading to high levels of stress and a tendency to disregard other important course work for the “cram”. We got the impression that Agricultural Economics and Environment are excellent for ‘interesting’, ‘practical’ hand-on learning in a ‘good atmosphere’. If you get the opportunity to be in their classes, Peter Ampt and Dan Tan are particularly well-regarded.

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Agriculture is one of the smaller faculties, with a combination of theoretical course work and practical field trips making up the bulk of the course load. This course was received with almost unanimous enthusiasm by first year students, who found it hard to fault the department.

Typical to other USYD Satellite Campuses, first year students reported a further bonus of Agriculture was being able to establish a close relationship with students and teachers - with 26-hours a week spent in Camden and a high teacher to student ratio making this almost (enviably) inevitable.

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If you think that the most important quality of a good building is that it doesn’t fall down, Civil Engineering is for you. Architecture is where your dreams come to roam free of those maths-loving killjoys. Over the course of five years, you’ll spend countless hours letting your creative juices take their form in blood, sweat and balsa wood, not to mention rather a lot of computer modelling. You’ll also get the chance to bond with a small cohort of smart and creative people who share your passions. If our respondents are to be believed, architecture is one of the most intense but also intensely enjoyable courses at this university, and we have no qualms about recommending it.

In what has been described as a rare bout of pedagogic logic, Architecture doesn’t believe in exams. Do not be lulled into a false sense of security. This is ONLY because the faculty realizes you can’t come up with a creative concept or half-decent model in exam conditions. In return for this small leeway they’ve given you, they expect you to have put considerable thought and effort into your assessments, and there are rather a lot of them. In fact, it’s recommended that you start any assessment as soon as you get it, because frantically constructing a last-minute model at 4AM is nobody’s idea of a good night.

The snake in this Garden of Eden is, unfortunately, the perennial menace of group work, which our respondents tell us consistently lumps one or two group members with all the work and puts your mark at the mercy of your classmates’ laziness.

This is a particular problem in a faculty that relies so heavily on assessments rather than exams. Remember, if you think you’ve been massively disadvantaged, shoot your SRC an email at help@src.usyd.edu.au and our crack team of caseworkers will see what they can do. If you’d like to become involved in the fight against this scourge, get in touch with your Education officers at education.officers@

src.usyd.edu.au - they’re massively keen to get your thoughts on the subject. In the meantime, our advice is to keep in contact with your fellow architects to get some idea of your colleagues’ strengths and weaknesses so you can organize more effectively.

Tutors and lecturers in Architecture are almost universally recommended as a really pleasant and hard-working bunch of people, who will cheerfully tear your model to pieces and rebuild it from the ground up if they think it’ll help you. Unfortunately, there’s not much the faculty can do to help you out with the MASSIVE course costs associated with studying Architecture, from quality drawing materials to the metric fucktons of balsa wood you’ll burn through in half a decade. Your SRC is, of course, more than happy to help you out with short-term loans, or see if we can find you some kind of income support to make those costs a little easier to bear. Again, help@src.usyd.edu.au are the ones to email.

Architecture isn’t necessarily for everyone – every year, a few students realize they’re more suited to the technical side of Civil Engineering than the creative vagaries of this faculty, or realize that they’ve signed up for a rather a lot of work and retreat to the more relaxed schedules of the Arts faculty (or better yet, Manning). But if you’re as passionate about pretty buildings as our ViceChancellor, and are willing to work to make those dreams more than just drawings on a page, you may have what it takes to be the next Ted Mosby.

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Ancient History has overwhelming enthusiasm from its devotees. You will very rarely encounter a department so loved that students strain to find something wrong with their course. Both lecturers and tutors are generally held in high regard for their knowledge, enthusiasm and the added entertainment factor. If you love delving into the wonderful ancient world, then these guys have got you covered.

Ancient Greek and Roman Myth (ANHS1602), continues to receive rave reports about its tutors, and most of all its lecturers. It’s reported to deliver a high level of entertainment for students, with the enjoyable delivery of the lectures, and the engaging ‘mythappropriations’ (examples of where myths have been used in completely wrong and strange circumstances). If you enjoy reading myths and legends, then this is the course to do, and when every past lecture has ended with a round of applause you are sure to be in for an adventure of Homeric proportions.

While the first year units are of a broad and introductory nature, it must be noted that senior units allow for unprecedented specialization. In short, Ancient History is of an exceptional standard at USYD. We’ve short-listed a few staff whose names have continued to pop up again and again. Shout outs go to: Ben Brown, who teaches ANHS2612 “as if [he is] a god”; Dr. Kindt for her ability to weave together a great deal of varying subject matter (from philosophy to archeology); Bob Cowan for his enthusiastic ‘acting-out’ of entire scenes with total dedication and in particular his positively Classical “Comedy and the Ancient World; and Paul Roche , for being a generally wellliked and patient lecturer.

If you think you’ll be spending your time fossicking for ruins, unfortunately you’re entirely mistaken.

There are three lectures and one tutorial per week.

But archeology does come highly recommended. So if you want to do a course in which you get to go on field trips, visit museums, play with shells and discuss the theoretical, historical and ethical dilemma’s of archeology, then this is for you.

ARCA1002 (by the “outstanding” Martin Gibbs) is a fascinating, if not too “theory-laden”, introduction to the discipline. Whilst ARCA1001 was not criticized by respondents per-se, one student lamented that there was a lack of consistency between the subjects, with the former not making sense until the second course had been undertaken.

However, students loved the fact that even first years can handle genuine artifacts and thus the “interesting” yet “dry” theory of the course is buttressed by the practical.

Lecturers, Miller and Colley were praised. Both managing to inspire, engage and support students.

You should be warned, however, that it may become less inspiring if you major in this field, and realise just how work-intensive it is.

Advanced students (credit average) are offered the opportunity to experience an actual dig in Port Arthur during breaks, described as “rejuvenating” by those who attended. So ensure your grades are at least a credit average and you’ve got some practical work to look forward to!

When choosing subjects, keep in mind that most subjects are on a two-year rotation. One student recommended holding out for Maps, Time and Visualisation (ARCA2606) in 2013 as opposed to Digital Methods (ARCA2607).

The Archeology society is recommended. It will keep you up to date on internships for digs, seminars and, of course parties being held alongside dinosaurs in the Jurassic Lounge (NSW Museum) where you’ll be able to find your very own Indiana Jones.

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Often overlooked in the valiant vicsations of university life, the department of Art History has a well-deserved reputation as the quintessential specialist arts major, attracting hipsters of all types (totaling 1) to its shores. Despite the stereotypes and limited range of senior subjects, students generally raved about the quality of both the subject material and teaching in the school. So, just like the Museum of Contemporary Art, Art History seems like a snobbish wank-fest from the outside, but is enthralling and potentially life changing from the inside. This department is regarded as one of the better slices of the Arts pie, with a small ratio of good-to-bad units and lecturers.

A veritable highlight is High Renaissance Art (ARHT2616) with Dr Louise Marshall, whose “interesting and engaging” lectures make for a “wonderful subject”. Similarly, Contemporary International Art (ARHT2624) with Dr Bruce Moore is “really open to theoretical inquiry, individuality and [has a] supportive environment”. Refreshingly, praise is not limited to the juicy seniorlevel subjects that one is privy to upon completion of mundane first-year hurdles; the introductory unit, Art and Experience (ARHT1001), was also commended for its fantastic teaching staff.

Our respondents seemed frighteningly enthusiastic about the helpful Schaeffer library staff in particular. Additionally, as far as resources go, any student willing to take the plunge into the deathly quiet library to find a study perch amongst other chinoclad Mac users with ironic body hair will rejoice in the wonders of the department’s extensive collection of glossy books. This makes cruising through research surprisingly accessible and cost-efficient. In fact, a course reader might be the only expense you bear when potentially perusing hundreds of pricy art publications.

Surprisingly, the lack of group work in Art History was seen as a negative point since it limited the ability for students to academically collaborate as part of a team. But hey – if the only downside to a subject area is a lack of group work, is that really such a bad thing?

If you feel the allure of Art History drawing you in like a rogue mosquito to a wet canvas, don’t bother resisting. Go on and take your place outside RC Mills with the other cigarette-rolling paisley fans.

anthropology

Apathetic snobs of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your well-lit spot in the Schaeffer Library.

Art history ARTS

Students who take anthropology must have a thing for brownies, because the subject tends to be a bit half-baked.

Anthropology is about as good as this joke. No, seriously – Anthropology is not one of Sydney University’s strong points.

At the end of last year the department was nearly merged out of existence due to declining enrolments.

At a junior level, lectures tend to be overcrowded. Don’t worry, by the time you get to second year this won’t be a problem: more than half your cohort will have dropped out. Cultural Difference (ANTH1001) was flagged as a pretty shoddy introduction to the discipline. We got quite a few irate first years panning the subject: “ANTH1001 was terrible.

Extremely dry content. Boring lecturer.

Unstimulating tutorials.”

“The content was mind-numbing.

Patronisingly repititive, vague and dull.”

Several respondents were incredibly passionate in their defence of lecturer Gaynor Macdonald, but made clear that she could do little to enliven what was just a boring unit.

Unfortunately ANTH1001 is prerequisite for all senior units of study, because the second semester junior unit, Anthropology and the Global (ANTH1002), is by all accounts fantastic.

One student summed it up: “Great content. Great lecturer. Great tutor.

Could not ask for more from a unit of study.” The topics explored by the unit, globalization and its implications on all aspects of life, were judged to be extremely relevant and up- to-date by respondents. Snaps to lecturers Terry Woronov and Neil Maclean for embracing technology. They have students post definitions online and it goes towards their participation marks.

Students were really enthused, and said they thought that this structured approach might ensure all students finish up with a solid understanding of the subject matter.

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There is usually a general shock at the workload English requires, and the unsettling spectrum of the good, to not so good, courses. Subjects have been described as ranging from “abysmal” to “absolutely incredible”.

lack of responses from ASLT students*, aren’t very many of you. Thus, you have one choice – ENGL1026. Thankfully this unit received praise from a variety of students, so you aren’t completely fucked.

The extensive amount of responses we got from English students is telling of the diversity you’ll see in English classes. You’ll meet bookworms with a love for poetry, hipsters keen to move on to film studies, and students just trying to gain some extra credit points. Respondents warn future students to take a look at the text list for each unit you’re interested in. Aside from a probable overload of theoretical readings, you’ll most likely be expected to read a bunch of novels, plays, or poems depending on which direction you head in. Not only will this

*To be fair, the responses we did get about ASLT were quite positive, especially units taught by Dr. David Brooks. Brigid Rooney, the co-ordinator for ENGL1008, also received praise, so maybe things are starting to look up. Except…

english nglish

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kill your holiday – as the commonly received holiday email from your future professor will gently suggest – but may kill your budget too. Books are expensive, and even with The Co-op Bookshop’s membership price and the SRC’s Second-Hand Bookshop, be prepared to fork out some cash.

Students gave rave reviews to units like ‘Imagining America’, equal parts for the lively professor David Kelly and equal parts for the interesting range of texts and authors, from Whitman to Faulkner to Scorsese. Then there is ‘Literary Theory’, a unit with unimaginable workload, and ‘The Literary in Theory’ (don’t get them confused!), a unit that has been called “long-winded” and “self-indulgent” but also an Honours prerequisite. Be warned.

When reading this report, it is worth considering how the English major was substantially and fundamentally changed last year. Instead of offering Senior level English majors a plethora of units, ranging from the niche to the broad, now students are forced to do at least three Core units before going on to Extension units. Core units are incredibly basic units about poetry, novels, postmodern literature, modern literature, early modern literature etc., etc.

On the other hand, Extension units can focus on Irish literature, The Brontës, or “Street Narratives”. This change is indicative of a change in the university structure, one that mirrors the UTS system of streamlining courses to make them appear more vocational. This way every student the degree factory churns out will have the same skills. Enjoy capitalism!

N.B. Although an Honours in English has historically been a prestigious element of the major, the University may cut Honours altogether. Contact the SRC (Wentworth basement) if you want to get involved in the campaign to SAVE HONOURS!

For you newcomers, you have a choice between– wait, you don’t really have a choice. You must do ENGL1009, a unit that is allegedly as boring as its name, ‘Reading English Texts’, and the worst reviewed unit in English this year. You also get a ‘choice’ between three other units, one of which you must do to finish the junior stage of your English major: Constructing the Fictive Self (ENGL1026);, Australian Texts: International Contexts (ENGL1008),, Global America (AMST1001). Notwithstanding the fact that AMST1001 is only useful if you’re pursuing an American Studies major, and ENGL1008 being fairly irrelevant unless you want to major in Australian Literature, which, assumed from the almost complete SRC Co u n t e r co u r se h a n d bo o k 2 013

studies If you’ve already reconciled yourself to life in a recession economy, film studies is a cracker of a way to round out a degree in being useless but great fun at parties. The tutors are meant to be excellent (even outside of class hours!), the assessments are take home exams that allow you to immerse yourself in the cinematic world as you write, and the majority of your reading for each week will consist of picking through the greats of cinema history.

All in all, both Introducing Film Studies (FILM2601) and Cinema and the Digital Aesthetic (FILM2660) seem like rather pleasant ways to fill in a spare unit.

Unfortunately, if you’re planning on a Lebowski major there’s quite a different story to tell. Because the Film Studies department is so small, in order to make the required 36 credit points you’ll need to cross-list units in subjects as diverse as English, History, Digital Arts and even Japanese or French if you’re in a globetrotting mood. This would give the rounded education that the glossy Arts brochure promised. Unfortunately it’s also a recipe for bureaucratic disaster, given that the Arts faculty aren’t known for their ability to co-ordinate across subjects at the best of times. Also, the marking criteria and preferred style of each subject can vary wildly, so you could find yourself punished for struggling to find the right balance between historical context and technical criticism (for those of you who’ve just finished HSC English, the experience will be eerily familiar). We were also warned that the department itself can be disorganized, with only enough funding for three lecturers, some readers were reportedly printed mere days before an assessment was due.

For the dilettantish David who’s only in for a unit or two, we have no hesitation about giving Film Studies a solid four and a half stars.

A majoring Margaret might want to think again.

On specific subjects, everyone is in agreement on Bodies, Sexualities and Identities (GCST2607) with “amazing material, engaging guest lectures and sensitive tutors”.

Intimacy, Love and Friendship (GCST2610) was also a favourite, with well-structured lectures, thanks to the “witty, engaging and erudite” Dr. Melissa Gregg. Tutorials were also said to be fun.

One thing that a lot of people bring up is examinations, or more appropriately, the lack of them. Most of the assessments are presentations or essays, which allow for a lot of personal research rather than rote learning. You can use the flexible and open essay questions to really go wild and explore what you’re passionate about. You can write essays about Futurama, Grindr, or the horror movie Dumplings, in all sorts of kooky ways. One hot tip though - make sure your essays are as specific as possible.

Otherwise it’s easy to get lost in the flexibility you’ve been given.

gender studies

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You will ask why our culture has socialised us to feel the way we do about our gender, our sexuality and our race. If you’re keen on feminism, postmodernism, queer theory and postcolonial politics, then this is definitely the space for you! You’ll get to hear about all of that goodness. But be prepared to have your opinions altered and paradigms shifted. A few students were a bit hesitant however, and suggested that first year wasn’t anything compared to what went on in senior units. Intro subjects try to fit a lot in at once and it can be a little hard to figure out what the lecturers want as a result.

Oh, and did we mention that Gender and Cultural Studies is really techfriendly? The lecturers are fond of using videos and other media. Lectures are put online and readings are available on the library website. Flexible and inexpensive!

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government

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There are a few ways in which to approach Government and International Relations (IR): 1. You either want to be a diplomat for the UN when you ‘grow up’ 2. Study the ‘security dilemma’ as if your life depended on it 3. Or you can sit-back, kick-back and bang your head against the wall as self-righteous students of the Trotskyite or crypto-fascist persuasion pontificate AT one another, while your participation mark passes by undetected and you write one more, yet another, essay on the influence of the WTO on national sovereignty.

However, this could be interpreted as the department of G & IR offering a broad scope of courses attuned to the needs of all students’, and the potential to personally structure your major.

The junior units of Government and IR were generally rated as being good introductions to the field. Units such as GeoPolitics, undertaken by Ryan Griffith, received several mentions for approachability and Griffith’s ability to make relevant connections between current affairs and academic theory. It was also reported to be interesting and engaging. Seeing as the only complaint regarding this course was that the guest lecturers were subpar, we’d say definitely take this course.

Anne Boucher, who takes GOVT1004, is highly qualified. However, if you’ve ever taken one of her courses we’re sure you’d know this already. Self-indulgent though she may be, rest-assured that you will quickly learn how to be ‘as goodas-her’ through her weekly studytips (on topics such as critical thinking) and the extremely inspirational power of the weekly songs.

Similar to junior units, the opinions held by students in regards to their senior courses were predominately related to their opinions on the lecturers.

However, just as equally, can we get a hand-clap for Peter Chen!?

His awesome green hair and general approach to media means that he remain popular amongst the students, even though he holds lectures on the student Sabbath the weekend (I mean, come-on).

James Rielly also deserves a shout out. He provides a cohesive and engaging look into the politics of Asia. Also John Mikler is a darling, especially when his enthusiasm for neoinstitutionalist politics becomes endearing beyond its neither herenor there approach to politics.

Insofar as this department outsources their readers, your hefty reading block for the semester will come at a discounted price at the ‘inconvenient’ Mountain St. in Broadway.

Warning: if you are enrolling in first year and you have the ‘option’ of buying the textbook, don’t, generalized content about the foundations of international relations can be sourced easily (and even @, dare-we-say-it, Wikipedia) where it comes at nocost.

So government… you either love it, or you hate it. And if you thought this entry to be a tad biased, you’re right, I hate it.

However many people don’t, so we recommend you go forth and decide for yourself.

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The History department is the jewel in the crown of the Arts

enjoyable.” Another recommends: “John is an absolute expert in

faculty, and its reputation as a research powerhouse is second

this field and his command of the topic (plus amazing language

to none. Year 10 Australian History was shithouse, but we

skills) really gave us such an insight into the period. The

can’t emphasise enough that it’s different at University. In first

readings were tough at times (including an excerpt from Francis

year, Australia: Blood on the Wattle (HSTY1089) is universally

Bacon’s Advancement of Learning) with the reader about

considered extraordinary. The lecturer, Claire Moore, will heal

6cm thick, but rewarding once you spent time doing them.”

the scars left by the Board of Studies and was described as

The Middle Ages (HSTY1025) with Dr Lynette Olson is also a

“an intellectual giant, whose lectures were gripping.” And the

solid course. According to one student, it “inflamed my love for

readings are actually interesting, so people actually talk in the

history anew” – “we looked at a broad spectrum of Medieval

tutes! Getting into second and third year, you’ll probably spend

Europefrom 500-1500 which challenged my underlying and

your life at Fisher Library. Its collection is the epicenter of 19th

baseless presumptions about the nature of the Middle Ages

Century Australian source material, and there is literally no

as dark, uneducated and superstitious, which I found to be

better place to do independent and original research as a

enlightenment arrogance in the face of the vast diversity and

student of Australian history than at Sydney.

beauty of Medieval culture.”

Sydney Uni’s other strength is American history. Emerging

Sydney Uni History is much like getting delivered a huge

Giant: The Making of America with Frances Clarke is a strong

chocolate cake, only to have a couple of gorgeous strippers

history introduction to New World colonial history. Clarke is a well-

pop out from the top. You’ll be dazzled by the amazing

loved lecturer, “although sometimes she goes off track in her

historians who take your courses in first and second year, but

lectures, you always found yourself enlightened at the end.”

by the time you reach third year and you’re starting to look

Respondents also told us that having to submit an assessed

for some nutritional content you’ll realise that DEVESTATING

proposal made their major essay significantly more bearable.

CUTS TO THIRD YEAR PRE-HONOURS SUBJECTS WILL LEAVE

Law and Order in Modern America (HSTY2671) was a new

YOU HOPELESSLY UNDERPREPARED FOR GRADUATING

unit last semester; however, it was “badly constructed and

WITH THE RESEARCH SKILLS OF AN HISTORIAN.

weirdly marked with ten thousand standards among tutors and lecturer.” This was a surprising fall from grace for the lecturer, Stephen Robertson, described by another student as “the only lecturer I have ever encountered who has truly mastered lecturing as an art form.”

That’s right, folks – until recently any student wanting to do honours had to do extremely rigorous pre-req subjects that trained them to do archival research. This is kind of necessary if you want to write essays about old things. Students complain consistently about an utter lack of progression in

Both first year units, The Middle Ages (HSTY1025) and

their degrees that leaves them without the skills they need to

Renaissance and Reformation (HSTY1031), were considered

actually be an historian, but you can always learn that with a

agreeable introductions to the faculty - as one student said,

Masters, right?

Renaissance and Reformation is “mind-blowing good, with Dr John Gagne an extremely engaging (and surprisingly approachable) lecturer, and the source material dense but

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koori centre ARTS PAG E 16

Koori studies is the study of the past, present and future of the indigenous peoples of Australia.

Their cultures and languages, the barriers they face in contemporary society and the efforts of Indigenous activists to fight prejudice and discrimination.

Unfortunately we have very little data on Koori studies - we have only one negative and four positive comments - so please fill out the survey next year. The negative comment was filled with, what sounded to us to be a number of, racial slurs.

However the positive comments about indigenous studies suggested that the subject “Colors of Identity”, “Indigenous people and the law” and the KOCR 2600 were fantastic.

One student commended the small class sizes and said presentations were great for stimulating Socratic discussion and debate.

Recently the Koori centre, which provides support for ATSI students on campus and is connected to the teaching of Koori studies on campus, has come under attack.

Many students have been devastated that support staff are no longer as accessible as they used to be.

Several student meetings organized by affected ATSI students have been convened to try and lead a fight back. If you’d like to get involved in the campaign to protect the Koori Centre, contact the SRC.

International and Global Studies (INGS) is a ridiculous degree. Don’t buy the promise that it is something more than Arts - it isn’t.

Aside from $2000 scholarship for exchange students from the degree (down from $3000, not that it was publicised very well), there is nothing substantially different about this degree. You are forced to do specific majors, and forced to do Honours from those majors.

INGS 1001 is an OK introduction to political economy and government & international relations. INGS 1002 is a massive joke. The course coordinator of INGS 1002, Sheleyah Courtney, was once caught mocking students essays on Facebook. What even.

INGS 2601 once had a lecturer so terrible that tutors refused to teach the ultra rightwing incoherent book that HE wrote. The official response to the feedback for this unit one year included a recognition of its failure, but admonished the use of profanity and penises by students in feedback.

INGS 3601 is pretty good, with guest lecturers talking about THE MOON, and kind-of-fun Model UN style simulations.

All in all, underwhelming. The student response to this course held no punches against its “glorified Arts degree” status, and hoped for more structure and relevance of the degree.

Avoid until this happens

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Students report that languages “really push you to learn your shit” and are “A LOT OF WORK”. One student even claimed, that in Latin, “one must be on crack to keep up”. Of course if you’re one of the private school elites mentioned earlier, you likely have money for such stimulants and thus we recommend you continue on to the wonderful world of Latin on speed and the specifics of the grammar of Ancient Greek.

In all seriousness, the opinions of USYD languages are very mixed and what you think of it largely depends on your love for language and your dedication to your studies. We won’t kid you, you won’t be able to get through without doing any work like some of the arts subjects (sociology we’re not saying we’re looking at you… but you might reasonably infer that…). You will have to attend your tutorials and seminars, and study hard.

However, students report immense satisfaction from the majority of the courses and a lot of the staff are consistently awarded high praise. We got comments such as “French had a wonderful teacher (Christel Rome), so the two hour break-free tutes passed by quickly, as she is engaging, enthusiastic and structures her classes well.” And Japanese was described as “…a really fun language!” with students claiming, “I really enjoyed learning it, probably my favourite subject all year… The tutors are (mostly) really sweet and enthusiastic and helpful.”

In all seriousness, the opinions of USYD languages are very mixed and what you think of it largely depends on your love for language and your dedication to your studies. We won’t kid you, you won’t be able to get through without doing any work like some of the arts subjects (sociology we’re not saying we’re looking at you… but you might reasonably infer that…). You will have to attend your tutorials and seminars, and study hard.

There are also students who state that the pace was manageable, especially under certain teachers.

“Sonia Wilson was particularly inspiring and encouraging and taught grammar very clearly and helpfully. FRNC2611 and FRNC2612 (both which Sonia coordinated) were well designed… [and provided] the chance for our speaking, listening, writing and reading skills to develop at a healthy pace.” University languages are thus not to necessarily be avoided at all costs. If you’re willing to put in the effort, it will pay off and you’ll not only learn useful skills, but also have a lot of fun. Students report feeling overwhelmed at first, but once having had time to adjust to the structure and pace they become their favourite classes and their highest grades.

So if you want to continue perfecting that language you’ve been learning, or finally start on that second language you’ve always wanted to learn – DO IT! There won’t be a better time than when you’re an undergrad.

Just be aware: the exams can’t be crammed for the night before, as vocabulary and grammar must be progressively learnt over the semester. The textbooks should be bought, as more than any other subject, you WILL USE THEM. And you won’t have many contact hours but you will be expected to put in a lot of time outside of classes. But who cares when

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languages

If you’ve spent high school learning that second or third language (or even fourth for all you private and selective school nerds) and are ready to continue on to the great new heights of university languages, don’t expect a particularly smooth transition. University languages are taught very differently to how you will have learnt them at school. You will never find the piece of advice “university won’t spoon feed you like high school did” more applicable than you do in the languages department. Expect to be thrown in the deep end.

Grammar is to be gained muy rapido, English is to be abandoned and revision is to be done at all possible instances.

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linguistics PAGE 18

Judging from the survey responses, Linguistics seems to be the ideal first year subject.

LNGS 1001 and 1002 was received by students to be “informative”, “intellectually stimulating” and “absolutely amazing”. Professor Bill “god amongst men” Foley seems to be one of the most popular lecturers on campus- his “exuberant” teaching method is evidently popular with students.

Both the lecturer and the tutors were considered to be fair and highly approachable in the first year strand.

While many students seemed enthusiastic about continuing linguistics in second year, it must be stated that majoring in this subject did not evoke a similar degree of enthusiasm. Singled out as being “quite-frankly, horrible” was Language Acquisition (LNGS2614) taught by Anthea Fraser Gupta who would “micro-manage group work” and was reportedly too paternalistic in her teaching manner. Another downfall of this department was the ‘intensive’ workload, typified by a low-weighted (3 %), consistent and time-consuming assessment structure. Whilst some students reported the ‘intensive workload’ to be a fair approach to assessment, remember if cramming is your thang, most subjects in the Arts faculty won’t hang you out to dry like this.

Majoring in linguistics isn’t always so bad. Dr Jason Johnson in Phonology (LNGS2621) and Computer Applications in Linguistics (LNGS2613) seems to be a favorite amongst students, who state that beyond his “seemingly ‘monotonous’ tone lies a deeply passionate and competent lecturer. To conclude this section, majoring in linguistics seems to evoke passion, but whether that passion’s love or hatred’s up to you.

media USYD spends a lot of time laughing at otheruniversities, but MECO is where they laugh at us.

In their first year, students at UTS, CSU and even UWS will cover more industry related content than you will by the end of the second. Even the introductory unit (MECO1002), as disconnected as the theory is from the industry, is apparently “the most boring thing you have ever attempted”.

First years will study Australian Media Studies(MECO1001), Media & Communications Landscapes (MECO1002) and Principles of MediaWriting (MECO1003). MECO1003 is the standout, providing at least a couple of practical elements.

People also complained that the theory, whilst admirable in its attempts to expose students to a range of ideas, was taught by tutors who have very little understanding of the topics.

This question of tutors is quite a divisive one amongst students, with some like Dominic Santangelo receiving strong praise while Dr. Marc Brennan receiving descriptions ranging from “god”, to a figure of ineptitude.

There’s also a strong sentiment that it can be socially isolating to study MECO if you aren’t private school educated. Stick it out, though, because while it can be hard if you’re not ‘in’, there are still connections to be made and in such an industry, those are vital. Some students also voiced concern that for a comms degree, there was a surprising lack of online lecture content.

Another concern in survey responses, were job prospects. Talking to graduates, and those active in the industry, has definitely given the impression that the USYD MECO degree is not seen in the best light. The degree is largely an Arts degree with a major in media theory and a few small practical components.

It may be worth considering that if you’re interested in theory and a Bachelor of Arts may serve just as well. Or if you really are interested in media then perhaps a transfer to UTS is in order.

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The laborious Sociological Theory (SCLG2601), a compulsory unit for all sociology majors, is universally panned by students every year.

However, fans of theoretical sociology as well as avid readers of historically important texts will find this to be one of the tidiest and well-organized undergraduate courses available. Brown has perfected the art of systematically constructing a sociological narrative that outlines the development of sociological thought, covering everything from Marx and Foucault to Raewyn Connell, in less than three months.

This brings us to: Laura. Beth. Bugg. Like, seriously. Holy fucking shit. “Hands down, the best lecturer I’ve had in my three years” said a respondent. Laura Beth has a way of consistently receiving outstandingly positive feedback from her students. She teaches Social Inequality in Australia (SCLG2604) and Sociology of Religion (SCLG2626). Another student exclaimed their initial apprehension to take Social Inequality in Australia due to its appearance as an “obvious subject” of questionable relevance to students who should be informed about the subject matter as a result of their lived experience in Australia. However, the relevance of the unit became instantly apparent with Dr Bugg’s engaging lecture content and teaching style drawing large numbers of attendance on a weekly basis. She’s also known for giving out lollies to students who participate by answering questions. Score.

However, Allan George sounds like a tutor every sane person should run away from, being described as “apathetic, underprepared and unengaging”.

A lecturer to run towards, like a crazy The pre-honours course, Sociological Theory person, is Dinesh Wadiwel, a recent addition to the depment. He has vegan-leftieand Practice (SCLG3602), was described activist roots that are SO obvious you could as “extremely mundane”. The choice of almost poke a red flag at them. Dr Wadiwel assessment types was poor, and some students felt they learnt almost everything at specializes in human rights issues, and currently teaches Social Justice, Law and home.

Society (SCLG2605), and is frighteningly wellA rundown of sociology would be incomplete read. And, shit, he’s kinda sexy too. without a mention of Honours Coordinator Sociology should be a dietary cornerstone and SCLG2601 tutor Jennifer Wilkinson, for every student seeking a profound frequently regarded as one of the quirkier Senior Lecturers. One respondent called her understanding of the mechanizations of the world around them – both on a “nuts”, while another credited her for her microsociological and macrosociological patience when it came to appealing a mark level. It’s a fairly easy discipline to excel in that was later changed as a result of Dr if you tick all of the boxes and consistently Wilkinson’s highly personalized approach to reach for the X factor that will push you from dealing with student feedback. a C or D into a HD.

SOCIOLOGY

In a world increasingly romanticizing the ideals of employment and real-world practicality, sociology retails its spot on the social science spectrum as one of the most relevant and interesting subject areas a humanity student can immerse themselves in. First year sociology is almost universally considered a test of one’s endurance for the banal. Interestingly, Dr. Salvatore Babones’ recent introduction of flash-animated lecture slides has proven itself to be a veritable silver lining in an ocean of otherwise bland sociological power point presentations.

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appealing alternative to this latter course, but

the illusion that it’s easy. It isn’t. Your mind

proved too mathsy for some. Later units such

will be blown every Tuesday at 2pm, and

as Practical Ethics (PHIL2617)and Modern

you’ll hopefully end up at least knowing how

Political Philosophy (PHIL2635) also won

much you don’t know. Others enrol under

rave reviews, while David Braddon-Mitchell

the illusion that you can just waffle your way

seems to have a floating cheer-squad who’d

through. You can’t. Your tutors expect clarity

take Stamp Collecting if he taught it.

of thought and concision of expression, and if they think you’re an idiot, they won’t hesitate

Our advice for future Platos is simple. Know

to tell you so. If, however, you have a passion

what you think and say it. Say it in essays and

for finding what’s true and right and beautiful,

tutes and across the breakfast table. Equally,

a love of questioning and doubt, and a desire

however, never be afraid to change your

to be the most interesting but unemployable

mind in the face of new evidence. Obstinacy

person at any party - if, in other words,

is the mark of an inferior intellect. Even

worrying about what it all could mean is what

more important than doing your readings is

keeps you up at night – philosophy might just

engaging with the arguments they contain,

be for you.

so fuck Hegel’s florid prose, put it in words you can understand. In the words of Adrian

First year students encounter the two taster

Heathcote, an unjust casualty of the staff cuts

units Reality, Ethics and Beauty (PHIL1101)

whose intellect and wit were memorialized in

and Self, Society and Knowledge (PHIL1103).

no fewer than eight of our responses, whoever

The former is universally agreed to be a

you are and as long as you live, you have the

very agreeable introduction to the art, with

chance to come across a new idea. Knowledge

a cameo appearance from the incredibly

is the ultimate democracy.

charismatic David Braddon-Mitchell not to be missed; the latter, however, was let down both by less immediately interesting subject matter and new lecturer Philip Quadrio, whose obsession with reading off his slides and setting pointlessly overcomplicated,

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PHILOSOPHY

Some students enrol into philosophy under

multi-pronged exam questions in the hope that students would simply run out of time has probably put the next Immanuel Kant off the subject. Introductory Logic (PHIL1102)’s agreeably high averages could make an

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We received a grand total of three responses from Religious Studies students. With such an unrepresentative sample, we feel the best way to both convey that unrepresentativeness, and simultaneously express the thoughts of our respondents is to quote at length.

However, the course is good for developing both a practical and a theoretical understanding of performance, both for those who want an academic career and for those who want a practical career. It manages to walk the tenuous line between being overly theoretical, and overly practical.

The positives: • “The units that study the New Testament, BBCL2609, BBCL2610 were both great.

BBCL2609 (The Historical Jesus to the Written Gospels) was one of the best units of study I’ve done at university so far. The first year Biblical studies subjects are amazing as well. Ian Young is a fantastic lecturer. The assessments are easy, and if pass is all you want, Biblical studies is really good for that.

Not much workload either. Readings are just usually from the bible. Not very difficult if you have been brought up reading the bible frequently.”

The negatives: • “In BBCL1002 the lectures and tutorials are not well connected to each other, and the readings in the Course Reader do not relate to the tutorials at all… One tutor talks to the students as if they were 12 years old, and she actually gave me advice on how to manage my life. I don’t think she liked mature age students who are not the same kind of Christian as her. I am nearly 50 and have never been so patronised in my life.

This deluge of comments probably indicates that people weren’t exactly thrilled with Studies of Religion. On the other hand, they weren’t upset enough to write about it either.

Make of that what you will.

We received five positive and no negative comments on performance studies, and reviews were pretty warm. Although don’t assume the record is all squeaky clean! Anecdotally we’ve heard a number of complaints during our time as students.

But do try and get Chris Hay as a tutor, he’s described as excellent.

Among the lecturers Paul Dwyer, Huw Griffiths and Amanda Card were also highly recommended.

Despite the loquacious reputation of performance studies students, we’ve not got as many responses this year as we would like. If you love the course, or if you loathe it, please send us in responses next year so students can know what they’re in for (as we’re sure you would have liked to know). Cheers!

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REL IGI ON

Performance studies is the study of artistic performance of all kinds, and the theories and institutions that lie behind it.

The whole thing gets a bit meta, apparently everything can be analyzed as a performance or something? I don’t know, its all a little bit over my head.

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ECONOMIC$$$$$$

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reluctantly began recording lectures, and set extremely difficult exams, according to students. Intermediate Macro Honours was not nearly as bad, but students didn’t have a lot of good things to say about it either.

ECOS2903 was taught extremely poorly in 2011, and whilst it seems to have improved somewhat in 2012, is hardly a crowd-pleaser. The teaching was average at best, and the lecturer Vladimir Smirnov, made students buy two $150 textbooks, one of which was only used for a few weeks at the end of the course. That’s not on, economics department.

Sydney University is meant to have one of the best economics departments in the country, but you wouldn’t know it from the feedback we received.

For those wishing to complete a major in the subject, there are four compulsory units in first year, Introductory Microeconomics (ECON1001) and Introductory Macroeconomics (ECON1002), as well as a statistics unit in each semester (ECMT1010 and ECMT1020).

In general, students didn’t rave about these units, but they seem to have been taught at a satisfactory standard. That said, there was praise for Jordi McKenzie, who “made ECMT1010 and ECON1002 interesting and engaging [and] was also fabulously dressed throughout and incredibly witty”. Props to him.

Once you reach second year, there are two pathways to a major. If you’re not interested in honours, you simply complete Intermediate Microeconomics (ECOS2001) and Intermediate Macroeconomics (ECOS2002), and then four additional economics electives in second and third year. We didn’t receive much feedback on the compulsory second year units, but we gather that they were similar to their first year equivalents: uninspiring, but not awful. If you intend to pursue honours in economics - and you have the requisite 70+ average in first year Micro and Macro - your degree progression will be slightly different. In second year, you must enrol in the ‘honours stream’ units of Intermediate Micro and Macro, ECOS2901 and ECOS2902. In addition, there is a compulsory Maths unit, Mathematical Economics (ECOS2903), in first semester, and a compulsory stats unit in second semester (ECMT2110).

ECMT2110 was previously (in 2011) taught superbly by Richard Gerlach, but the Econometrics department has recently followed Economics in being amalgamated into the Arts Faculty, which has meant courses being taught by different lecturers, and general disarray.

Overall, the Economics department has potential to be one of the better departments at the university, but the standard of teaching is low, and students complain that it’s difficult to get the best out of a major. If you continue with the honours units in third year, you are very constrained in the number of additional electives you can complete, due to the large number of honours prerequisite units. If you don’t do honours, it can be difficult to ascertain which of the many electives are the most valuable, students who completed the Counter Course Survey said they were very hit and miss. On that note, please take time to fill out the survey in future, Economics can be a rewarding major if you pick the right subjects, but it can also be difficult to find the gems amongst what is often a quagmire of mediocrity.

The honours stream Micro and Macro units are meant to be more rigourous, mathematical, and one would hope, interesting versions of the regular second year units. Sadly, this wasn’t always the case. Intermediate Micro Honours was apparently “taught astonishingly poorly by Jonathan Newton”.

He refused to teach to a single textbook, only SRC Co u n t e r co u r se h a n d bo o k 2 013

Political Economy (ECOP) is one of the genuinely unique subjects offered by the University of Sydney. The department, one of the first political economy departments in the world, tasks itself with teaching economics in a pluralistic manner while putting the theory in its social and political context. This means that in ECOP, the teaching of economics goes beyond the macro and micro offered by the orthodox department of economics to challenging the assumptions that underlie them.

Students generally approve, this response certainly not being atypical: “I really enjoyed its wide variety of subject areas, and how it teaches you not only how to think very critically, but also gives you a wide understanding of complex economic theories.” Could be worse, hmm?

The department has gained a bit of a reputation in some quarters for being bolshie. This is kind of true, but the political character of the department generally stays out of tutorial room and lecture theatre. Given the variety of theory taught in the department, the students are a pretty diverse bunch.

It’s not unusual to find Marxists, Keynesians, Neoliberals and Friedmanites all furiously arguing with each other over lots of beer at Hermann’s on a Tuesday.

ECOP 1001, Economics as a Social Science, has always received rave reviews. It’s a great pity that legend of the faculty Frank Stillwell has ridden off into the sunset, but the very impressive Lynn Chester seems to be more than equal to the task. ECOP 1003, International Economy and Finance seems to be highly rated by students though some students lamented that the lecturer, Bill Dunn, may need to brush up on his presentation skills. However, the overwhelming sentiment seems to be that first year political economy is where the fun is. Do it.

Second year, however, is a bit of a different story. ECOP2011 Economic Foundations of Modern Capitalism, taught by Joseph Halevi (described as) ‘brilliant’, ‘eccentric’, ‘hilarious’ and

‘bizarre’) is very, very difficult. You have to learn the ins and outs of 200 years of economic thought in an entire semester. It is not for the faint of heart, described as “megashit for about eight weeks until it all finally clicks (but this will only happen if you read EVERYTHING, and Joseph Halevi’s lecture notes are invaluable!)” Joy Paton’s honours prerequisite “was fantastic and I looked forward to our seminars despite the shit-tonne of reading she insisted on.” If you too enjoy using swear words as units of measurement, this faculty is just waiting for you.

This is not to say that the student responded to ECOP entirely un-critically. In particular, ECOP2612 received some complaints about the online readings with, “Economic Policy in Global Context- lecturer unable/ unwilling to compile reading brick/ make readings available online- had to compete weekly with more than 100 students for single books in library.” Despite these concerns, the consensus does seem to be that second year ECOP is worthwhile.

Third year ECOP seems to have met with approval by most respondents. ECOP3014, Political Economy of Development seems to have pushed the right buttons: “Elizabeth Hill seems a bit prickly at first, but she found her rhythm over the course of the semester”. Likewise Martijn Konings gets a shoutout for ECOP3612 Distribution of Income and Wealth and is reputed to be a good tutor for his honors prerequisite 3911. Damian Cahill also gets a thumbs up for ECOP2623 Political Economy of Neoliberalism “this unit encouraged critical thinking more than any other subject I have undertaken in my arts degree.”

Which sounds pretty good, when you think about it.

The student body, particularly the honors cohort, are also a reasonably tight bunch, and the Political Economy Society is a pretty fun place to hang out, shoot the breeze and meet people. In short, you probably won’t regret doing political economy.

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dentistry

DENTISTRY PAGE 24

For those of you who look fondly back on your first trip to the dentist and your frequent appointments through your teenage years getting those braces adjusted, always dreaming of the day you were on the other side of the dentist’s chair, dentistry is the course for you.

You’ll finally be able to spend your days with your head peering into other’s mouths, pocking around with those pretty silver instruments and admiring their pearly whites. Not to mention the compulsory night-time training of taking on the role of the local tooth fairy and collecting the, no longer needed, teeth of the neighbourhood children to use in your daytime studies.

However, do be aware of the massive commitment your dentistry studies will require.

Year one and two are coupled with medicine subjects (i.e.: even more contact, lab, hours).

With one student claiming, “Dentistry is VERY time consuming, with lots of contact hours, assignments and exams! It’s hard to make time for out of uni activities and can be really stressful.” It’s reported that some students find their dentistry subjects keeping them at uni for up to 45 hours a week. So be prepared to dedicate yourself to your studies for the next few years.

There was both praise and harsh criticism awarded to the dentistry clinics from past and present students. Some claimed they weren’t at all representative of working in the field and their detachment from real life treatment meant one didn’t gain much from the time they spent in such labs. However, at the same time, other students loved them: “the intensive pathology labs and extraction clinics were most engaging”.

Once again this year, students claimed that actual clinical placements topped it off for them as the most invaluable learning experience of their course.

“A good example of this is the radiography department in the dental part of Westmead. If you’re struggling with radiology, go and see them and you will learn so much!”

However, long contact hours, frequent practical placements and course costs averaging around three grand a year can put students in difficult situations. Students reports rarely having the 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 even casual, work as a dentistry assistant. Cash, study and FUN all at the same time! Who could ask for a better job to get you through uni!?

“The tutors have so far been exceptionally helpful in getting the learning process going.”

With another student claiming that “…there are… tutors who are simply amazing - they genuinely like teaching and want you to learn (provided you’re willing). Use these tutors. Make appointments to discuss your progress and how you can improve, what resources are useful, and pick their brains!”

Take this advice with you into whatever field you choose to study in, dentistry or otherwise.

The University of Sydney has many amazing staff and you should soak up everything you can from them! Also, if you’ve got particularly good teachers that go the extra mile (who you know your degree would not be the same without) you might want to consider getting involved in the National Tertiary Education Union’s (NTEU) campaign for a fair Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA). The university management is trying to decrease the amount of support our teachers will be able to offer us, increase lecture and tutorial sizes and reduce their academic freedom. Check out the ‘Future of the EAG’ section in the back of this handbook for more information!

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accounting Accounting is not exciting. It’s repetitive and doesn’t require a great deal of original thought. It’s even worse in first year. Lecturers are not widely respected, and the feedback we received, while fragmentary, was universally negative. Furthermore, the textbooks are hugely expensive.

Still, not everyone likes creativity, and presumably some find pleasure in its precise and repetitive rituals, and apparently third year international corporate governance is pretty good, though were’ only going off last year’s feedback on that one.

We at the counter-course handbook want to give you some advice. You may be thinking of studying accounting, it may even be the right choice for you,

but please have a think before you do so. Are you planning on studying accounting because it pays well?

Because if you are please consider, is this the string of life choices that will make you happy? We’re thrust onto this crazy world with only so much time, only so much energy. We all need money, but is the best way you can get money, which is ultimately a tool, an enabler, only? Is this the best you can do- study accounting?

I don’t know what’s right and what’s wrong in this mad world, and if accounting makes you happy, do it.

However if you’re doing it to make yourself rich, there are better ways, and you won’t have the time to enjoy it. Accounting ruins lives, don’t throw yours away.

All power to the imagination!

finance business We received almost no feedback for finance. In many ways, this probably sums up the subject very well. How much can be said about stocks and futures?

Finance majors don’t begin in earnest until second year, with the compulsory units Corporate Finance I (FINC2011) and Corporate Finance II (FINC2012). It’s not possible to overstate how bad these units are, and in fact, hatred for them has become folklore in the CC Handbook.

Here’s a taste of what people have said about Corp I and II: “overloaded with too much factual information which you’re required to memorise”, and “really quite bad”.

Furthermore, Corporate Finance I requires an 80% attendance rate for tutorials AND tutors refuse to mark students as having attended if they are more than 10 minutes late.

The weighting of exams for FINC2011 and FINC2012, 65-70% of your final grade, has also been a common complaint. A saving grace of Corp II is tutor David Su, a “legend” who,

“reinvigorated my interest in finance after it had been near-totally annihilated by Corp A”.

Beyond the second year units, we had very little to go off. One respondent warned against doing Valuations (FINC3015) alongside Investments and Portfolio Management (FINC3017), because the courses have two large assignments due at the same time.

Based on another’s experience, Valuations is the one to go for.

When deciding which units to do in third year, one student had a more general piece of advice: “Don’t do two finance subjects at the same time if you can because one is hard enough.”

On that note, we appeal to Financiers to fill out the Survey next year. It’ll only take you a few minutes, and it may save your counterparts in 2014 a lot of grief. In other words, suspend your rational self-interest for one moment and do something altruistic, you dirty capitalists.

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marketing

business This nefarious department, which boasts itself to be at the very “forefront of advancing Marketing knowledge through research and teaching”, welcomes you. They are pledged to impart all they know in the art of plying people into buying useless shit, exploiting consumers and generally keeping the capitalist machine well-oiled.

Crafty, crafty people.

The tutors and lecturers in this department are moderately well-rated. The introductory courses in this discipline are not very difficult but don’t expect to be perched at the edge of your seat either because most of our respondents complained that they aren’t stimulating, especially in the theoretical component. Paul Henry of MKTG1001 gets a thumbs up for attempting to inject some enthusiasm in to a generally lacklustre unit. The textbook in MKTG1001 is not great, nor particularly insightful, and comes at a hefty $140. That said, the fact that much of the course is actually grounded in practical, real-world case studies, including tutorials that discuss Emma Watson’s sartorial sensibilities, seems to go down well with many students. Don’t let the introductory units dupe you, however, because it’s not always going to be sunshine and daisies -the further you go into this discipline, and, notably in the industry itself, expect plenty of number crunching.

Our respondents also noted that many people take marketing courses with the expectation of easy marks and subsequently end up with fails and marginal passes. While the content may appear somewhat vapid - consider yourself warned - don’t lull yourself into a false sense of security because to get HDs, you’ll need to put in the same amount of effort that you would put into ‘harder’ courses.

Marketing majors in general should be prepared to part with their pennies throughout their studies as assessments, while generally considered interesting and creative, require much extraneous material.

In addition to this, a huge downer in this discipline’s assessments is the tendency to impose group work. If you are the unfortunate soul motivated to do well in this subject, pick your teammates well because you just might find yourself bailing out your team members’ laziness.

Here’s a bonus: this is one of those majors that will actually land you a job! It’ll come at the price of your soul, but you know, whatever.

business PAGE 26

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CUT YOUR OWN FLYERS!!!!!!!!!

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education PAGE 28

For those of you who appreciate the value of education and the fundamental way in which it shapes individuals lives – thank you. Most people remember their primary and high school days with terror and/ or humiliation and thus shudder at the thought of ever setting foot in such places again. Therefore you are the rare members of society that intend to revisit these places and educate the next generation of leaders. Schoolteachers are the reason we’re all able to attend university today. Therefore, we salute you and express our gratitude. You’ll be teaching our children one day! We’re definitely not prepared to.

Over the course of your degree, enjoy soaking up the wisdom of the highly praised Sydney University education lecturers and tutors and the Socratic method of the peer support network, learning how you will one day impart knowledge onto your own students. Look forward to being tutored by people such as Paul Ginns in Educational Psychology (EDUF2006), who is known to “practice what he preaches” and “subtly integrates the pedagogical techniques he is explaining into the teaching of the subject matter.” Furthermore students encouraged this subject, and all the other psychologically related education subjects, so as to give students a greater understanding of their own teaching methods and the true value of education.

However, many students criticised Dr. Walker, the lecturer for this subject, describing him as “quite unpopular among students as we were attending lectures about the importance of motivation, given by the most not motivating lecturer in the Education faculty” and he is also known to take criticism quite poorly.

Also, to be honest with you, past students are critical of the, often, large amount of group work integrated into their subjects, particularly Social Perspectives in Education (EDUF2007). Negative attention was also given to the workload of education subjects, being described by one student as “excessive” and “overwhelming”.

You may have noticed that these are all second year subjects. That’s because that’s where things really get interesting in education. One student reported “first year education isn’t that engaging to begin with so don’t judge

the entire course on that.” Yet this is not unlike comments from other subjects in regards to first year foundational units. So don’t despair!

There is hope; keep going and we promise you that you will eventually reach the light at the end of the tunnel. The world needs well-educated educators – so keep going, and we’ll all be forever indebted to your continued commitment.

With saying this, if you’re a first year, we’ve been told that you can look forward to EDUP1002. Described as “…great, [it] had passionate lecturers, had engaging books to study, used interactive white boards and other technology, a very interesting topic!”

We’ve also been advised that combining your Bachelor of Education with an Arts degree is worth serious consideration. It will give you greater flexibility for picking up some of those psychology and sociology subjects that compliment the strictly education ones. One student also recommended “… not to buy all the textbooks, there are so many that are ‘prescribed texts’ that you don’t need.” So if you’re tight on funds, don’t stress too much, you might not need all the texts and they are held in the two-hour reserve in Fisher anyway.

So congratulations on choosing a degree that makes such an enormous contribution to society and hold tight until the more interesting subjects of second and third year. It’s definitely worth it!

education SRC Co u n t e r co u r se h a n d bo o k 2 013

Doing social work at uni? Excited to be doing a specialized degree not like those lostie arts students? Well according to your fellow students sometimes a little flexibility can be a good thing and sometimes a total lack of flexibility can be a horrid one. Those who are studying social work are passionate about the subject and that is one thing that is a total prerequisite for this degree.

When you are facing a degree where the only really applicable learning experience comes from the unpaid placement work you do in 3rd and 4th year, it’s a big commitment to make if you are still seeing if this is the degree for you.

Much of the degree take a very academic approach to the area and that can be a little less than useful when you are faced with reality.

One subject Professional Practice (SCWK3008) breaks the trend of being useless in the real world.

Informative and practical, it at the very least provides some solid theory behind the practice.

And while there is strong emphasis on teaching social inclusion, the structure of the degree can be challenging and leave many students feeling anything but included. Mature aged students and others who have to work can at times struggle to fit within the structure of the degree.

Placement is by all accounts informative and reconnects students to why they wanted to do this degree in the first place and students all seem to feel that placement is the most valuable thing you will do in the degree. As important as placement may be there is the crippling issue that it is unpaid, that’s right we’re talking working 9-5, 4 or 5 days a week. If you think you might be able to get some sort of study assistance/income

support, look into it now (find a social work friend in first year and if neither of you qualify why not consider getting married?) and get ready for two years of hard but by all accounts rewarding work. Remember start thinking about the area you want to work in, start doing a little research on the side to help figure out what area of social work is really going to be the one thing you would love and excel at because when your placement comes up, what you do there is going to be the only thing prospective employers know about you. Get a placement in the area you want, the staff are generally receptive to requests to change location, the SRC also has services to help you lodge and appeal if need be.

Tips for success in second year include taking Psychology 1001 or 1002 in first year as it give you a headstart when you study Psychology for Social Work. Waiting a week for two before spending all your hard earned money on the textbooks is recommended as many found they could get by without (and you are going to need that money for food in 3rd and 4th year), or perhaps find a buddy and share the costs that way you pay half as much to never read the damn thing (remember… placement is coming). Planning is the key to succeeding in social work; pick your major early and save save save! Social work has a close knit community so you will have strong support from your fellow aspiring social workers. Social work is not an easy degree. The work is hard and the pay it literally non-existent but after 4 years you will walk out with a good degree.

social work

education

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amme engineering First year aeronautical engineering (AERO1400&AERO1560) continues to bitterly divide students. Legendarily strict “course overlord” KC Wong’s hands-on work, including welding and lathing, has gone some way towards cleverly disguising what is more or less a pure maths course, but his lectures’ “surprise quizzes” did not win him many friends. Senior units like Doug Auld’s Space Engineering (AERO2705) build carefully on this theoretical structure, and according to respondents their labs are pretty awesome.

Other units within AMME were less polarising. Thermodynamics and Fluids (AMME2200) was criticized for squeezing too much content into overcrowded 9AM lectures, but as we’ve come to expect from the faculty of Engineering, when the administration fails, academics step up to the plate.

This time it was quirky lecturer Richard Malik, who in combination with herotutor Shaun Meares kept students engaged and informed. Shout-outs also go to David Rye and Quantian Luo for overcoming similar obstacles.

civil

If you’re a woman in engineering, brace yourself for suddenly becoming incredibly popular, but also remember that your faculty and your SRC are committed to making sure you have the same opportunities as any other student. If you feel that you’re being given a hard time because of your gender, shoot our caseworkers an email at help@src.usyd. edu.au and they can help you out.

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Every year, 400 new students join the School of Civil Engineering. Many of those students will spend their lectures sitting in the aisles. Some of them will encounter labs that aren’t able to provide them with the equipment they need, including things as basic as pH indicators. (Here’s a hint, guys – Chem Eng is just next door.) This would actually be quite funny, if you weren’t paying eight thousand dollars a year for it.

Tim Wilkinson of Structural Mechanics (CIVL2201) seems to be the only thing standing between this department and the zombie apocalypse, going out of his way to explain not just his subject but others students were struggling with; that is, when he’s not organizing free tutors and information sessions about subject choices and career paths.

There are two things that should make you really pleased to be an engineer at Sydney University. The first is that the vast majority of your lecturers are enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and approachable. Unfortunately, the reason they’re all like that is because they’re the ones who were willing to keep fighting against the constraints of their faculty to provide you with a quality education. Our respondents overwhelmingly indicated that EVERY school within engineering is massively overcrowded and brutally underfunded. Part of the blame for that lies with a government that’s more interested in surpluses than universities; but a lot of it lies with a university administration cares more about pretty buildings than your future.

The second good thing about engineering is that making a group of people sit in a lecture theatre and subjecting them to far, far too much maths is the best way to make them bond. The standout example of this is Chemical Engineering’s student-organised 3rd year industry trip, which uses the excuse of learning about “real engineering processes” to get the entire cohort down to Melbourne for some quality time. Engineering families are close-knit little groups, and much as those shiftless Arts students across the way may pretend to look down on you, secretly they’re just jealous of your community (not to mention your job prospects).

It’s a shame that he’s not paid the Head of School’s salary. Other standouts included David Airey, who managed to make Soil Mechanics (CIVL2410) “surprisingly interesting”, while Introductory Fluid Mechanics (CIVL2611) was ferociously difficult but well worth the effort, unlike its cousin Fluid Mechanics (CIVL3612) whose lack of discussion board or lecturer responsiveness made it difficult for students to keep up. Even less popular was the unfortunately compulsory and universally loathed Engineering Mechanics (ENGG1802) which combined a fiendishly difficult and nebulously ambiguous take-home assignment that coincided with every other engineering due date with a “peer assessment” system that let students take out their frustration with the department on each other.

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engineering

Electrical engineers thought that their discipline was the most useful and relevant in today’s industry. Unfortunately, this usefulness and relevance comes at the cost of a DICKLOAD of maths and indecent amounts of revision. Students were advised not only to keep up to date with the lecture material, but also to stay one lecture ahead if at all possible because of the complexity of the concepts involved. If you do happen to fall behind, GET HELP. Units are usually structured hierarchically, so if you’re struggling with the contents of one lecture it’ll only get worse the next week. If you POSSIBLY can, get hold of an older student’s notes or try learning collectively with your engineering drinking buddies – electrical is NOT a subject you can cram the night before, and its tutors were at best less than helpful.

In terms of subjects, the compulsory ELEC1601 (which, in its terrifying mathsiness, assumed at least HSC Extension 1) received mixed reviews. while lecturer Gaetano Gargiulo was highly recommended, tutors proved sometimes difficult to understand and more interested in the pure maths than helping students understand it. Despite its dire 5pm-9pm schedule, High Voltage Engineering (ELEC5205) remains bafflingly popular, and may well be worth a look.

In last year’s Counter Course, we told you that Chem Eng was a perfectly legitimate option for chemistry nerds who wanted job prospects other than breaking bad. Most of the reasons we said that remain true. Vincent Gomes retains his cult status as the man who makes the Energy Balance. Subjects such as Product Formulation and Design (CHNG3805) and Products and Value Chains (CHNG3807) once again triumphed over their aggressively uninteresting labels to prove fascinating once again, though intriguingly the more trendily-named Green Engineering (CHNG5003) was described as a waste of paper, time and sleep. Tutors across the board were very highly rated, with special mention going to head tutor Chris. There is, in short, a lot to love about the way Chemical Engineering manages to make a hefty workload tolerable.

Unfortunately, according to our reviewers, this highly engaging team has been consistently let down by their administration’s militant incompetence. It’s not difficult for a department to prevent clashes between subjects that you HAVE to do to graduate – even the Arts faculty occasionally manages it – but Chemical Engineering’s inability to work out its timetable continues to frustrate. Assessments’ criteria remain baffling, and their weighting bizarre, often bearing little resemblance to the actual workload involved. The menace of group work is a continuing feature; quizzes being dumped on students in week twelve and thirteen were also unsurprisingly unpopular. At the same time, labs sometimes lacked competent instructors, and were generally far less highly rated than their Chemistry equivalents.

Chemical engineering remains a way to do engineering without all the annoying physics, or chemistry without all the annoying physicists.

Unfortunately, for an administration that is genuinely concerned about taking care of you and giving you the opportunity to show off what you know, you’re much better off doing chemistry on the other side of City Rd.

chemical

ELE CTR ICAL

To be brutally honest, if you’re in engineering, this University is doing its utmost to fuck you sideways by enrolling more students than your faculty can cope with. If you don’t think this is good enough, shoot your SRC an email at president@src.usyd. edu.au or come visit us beneath the Wentworth building to find out how you can get involved in the fight for fair education.

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health science PAGE 32

health sci Health science subjects are held on the Cumberland campus, away from the hustle and bustle of snooty law students converging on the ‘New’ Law Lawns with their Taste lattes and the overwhelming male population of engineering over the City Road overpass. So that’s a plus already!

Still many students do complain about the isolation of the satellite campuses. However you can still access the same level of assistance as the students on Camperdown campus, with the SRC’s caseworkers (that can help you with things like pro-bono legal work and tenancy advice) spending every Tuesday on Cumberland. The SRC also has an Intercampus Officer that works to increase the contact between campuses and ensures all USYD students can enjoy undergrad uni life. Plus the students on the satellite campuses build closer friendships than those on the main campus, often being on a first name basis with one another. This also means the teachers will evidently have closer relationships with students and thus there exists the chance for greater teaching support and assistance with any queries you may have.

First thing you should know is a lot of the subjects are compulsory. So be prepared to study anatomy whether you like it or not. The study loads are also pretty full on.

“If you … aren’t committed to studying for hours each day for four years, don’t do the course! Nobody knows how intense it is going in.” But this is the same with a lot of subjects, especially those that are science based and centered around practical hours, so if you enjoy the material and are prepared to commit, reports are you’ll really enjoy the next few years.

First year standout subjects are said to be Functional Musculoskeletal Anatomy A (BIOS1168) and Neuroscience (BIOS1171).

Kudos also has to be given to the “first year co-ordinator (Melanie) and course co-ordinator (Andrew)” described as being “very informative and easy to approach when we had issues with our majors and elective choices. Also they were very open and provided us with many options.” So keep in mind that if you ever have any issues, these two are happy to help!

Praise was also awarded to many second year subjects and teachers, with special mentions given to the Speech Pathology and Physiotherapy subjects. Introductory Practice II (CSCD2066) was a favourite. The tutors are said to be very encouraging and constantly providing friendly constructive feedback. A shout out has to go to one of the clinical educators, Robyn Johnson, for being “especially excellent - she was very approachable and honest”. Motor Speech and Dysphagia (CSCD2062) is also regarded as a “brilliant subject… [that] was very intellectually stimulating” with lecturers that are extremely passionate about their discipline and actually practice in the area.

Overall, students talk about nearly all the health sciences staff very favourably – so look forward to having some of the friendliest and most helpful staff cohorts out! A lot of students would be very jealous of such approachable staff! So take full advantage of the help they’re offering to give you and soak up their wisdom.

However, most importantly enjoy.

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law LAW 2013 will not be a good year for your legal education.

Bizarrely for a Law School that prides itself on assessing your ability to apply the law rather than regurgitate precedent and section numbers, Sydney has been cutting costs in the tutorials where you learn to do just that. Senior students, as well as JDs, have found themselves crammed into tutorials of up to eighty people cleverly disguised as “seminars”, which are not only totally uninteractive, but offer few opportunities for the class participation that’s meant to be worth 10% of your grade. The number of tutorials available has gradually been reduced, replaced with “voluntary” Peer Assisted Study Sessions taught by older students who – while no doubt well-meaning – are no substitute for actual academics with actual qualifications.

As if to add aggravating insult to actionable injury, some tutorials have also been farmed out to barristers rather than academics, who are trained to persuade judges of a particular viewpoint rather than teach students to entertain all possibilities – or, in one case, an American academic with no Australian qualifications and only a passing familiarity with the relevant law.

woe, help you understand why there are exceptions to every rule and generally make you really excited about being a lawyer. That’s why – if you feel, after one or two tutorials, that you’ve drawn the short straw – change. All it takes is a visit to the timetabling website and a brief word to your new tutor and you’re away. Beware, however, of the dreaded tutorial presentation – once yours has been given, you’re more or less stuck in that class.

Still, if you were looking for small, interactive and practical classes rather than prestigious postnomials and exceptionally pretty buildings, you’d have gone to UNSW. Despite the ongoing issue of a university administration more interested in cutting costs than providing you with a quality education, there remain some stellar standouts in the Sydney Law School. Jamie Glister’s cheerful charisma and boyish enthusiasm for all things Equitable (LAWS2004) won him many admirers among the class of 2012, while the colourful tag-team of Penny Crossley and David Rolph injected their dry wit into Torts (LAWS1012) and Torts and Contracts II: Negligence Strikes Back (LAWS 1017). Ross Abbs, Fiona Burns and Thomas Crofts also receive our commendation for their bizarre hypotheticals, which tested the limits of the law and assisted in students’ understanding.

Brace yourself for some of the most terrifying textbook bills you’ve ever received. Law words cost more than regular words, and a bills of more than $200 for a subject aren’t even unusual. You must get these books – you will fail if you don’t – so head on down to the SRC bookshop for some pretty extensive discounts.

Beyond that, our advice for 2013’s budding Clarence Darrows is as follows. Do your readings. They give you the chance to have a deeper engagement with the issues lying behind the precedents you’ll study, and the odd details of each case – like the cannibal sailors of Dudley & Stephens – make them much easier to remember. Also, you’ll fail if you don’t.

Keep a watchful eye on your assessment deadlines. Unlike the more gentlemanly 2% of the Arts faculty, Sydney Law will deduct 10% of your marks for each day an assignment is late – and in some cases, 10% for every hundred words over the word limit. Also infamous is the punishing 80% end-of-semester exam.

Finally, get involved in SULS. We cannot stress this enough. Go to ALL the parties. Better yet, try your hand at Law Revue. Law is a long, hard slog, and the only way to get through it is by understanding that everyone’s having just as rough a time as you are. Make friends and help each other share the load.

In particular, GO TO FIRST YEAR LAW CAMP, even if you’re a second year transfer. It’s an incredible opportunity to meet the rest of your cohort and see them at their best (and worst).

Bonding occurs on an industrial scale, and there’s nothing like the experience of turning up to Michael Kirby’s Foundations of We cannot stress how much difference a good teacher Law lecture with a raging hangover. Kirby is, incidentally, a bit makes to your enjoyment – and ultimately understanding – of a law degree. The subject matter of such riveting courses of a cult figure at Sydney Law School, and remains one of the chief arguments for attending in the first place. Suck it, ANU. as Real Property (LAWS 2017) and Legal Research (LAWS 1013) is never going to be enough to inspire students on its In short, have fun, and remember that you’re in an incredibly own; indeed, the latter course is infamously among the most competitive bunch of super-nerds, so don’t stress if your failed in the Law School, simply because many students are grades aren’t quite what you expected; as long as there exists too bored to show up. human misery and discord, you’ll never be out of work. Go forth and lawyer.

An excellent tutor or lecturer can change all that. They can breathe fire and life into every tale of misfortune and

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medicine@ If you needed any further proof that your university would much rather be a giant pot of money without any pesky students threatening its endless expansion, you need look no further than our very own Medical faculty. Some years ago this Medical School of ours saw fit to abolish undergraduate medicine in its entirety.

Some of the unpleasant side-effects that this has had include: • Students who want a medical education saddled with degrees they don’t need, and thousands of dollars of HECS debt they never wanted.

• The university being able to offer fewer Commonwealth Supported Places for medical degrees, making their associated debts more crippling and placing medical careers out of reach of the disadvantaged.

• Medical students who are more likely to be working full-time while studying, meaning they have less time to devote to learning how to actually cure the sick.

To be honest, if you want a fine medical education, with a highly competitive cohort and a genuinely stimulating intellectual environment, save yourself the HECS debt and go to a university which thinks that knowing that you want to be a doctor is – shock horror – actually a good thing. Here are some of their contact details.

• UNSW Medical faculty: (02) 9385 8765, medicine.info@unsw.edu.au • Macquarie School of Advanced Medicine: (02) 9812 3500, asam.enquiries@ mq.edu.au • Newcastle School of Medicine and Public Health: (02) 4921 6852, smph@ newcastle.edu.au • UWS School of Medicine: 1300 897 669, medstudent@uws.edu.au If you’ve already sat through three years of an undergraduate degree to get into USyd Medicine, your SRC would like to apologise on behalf of an institution which saw fit to punish your desire to heal the sick. MedSoc’s Feet First guide to medicine is able to offer you more detail and assistance than we ever could, and we highly recommend getting hold of a copy.

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Welcome to the conservatorium of music. If you have gotten in you are one of the few musical elite in Australia, but don’t let your head get to big just yet. While students at the con are amazingly talented and are consistently challenged by their teachers there are a few flaws they couldn’t overlook, namely that the Con’s administration appears to be a riddle no one can solve. Then again, getting rid of Kim Walker might have been a decent start.

While many performance students have much praise for the structure of their degree and their teachers, there are always have a few quirks that can be a bit irksome, especially when you have a lecturer who just can’t seem to get their shit together.

Positive shout out to Helen Mitchell who is extremely organized and Lewis Comwell who got the pretty amazing commendation of ‘It’s worth studying here just to experience his teaching’.

Even if you haven’t managed to scrape through into the world of the gifted and talented, music courses are still available to your common or garden variety Arts student. And you seem to love them, from courses ranging from basic music theory to conducting, jazz piano and studies in African American music. So even if just for a little while we can all pretend we are part of that funny little world down by the waterfront. If you love films and music

why not give MUSC2663 a shot? Though it has somewhat been hijacked by film studies students (some desperately trying to get the required 36 credit points by any means necessary – see the Film Studies section), ing the requirements to just get into the jazz course.

Survey of Film Music lives up to its name so be prepared to watch a lot of movies and not be able to watch a film without analysing the music. Never has study felt so much like procrastination.

Respondents were, however, much less generous to the Jazz department, with complaints of inflexibility and a disappointing level of teaching and how much you learn consider ing the requirements to just get into the jazz course.

Even after the removal of a former Dean who cut staff and services while spending $137,500 on a public relations firm, it’s the staff at the Con who attract the most complaints.

With a reputation for making students cry and refusing to follow university assessment policy they have been described by one student as “a particularly virulent type of cancer.

[They] either need to be removed or it will kill the department and

once [they are] removed the department will flourish.” One hopes their new Dean’s cuts will be more targeted that Michael Spence’s.

In addition, sometimes students at the Con, especially those combining music with another degree, can feel a little strangled by a hefty workload that also strangles their other subject choices. Others felt that the compulsory units are often bazaar and have little to do with their course or major, such as singing lessons for musicology students – then again that’s probably more of a issue for the performance kids who share the class with them.

Composition students found the most distressing thing being locked away in the dungeon. Your SRC can sympathise.

Finally, music students tend to be on the quirky side, and you have to be to get as good as they do, but they’re also known for levels of pretension not previously experienced outside the hallowed halls of New Law. At the least Science majors can put these starving artistes back into their rightful place – as glorified Arts students, with even fewer job prospects.

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nursing

If you’re considering studying Nursing, you probably know that it requires a certain amount of human kindness, sadly we can’t say the same thing for the faculty. Five out of five responses to the survey were negative.

Students complained about the sociology and nursing courses, about pharmacology for nursing, about timetable clashes and a lack of flexibility, about a lack of talent among the teaching staff and about the competence of student services staff in the Sydney Nursing School; in other words, pretty bloody much everything.

between campuses.

Furthermore, the demands on your time will be extensive, textbooks are not optional and study groups are strongly recommended.

Getting a job as an assistant in nursing in your second year to consolidate skills is wise. We know it’s difficult, but it is worth keeping notes throughout your degree.

Good luck, by the sounds of things you’ll need it.

However, if there are problems with the Sydney Nursing School it might have something do with the slow degradation of the degree under pressure by the university administration, which has been proceeding apace since time immemorial.

We’ve been told that it’s worth your time seeking experience at a hospital before applying for the course and that it’s important to recognise that you will be travelling PAGE 36

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There is very little to no flexibility in this degree, but on the bright side when everything is chosen for you, it’s unlikely you will end up with a feeling of repeating content over and over again. While Pharmacy students have contact hrs that would make an Arts student cry, students generally look forward to and enjoy the pracs. Some 4 hour afternoon pracs can be a pain, but if you score yourself a good class they have been known to only take 2-3 hrs. Because your university has (as usual) grossly overenrolled this degree, expect your labs to have up to 60 people, so one on one attention is going to be a little hard to come by. Overcrowding has some other side effects besides lack of personal attention. As the number of students has gone up the amount of funding has not, meaning basic things, like getting a pH indicator, can be a struggle, and lab technicians are run off their feet with teachers, classes, and researchers all requiring their attention.

Many of the staff are held in high regard by students. Third year co-ordinator Rebekah Moles and Romano Fois are continually praised for their work.

PHAR1811 is apparently a great subject where the only drawback is the group work which is also the draw back with PHAR1821 If you do end up with people who just aren’t pulling their weight remember to tell your tutor they are obliged to take it into account. Mixed reports from students have lead us to believe that if you don’t stay on top of the material, you’re going to have a bad time. Others, however, found the subject interesting and rewarding. PCOL2011/2012 has some of the better contact hours and the lecturers were responsive to emails and were willing to take things into account when difficulties arose. Students also recommend going on placement if you can; one pharmacist who got a one week placement in a rural community pharmacy found it great learning opportunity with friendly people who were

willing to tech. Reviewers were, however, less generous to the compulsory pharmacy units CHEM1611&1612, which lacked the spiciness of their science student equivalents – probably because they’re compulsory.

One down sides about Pharmacy is how expensive it is. It is mind boggling how once course can have so many hrs and be so expensive and people still think students who need to work to survive can do so. Here are some tips on order to help you out with some of these extra costs ($300+ a year!). Check out the SRC Bookshop for your textbooks, and try Sydney University Pharmacy Association (SUPA) for cheaper equipment. SUPA also run social events throughout the year. Since you’re going to be spending 26 hours a week with your cohort for the next few years, we highly recommend them; who knows, you may even find some chemistry of your own.

pharmacy pharmacy

If drugs are your thing, we suggest you transfer immediately to an Arts degree. If, however, you enjoy challenging work, you and science have amazing chemistry, and you love not having to make subject choices, this is the degree for you! Designed to make you think fast and study faster, pharmacy is not for the faint hearted (or daydream inclined). If you are coming out of the HSC, don’t expect the department to hold your hand every step of the way. Pharmacy’s known for being pretty good at responding to feedback; just don’t expect those 60-80% final exams disappear anytime soon – if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the lab.

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biology Judging by the number of students who cited having the Lawbry to make out in as a high point of their degree, most Sydney Uni students’ education in biology takes place outside the classroom. For the truly dedicated (or dateless), however, the School of Biology is apparently an excellent substitute, if participants are willing to be just as picky.

First year biology kicks off with Concepts in Biology (BIOL1001), a riveting rehash of the things you learnt in high school, though one mercifully examined via multiple choice. The better choice by far is the more interesting Human Biology (BIOL1003), though this does involve lots of rote memorization of new body systems each week; equally well-loved is Murray Thompson’s Living Systems (BIOL1002), a cross-section of animals, plants and their interactions. The best way to enjoy these courses is via the advanced units (BIOL1903/1902) which minimized dull as dishwater lab assessments and gave students the opportunity for self-directed research with a staff member who shared their particular interest.

DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, BE SEDUCED BY THE SUPERFICIAL CHARM OF MBLG1001 (Molecular Biology). It has both five hour labs pipetting water and the highest dropout and fail rate of any biology course, the latter consisting solely of students too soporific to drag themselves to the faculty office for a change of enrolment form.

Unfortunately, for some majors, it’s a prerequisite, but if it’s a rigorous study of chemical interactions in biological systems you’re after, you’re significantly better off enrolling in Chemistry instead – at least there you get to blow things up.

More highly recommended were field subjects over the summer and winter breaks (though mercifully included on HECS), which took students to the Great Barrier Reef (Marina Field Ecology BIOL3008). Severe budget cuts, however, mean that some of these units are only offered every second year, if at all. This is frankly a bit of a joke, given that science degrees only last three years; and you think you deserve at least one shot at these units even if you didn’t plan your degree around the prereqs, you’re not alone – your SRC agrees.

USYD chemistry is one of the most exciting rides you’ll have in your degree. Lecturers have a rare passion for pyromania. Demonstrators will compare first year organic synthesis to making meth. Things will be blown, including your mind.

This is science at its most passionate and raw.

Unfortunately, the price of all this excitement is a workload that’s a little intense. Three lectures, a tute and a lab prove themselves necessary to cover a metric fuckton of content each week. Fortunately for those who are struggling, a variety of streams cater to every background, from those who’ve never seen a chemical equation before (CHEM1001&1002) to the super-nerds of SSP (CHEM1903&1904) who’re probably already making drugs in their backyard.

The other thing that makes chemistry so explosive is the high quality of the staff. There is literally not one boring lecturer in chemistry.

An all-star cast of the highly charismatic Scott Kable, Lou Rendina and Tim Schmidt led first years on their very own chemical romance.

For those up for a challenge, Ling’s Solid State Chemistry was described as one of the most mind-blowing subjects that you can take. Reviewers were less generous to the compulsory pharmacy units CHEM1611&1612, which lacked the spiciness of their academic equivalents.

Don’t buy the textbook; the lecture slides are more comprehensive, and lecturers separate examinable content from wacky shit they found in their spare time. The labs bear no resemblance to the theory you’ll be tested on, but if labs get your blood rushing, it’s worth getting into SSP (CHEM1903&1904) for second semester’s inorganic synthesis.

Our one criticism of chemistry is its assessment schedule. End-of-semester exams are given high weightings (60-70%), and thus the effort put into students’ lab reports isn’t well reflected.

So if you’re interested in making sense of the weirdness and wonder of this world – or just watching it burn – chemistry at USYD is actually pretty fucking excellent. Get amongst it.

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i.T. IT tutors have been known to base whole tutorials around DOTA gags. If this prospect makes you groan, this major may not be for you.

Programming Languages and Paradigms (COMP3109) is the standout, in that writing their own programming language helped students understand how languages work. INFO3600’s major project was also highly recommended for those considering a career in the industry.

Less popular were Management of IT Projects and Systems (INFO3402) and Professional Practice in IT (INFO5990). If you’re after a course in management, you’re much better off doing an elective in the business faculty; unfortunately, despite being described last year as a “user-pays advertorial for the Australian Computer Society”, the latter unit remains compulsory for postgrads.

For the Mark Zuckerbergs of 2013, our advice is as follows. Uncharacteristically for a science subject, the textbooks aren’t just an optional extra: the consensus is that the lecture slides are a little bit shit, so cram from the reading instead. Your SRC can give you massive discounts at their second-hand bookshop, or even loan you a little extra cash if you’re running short.

In order to pass stressful final exams (often 70% of your grade), you’ll need heaps of practice with the language you’re working in, which the lack of group study rooms and crowded computer labs make very difficult. If you can, get a copy of the software you’re working with and install it on your own computer. Unfortunately, the lack of resources also means that in INFO2120/2110 your “group assignment” will often be done at home

science

geosciences

In terms of picking subjects, Infomatics adopts the usual science faculty streaming. If you loved hacking into your high school’s system, advanced units are definitely your thing, but if you’re struggling to keep up remember that you can drop back down - both streams follow the same basic curriculum.

Your university loves amalgamating things - it’s that kind of innovative cost-cutting that lets them afford all the pretty buildings, even when there aren’t any staff to teach in them. Unfortunately, lumping things together on the basis of their prefix (geology, geography, geometry) probably isn’t the best way of categorising them, as I unfortunately discovered when I went door knocking to inform my neighbours of the paediatrician on our street.

Still, there’s a lot to be said for the Geoscience department, and not just that all the money’s in the rocks. Some would say that two hour pracs every week mean you’re doing an Arts degree wrong, but Kurt Iverson apparently makes the earth move in Intro to Geography (GEOS1002). His senior unit Urban Geography (GEOS2122) is also highly recommended as “very Gen Y”, with lots of Youtube videos and case studies to keep students engaged in a very laid back and agreeable course. Ocean, Coasts and Climate Change (GEOS2115) was also mentioned as a helpful antidote for any aspiring Gina Rineharts, while tutor Guien Miao is apparently pretty excellent.

As usual, most complaints about the course revolved around the administration rather than the teaching staff. Assessments were left ambiguous until the last possible moment, leaving some students stunned (though probably relieved) to find themselves sitting down to a multiple choice exam. Some were informed of prac timetable changes the night before the pracs themselves, and the absence of model answers for assessments left some students puzzled as to how to improve. Also an issue were the costs of course materials like textbooks and lab equipment, though excursions to places as faraway and exotic as the Great Barrier Reef, the Northern Territory and Orange were said to be well worth the expense.

Remember that, if you find yourself struggling under the weight of your course costs, your SRC can help you out with emergency loans, or even hook you up with Youth

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ma+hema+ics science If you have the misfortune to be enrolled in a Science degree, in your first year, you’ll experience the very worst that the Sydney Uni School of Mathematics has to offer. Two subjects, differential calculus and linear algebra, will each take up three hours of your week. Four of those hours will kick off at 8AM. What’s worse, each will only count as half a subject despite having as much content as a full 6 credit point unit, meaning you’ll probably have to do three more subjects at the same time. And then, come second semester, you’ll have to do it all again, except with the even more riveting integral calculus and statistics.

If that sounds like your own special circle of hell, our advice is to change degrees immediately. There is NO WAY you can successfully get through first year science without passing those four units, and to do that you’ll have to come to at least some of those 8AM lectures – the course is quite fastpaced and not all lectures are online. That said, if you’re not put off – or at least willing to put up with a bit of maths for the sake of your degree – you’ll find that first year maths can be tolerable, or maybe even fun. With four different streams from those who skipped HSC maths (Fundamentals) to aspiring maths olympians (SSP), it’s really easy to find a pace at which you’re PAGE 4 0

comfortable – just have a chat with your friendly unit co-ordinator. As units go up in difficulty they become more abstract and theoretical rather than calculation-based, so if you enjoyed high school maths it’s well worth dropping by an Advanced or SSP class. If you change your mind, it’s really easy to drop back down again.

Apart from its mere existence, nobody had anything that bad to say about first year mathematics. Lecturers such as Florica Cirstea, David Easdown, Alexander Molev and Di Warren were all highly praised for making their subject not only tolerable but sometimes even interesting, although the fact that their lectures were in the cushy new Law building probably didn’t hurt either.

Assignments were generally marked promptly, and while some lacked detailed feedback, most tutors were quite approachable or took their tutorials through the solutions. Online course notes also proved massively helpful for lastminute crammers. Students did, however, complain about a positively bizarre assessment schedule, with pesky assignments a week or two from StuVac and final exams weighted at 65% of your grade. Painfully, these exams often seemed to be centred on the more advanced material learnt at the end of the semester. If you do maths you simply HAVE to keep up with the new concepts that are dumped on you each

week, because if you don’t understand this lecture, next week’s won’t make much sense either.

If you’re a sucker for punishment – and if you’ve come this far without dropping maths, you must be – you can also opt to do senior units or even (horror of horrors) major in maths. There is little advice any of us can offer you if your life has fallen this far off the rails.

However, our sources tell us that MATH2965 and 2961 are demonstrably a bit shit because they cover no new or interesting material if you’ve already done first year, while Modules and group Representations (MATH3966) was panned for its lack of tutorial solutions and tutors who seemed almost deliberately unhelpful. Real and complex analysis (MATH2962) and Advanced Algebra (MATH2968) come highly recommended, while Number Theory and Crytography (MATH2068) was meant to be less challenging but with more obvious applications. If you’re feeling really hardcore, Langrangian and Hamiltonian Dynamics (MATH3977) is apparently an excellent application of mathematics to the real world of physical functions and conservation laws. Anything taught by brainiac Anthony Henderson may also be worth a look, if only for his infectious passion.

Mathematics is a strange and frightening world. With the right units, though, it can be made into a wondrous one.

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The two courses give a broad overview of the discipline, so inevitably the material is hit and miss, but there was high praise for Lisa Zadro and Niko Tiliopolous. All lectures were recorded, which is also a plus.

Students strongly recommended attending lectures, however, going so far as to say that your marks in the (multiple choice) exams are directly proportional to your attendance, as the lecture notes are not particularly extensive.

To major in psychology, there are four compulsory units in second year. One student advised that

YGoL

Overall, psychology got a pretty good wrap from students in 2012.

The department has been canned in this handbook in the past, but to its credit, it seems to have rectified many of its former shortcomings.

There are two compulsory units in first year, PSCY1001 and PSYC1002.

These subjects are notorious for the positively insane size of their cohorts - they often attract around 2000 students. It’s unclear why so many fresh-faced first years are so eager to get a dose of psychology, but what is clear is that, against all the odds, these units are actually OK, and at times quite excellent.

psycho

science

“just getting through second year is important. There are no elective choices and the subjects have a huge amount of content, so be prepared for that by hopefully choosing other subjects with different sorts of assessments.” Students were especially unhappy about PSYC2014, which was “all over the place” and necessitated “an excessive amount of reading [with] a lack of clarity around what needs to be read”. Despite that, the lecturers in PSYC2013 were described as “nothing less than amazing.”

We received less feedback on the third year units, but generally students seemed satisfied with them. The consensus was that they were challenging and stimulating, particularly in the case of PSYC3013, 3016 and 3017.

Psychology was reviewed very well in this year’s Counter Course Survey. It is quite evident that the department has improved markedly in the past few years, which certainly can’t be said about many other departments at the university. Our advice to budding Freuds, Jungs or Pavlovs: you’re probably at the right university, so make the most of it.

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sca

Sydney college of the ARTS

Sydney College of the Arts, formerly the Callan Park Lunatic Asylum for the Mentally and Criminally Insane, is undeniably very pretty. Insofar as art is best channeled by tortured souls in a society which scorns the creative arts, and completion of your degree is bound by the inevitable self-doubt (which niggles until it is realized) that you will never fulfill the aspiration your parents had for you, there is no place to study than SCA if you want to study, practice, live and breathe art.

Similar to Satellite campuses in Camden and the Domain a sense of community is fostered at Rozelle.

At one o’clock the café and it’s courtyard come abuzz with students talking intimately about the kinesthetic architectural mind before an hour has passed and students slink into sculpture, print-design, painting,

drawing and (even) jewelry making workshops. Class sizes are “satisfyingly small” and create a positive atmosphere for self-expression. Incoming students can expect engaged learning and strong relationships to form amongst students and tutors. Special mention needs to made of Shane Haseman, Jaqueline Millner and Ann Elias and tutor ‘Tito’ who make students resolve to finish art-school (to their parents dismay).

Now this is not to say that the asylum of yesteryear has not imparted an ominous undercurrent, hidden, but determinant of one’s assessment grade: exorbitant ancillary course costs. The quality of one’s work is directly correlated with the material required to complete major works; depending on the medium you use - $1,000- $3,000 will buy you a decent

mark, while 400 dollars spent on text books will keep you up-to date in tutorials/lectures.

Another reported hiccup of a fine-arts degree is the haphazard (read: subjective) nature of assessment grading. That is the money-spent on materials and intent in creating a project can be (according to some respondents) callously disregarded by the whims of your tutors. But as the saying goes, “beauty is in the eye-of the beholder” and anyway, people thought Van Gogh was worthless until he cut off his ear and passed away.

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Unfortunately veterinary science isn’t actually the degree that it’s often thought to be when chosen by enthusiastic high school leavers. Sadly it will not result in your timetable being dedicated to playing with puppies and kittens. Turns out it’s actually A LOT of work, most of which does not involve being in a lab with any live animals. If puppies were the norm for practical subject matter however, we suspect the class sizes would be annoyingly large and the ATAR even higher.

But it’s not all bad news and disappointment. Students state, “there is an incredible amount of fascinating shiz to learn during first year vet science”.

There is also high praise for the staff, such as one student’s comment that “Glenn Shea is a legend in the faculty for good reason and we students are privileged to be exposed to his hourly sessions of encyclopaedic yet engaging recitation of animal anatomy - and make sure you don’t miss his “lizard of the day” segment.” So there you go, you may not play with animals but you’ll definitely get to talk about them.

Corinna Klupiec is also held in high esteem, describes as “absolutely lovely [and] endlessly patient”. Her students especially admire her for her teaching methods, applying “a fantastic multi-modal approach to learning anatomy (models, DVDs).” That’s directly from the horse’s mouth, so go find these people and take their classes!

The diversity of the degree is also appreciated and claimed

veterinarY science

vet sci

to balance out the, often, overwhelming workload of many of the subjects. Units on topics such as veterinary ethics and the agricultural industries are less scientifically rigorous and help to break up the labs and memorisation of scientific terminology.

But don’t worry, the purely scientific subjects are also thoroughly enjoyed by students.

Cell Biology 1B is a particular favourite, “… you can expect to learn about incredible new molecular biotechnological developments that are still a few years away from being used in practice by vets but are becoming indispensable for investigating disease.”

Enjoy being at the cutting edge of research and being taught by experts in the field.

Unfortunately the course costs are “phenomenal”. So keep in mind that you likely won’t have the time to hold down a part time job, but will need some funds for things like textbooks and fieldtrips. We recommend checking out if you’re eligible for any Centrelink payments! If you have any questions about such payments pop by the SRC and one of our caseworkers will be more than happy to help you out.

Transport is also an issue, with an average of ten-fifteen trips to the Camden Campus during first year.

You’ll be expected to get yourself there, so try finding someone who has a car, and arrange a carpool group early on! However if you can’t do this/ have issues with transport, again come chat with us at the SRC and we’ll see what we can do.

Assessments are also reported to be a bit of a downside… A lot of the work is required to be completed in a group and different subjects are all due within days of one another.

But if you’re well organised and dedicated to your studies, there is overwhelming evidence to suggest that you’ll thoroughly enjoy completing your veterinary science degree at USYD. So make sure not to expect too much of yourself and enjoy your student years, however hectic they may be. And remember, once you’re done you’ll likely get to spend every day of your

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consideration

special The University’s exact statement on special consideration is that “assessment practices are designed to ensure that conditions are fair to all students”.

Therefore, special consideration is available to students who experience illness or misadventure immediately before or during an exam or assessment.

We’re going to say it now – there is NO guarantee that you will be granted special consideration.

This is only a basic guide to special consideration, each faculty have their own policy. So make sure you are familiar with the one that is relevant to you.

You must apply for special consideration within 5 working days of the exam or assessment deadline.

You fill out the special consideration form and give it to the relevant person in the faculty. Your application must include proof of your situation, e.g. something from your doctor, a police report or a statutory declaration by yourself. In the rare occasion where your supporting documentation cannot be obtained within 5 working days, hand in your application on time with an explanation about the supporting documentation and an estimation of when it will be available.

The outcome of a successful exam special consideration application may vary. Some faculties offer successful applications a supplementary exam; others look at adjusting the previous exam (if you sat it). It is a good idea to know what your faculty may do, but not essential. The important part is getting the application in within 5 working days.

Special Arrangements Special arrangements are available for students who are unable to meet assessment requirements or attend examinations. Applications for special arrangements have to be lodged BEFORE the

date of the assessment or exam – how long before varies from department to department, but naturally a good rule is to have your application in as early as possible. Some situations that may qualify you for special arrangements include: you sustain an injury which prevents you from writing or if you have a sporting, cultural or political commitment. Remember that any application MUST have supporting documentation to prove the veracity of your claim Special arrangements for assessments or exams usually result in one of the following outcomes:

• Alternative dates for submission of assessments (extension)

• Provision of alternative assessment tasks • Alternative examination times/ arrangements

If you’re unsure about whether you’re eligible for special arrangements, come down and see the SRC caseworkers – they are the most qualified people to deal with Uni admin.

Long Term Illness or Disability Any ongoing disability, illness or health problem (including things like depression and severe anxiety as well as temporary incapacity, i.e. a broken arm) may allow you to register with Disability Services.

This registration will mean that a Disability Services Officer can help assess what needs to be put in place to ensure that you can study on an equal playing field.

Possible arrangements may include specialised help such as computer software, extra time in exams, sitting in a smaller exam room, having breaks during exams, longer due dates for assignments, access to resting rooms on campus.

Contact Disability Services at 9627 8422.

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src SRC HELP caseworkers have done heaps of work in the past helping students across many faculties who have run into trouble with allegations of plagiarism. The University takes plagiarism allegations very seriously.

Basically, there are two types of plagiarism: 1. Dishonest plagiarism (intentional plagiarism). Basically this is when you know what you’re doing. You know you’re taking a risk and don’t kid yourself that what you’re doing is educational, 2. Negligent plagiarism (mucking up or forgetting referencing and quoting, not understanding fully what is required). SRC HELP say that it is not unusual for students to make mistakes when referencing and quoting and therefore can be found to have plagiarised.

The SRC HELP caseworkers can give you advice and support if you receive an allegation of plagiarism and advocate for you where necessary. Contact them on 9660 5222 or help@src.usyd.edu.au If you want to avoid the issue completely then you need to get to know the faculty guide to referencing. Some departments (annoyingly)

do it differently within faculties, but there are some general things to keep in mind: Using ideas or concepts read in a book Reference where you got them at the end of the sentence or group of sentences where you do this.

Using exact words from a text, article, newspaper, speech etc.

Put quotation marks around those words and a reference at the end of the sentence.

Bibliography List all references with all the relevant information in the bibliography at the end of the assignment.

As we mentioned earlier this differs between departments, and some can be super anal – so make sure you check what style your department is after.

You HAVE to do all of these things (and more) every time you write an assessment. If you don’t, you are plagiarising.

The marker needs to know what you should get credit for and what is someone else’s work.

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university Absent Fail: Occurs when you don’t attend required number of tutorials or meet certain standards set by the Unit of Study. Make sure you read your Unit of Study Outline to check the requirements for attendance and assessments.

Academic Board: Peak decision-making body in the University on all academic subjects, such as curriculum, academic standards, policy research, degrees and units of study offered. Academic Board reports to Senate. Many students sit on Academic Board including the President of the SRC and a student representative from each Faculty.

definitions

Admin Assistant: A person in your Faculty, School or Department to whom you have to submit paperwork. Many students claim they are unhelpful and don’t like assisting students with their enquiries.

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Assessment: A task that evaluates your knowledge or performance in a particular Unit of Study. These are generally not fun things and require you to study. Exams are potentially the most hated form but long research essays, quizzes, tutorial participation and practicum reports are other ways Units of Study determine your marks.

Black Board: The online Unit of Study web site for the Business Faculty and now the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

Census Date: A date set by the government whereby the University reports your enrolment details to government. Withdrawal from units after this date means you still have to pay HECS and you will receive a Discontinue Not Fail or Discontinue Fail if you withdraw after this date.

Centre: A bunch of academics inside a faculty or school working on some cross disciplinary project.

Centres generally offer excellent Units of Study, eg United States Study Centre or Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies.

Compulsory Unit of Study: Unit of Study that you must enrol in to complete your degree or major. If you fail to meet these requirements you will fail.

Credit Point (CP): Measurement of how much a Unit of Study is ‘worth’ or how much work per week will be required to complete it. In the Faculty of Arts this is about 30 minutes per week per credit point, Faculty of Engineering is more like 3 hours per week per credit point.

Dean: Head administrator of a faculty. Can generally be found in Faculty Board meetings, Senior Executive Group and cocktail functions for the high achievers in your faculty.

Department: Smallest academic unit, generally the level at which Units of Study are taught and administered.

Discontinue Fail (DF): The result you receive in a Unit of Study if you withdraw after a date determined by your faculty. A Discontinue Fail counts on your academic record, so try to avoid these.

Discontinue Not Fail (DNF): The result your receive in a Unit of Study when you withdraw after the census date and before a date determined by your Faculty. Does not count on your academic record.

Elective Unit of Study: A Unit of Study which you choose to do. It can either be for your major or in a different discipline if your degree allows. Pick enjoyable electives.

Faculty: Largest academic unit at the university, answerable to Academic Board and the Senate. Faculties develop and offer degrees, meaning your enrolment is actually looked after by them. Be warned, they create some good degrees and others that just have long and good sounding names.

Head of School: Head administrator of a school.

Honours: Awarded to students for outstanding performance in a degree. Depending on your faculty, Honours may be awarded on academic achievement or an additional year of research based learning and a thesis.

Chair of Department: Head administrator of an academic department. Sometimes the best lecturer in the Department.

SRC Co u n t e r co u r se h a n d bo o k 2 013

Lecture: Something that is generally held in large groups in large halls.

Lecturer: A qualified academic who teaches a Unit of Study.

Major: A collection of Units of Study from the same subject area studied to form a major (generally 36 senior credit points).

Seminar: A cross between a lecture and a tutorial.

Many Units of Study replace tutorials with seminars to have larger class sizes.

Senior Executive Group: A committee consisting of the Vice-Challeor and the Deans of every Faculty.

The most senior committee in the University.

Sydney University Sport & Fitness (SUSF): The Sports Union on campus, so if you want to go to the gym Mature Age Student: A student who has enrolled or take a relaxing swim they are the union to join. at this university over the age of 21. Unfortunately They also have many sports clubs which you can get they have a reputation for asking annoying involved with. questions.

Tutorial: A small class in which students discuss and Minor: A short collection units of study from the interact with concepts presented in lectures. same subject area, generally 24 credit points, Unit of Study (UoS): These are subjects you are sometimes 18 credit points. required to study in order to complete a degree at MyUni: The online administrative portal for your the University. Their workload is defined by credit degree. From MyUni you can access details points, a standard subject of 9-12 hour workload is about your enrolment, exams, your emails and 6 credit points.. Each UoS has a course code and a online Unit of Study websites. level, for example a 2000-level subject is a second Placement: Period of extramural study, involving year subject. practical study of the theory component of a Unit University of Sydney Union: The USU is the main of Study in a ‘real-world’ setting. Placements are service provider on campus and administers the common in Education, Medicine and Veterinary Clubs ad Societies Program. You should definitely Science. get involved with USU if you want to enjoy cultural Satellite Campus: Teaching campuses of the life outside of the classroom. university outside the main Camperdown/ Vice-Chancellor: Head Executive of the University Darlington Campus. Most other campuses have of Sydney. The VC, with the help of the Senior specific specialisation such as Health Sciences, Executive Group, makes sure that resolutions passed Nursing and Music. Generally they are less cool

by Senate and Academic Board are adhered to. than main campus.

WAM: Weighted Average Mark - a calculation School: Administrative level between Faculties of your mark, wherein your results are weighted and Departments. In most cases, schools are according to the year of study; so third year results purely administrative bodies that organise are weighted more heavily than your second year student services and allocate resources to results which are weighted more heavily than first departments. Generally you won’t have much year subjects.. This may be used to determine your to do with schools as they are generally just an eligibility for honours in some departments, be sure administrative body. to investigate this.

Senate: Peak decision-making body of the WebCT: The online Unit of Study web site system for university. It passes resolutions on everything most faculties but is gradually being phased out. from the university’s stance on plagiarism and intellectual property, through investing the university’s money.

definitions

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The people’s flag is deepest red, It shrouded oft our martyred dead, And ere their limbs grew stiff and cold, Their hearts’ blood dyed its every fold.

Then raise the scarlet standard high.

Within its shade we live and die, Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer, We’ll keep the red flag flying here.

Look round, the Frenchman loves its blaze, The sturdy German chants its praise, In Moscow’s vaults its hymns were sung Chicago swells the surging throng.

It waved above our infant might, When all ahead seemed dark as night; It witnessed many a deed and vow, We must not change its colour now.

It well recalls the triumphs past, It gives the hope of peace at last; The banner bright, the symbol plain, Of human right and human gain.

It suits today the weak and base, Whose minds are fixed on pelf and place To cringe before the rich man’s frown, And haul the sacred emblem down.

With head uncovered swear we all To bear it onward till we fall; Come dungeons dark or gallows grim,

This song shall be our parting hymn.

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These changes have determined somewhat the work of the SRC education portfolio in the last few years. And while dealing with education at this broader level in an attempting to preserve and extend what is left of public education there are also campus-based issues of particular concern.

In the year 2012 the education officers and the education action group fought hard to defeat the university management (the enemy within pg. X), whose manifesto included dismissing 340 staff, whilst simultaneously committing $385 million to non-essential infrastructure projects. This decision however was met with overwhelming opposition including: 10, 000 signatures collected by the SRC, a crime scene stunt outside the VC’s office, 1500 + staff/ student rally in week 5 followed by 150 students occupying the Dean of Arts office (for a whole day) and student staged referendum organized by the EAG which allowed 97 percent of the 4000 students to vote against the cuts.

The result was saving almost 300 academic and general staff jobs.

As you can no doubt see, the struggle for quality, accessible and FREE education - detached from the standardised testing and generic performance indicators of the modern economy - is far from over.

Around the world universities are continuing to have their government funding reduced,their staff numbers cut and their fees raised.

If we want to graduate from the University of Sydney with a quality education; that not only guarantees us employment but has expanded our mind and ignited within us a love of learning, all without indebting us with $100 000s until the day we die, we have to fight for it. The Vice Chancellor, Michael Spence, continues to demonstrate that he does not want to back down from his plans to implement a neoliberal, business-like, model for the university. Luckily, we aren’t backing down either.

Over the summer break the university’s general and academic staff union, the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), entered into the Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA) negotiation period, with the university management. The EBA essentially functions as the ‘Terms and Conditions’ for the staff’s employment. Spence attempted to have the staff agree to reductions in sick leave, superannuation provisions, academic freedom and job security.

Such provisions would be extremely detrimental, not only to the livelihoods of the staff, but to the education they can provide us as students. Therefore the NTEU has refused to sign the agreement as it stands. However, the university management refuses to alter the document and thus the members of the NTEU have voted unanimously to take industrial action, in the form of a strike and march, on the first day of semester one, the 5th of March 2013. As the Education Officers of the SRC, we are leading a student solidarity action with our teachers on this day, to show the university that poor treatment of staff severely affects students.

ARTICLE

Over the past twenty years our tertiary education system has been heading in a frightening direction.

While student action combined with progressive Labor Prime-Minister Gough Whitlam saw the introduction of free education in 1973, 1988 saw fees being reintroduced under the 1988 Dawkins “Reforms” through the system of HECS (the loans scheme) for domestic students and full up-front fees for international students. When combined with a broader trend towards marketization and privatisation of universities on behalf of university governing bodies, including forced amalgamations, cutting of ‘unprofitable’ subjects in universities and a “user-pays” attitude to education - the idea of education as a community benefit rather than something which can be bought and sold- has been undermined.

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The Education Action Group (EAG), that we as the education officers convene, is where concerned students meet to organise such campaigns. The EAG meets every Tuesday at 1pm on the New Law Lawns, please come along to find out how you can get involved! No matter what you study, if you care about receiving the quality education you came to the prestigious Sydney University to receive, come along to the EAG meetings and to the strike on the 5th of March.

We will all be leaving here with an extremely sizeable HECS debt, and thus we demand to receive a high level of teaching in return, and we will continue to remind the university that it is OUR future and we WILL fight for it.

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free education PAGE 5 0

1. Education is a right, not a privilege The United Nations say that all people should have access to education (primary, secondary and tertiary) that is not based on economic ability to pay. Who argues with the UN?!

2. If it’s free, everyone can access it no matter their background or income Free education in Australia in the 1970s meant that a whole generation of Australians were able to go to university, TAFEs and teaching colleges, who previously couldn’t afford it. Higher education became accessible to everyone, not just those who came from wealthy families.

3. Fully government-supported education systems are not hugely expensive If everyone on a collective basis contributes, it’s actually cheaper overall. There’s less of an emphasis on the individual to pay a sum and more about dividing it evenly over a larger group of people, so that everyone can access it (not just the people who paid for it.). If it cost $5 billion per year to educate 1 million students (international and domestic) ad that was spread over 3 million taxpayers, that’s not even $2,000 per taxpayer, and it doesn’t include the fact we have a progressive system so many people would pay a lot less and some a lot more.

company Or if you increase the more than tax by 1%, that would rtiary cover the cost of free te education per year. e best!

4. Scandinavia does it th d Countries like Norway an ing r be Sweden are renowned fo ucation. ed progressive in terms of a decent Everyone is able to get e result higher education with th y, legal being a supportive societ r all the system and community fo ying people who live there. Pa s like need more tax for society’s education, s there health and welfare mean expenses are fewer out-of-pocket for individuals. for the 5. Free education is good economy workforce Having a highly-skilled e is essential in keeping th g, in economy strong and boom ssion. rece particularly in times of ained Having enough highly-tr and graduates, tradespeople into the general workers put back and omy economy what the econ to them. the taxpayers have put in

src SRC Co u n t e r co u r se h a n d bo o k 2 013

6. Completely public universities are responsible to the whole society, not to private investors

7. Free education encourages people from ‘disadvantaged’ backgrounds to seek higher skills training People in Australia who are from traditionally ‘disadvantaged’ backgrounds have the opportunity and the support to change if education is free – there is no cost barring them from entering or participating in education and, consequently, in the workforce. Economic discrimination is always going to exist when individuals, not the government, have to pay for services.

8. Free education, fully subsidized by the government, respects staff, teachers and academics.

A government that spends a decent percentage of their budget on free education says to society that it values education and that it’s a top priority. This means for the teachers, general staff and academics that their professors are noticed, valued and supported by not just the government but by the public itself.

9. The quality of education is shared overall When individuals can pay more for a better education, society becomes a two-tiered system. It clearly divides those who can pay more for better services and those who can’t afford to pay, and therefore entrenches discrimination, disadvantage and unfairness. Education systems which are free let everyone have access to quality, not just those who can pay for the quality individually.

10. No one wants a debt!

If your education were free, you wouldn’t have a $30,000 HECS debt hanging over you when you finished university or TAFE. If your education were free, you wouldn’t have to borrow a loan from a bank to cover up-front fees.

If education were free, you’d be able to start supporting a family or buying a house after leaving uni, instead of paying off a debt.

This is also good in economic terms because you have graduates who are immediately putting money back in to the system.

Elly Howse

src free education

If universities are fully funded by the government and education is free universities don’t have to rely on private or income from students themselves. This means the universities are directly answerable to not only the government but to society itself – their loyalty is to the people, not to the private sector! Universities and higher education institutions are public, not private, places.

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student src Ok, so we here at the SRC are all about repping for students. We think it’s seriously the best thing going around. Everyone knows that the SRC is here to represent you, and to lend a hand when necessary but what you may not know is that, for the previous year, the Faculty of Arts has implemented, in conjunction with the SRC, a system of Student Representation at the Department level.

We think this programme has the capacity to greatly improve the way that student feedback and interests are communicated to academics across the University.

These Student Reps, elected every six months for yearlong terms, sit on the Board of the Department to provide student input and vote

on your behalf. The board is the decisionmaking body in each department. They decide things like which Units of Study get cut and when, they answer grievances about particular academics, tutorial sizes or assessment regimes. Basically, it is the sort of board that any student who cares about the quality of their learning experience should hope engages with student opinion.

The role of the Student Reps is to liaise with the student body, primarily through online communications, to identify student opinion with respect to the Department and its administration. And then to raise it a meeting of the Department Board.

representative Starting in 2011 and continuing now to be expanded and improved. We’re aiming to implement SRNs for departments within the Faculties of Business, Education and Social Work and Science this year. So hopefully Student Representation will be coming to a Faculty near you!

If you are elected as a Student Representative, don’t worry – you will be given all the resources and information you need to make sure you are equipped for the role. And the education officers are always ready to help you (education.officers@src.usyd.edu.au).

As we continue to expand and improve the program in 2013, there will be more opportunities for students to step up and put themselves forward as candidates for Student Rep positions. We want more students to get on board so that student’s opinions are being heard where they need to be!

The Student Representative Network will, as it grows, become one of the most important channels through with students can voice dissatisfaction with their subjects. It is really important that you get the most out of your

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SRC Co u n t e r co u r se h a n d bo o k 2 013

FREE Legal Service for undergraduate students FREE legal advice, representation in court and a referral service to undergraduate students at The University of Sydney.

• • • • • • • • • • • • •

Immigration Advice Tenancy law Motor vehicle accident claims Discrimination & harassment Traffic offences Criminal law Employment law Credit, debt and fines Administrative (gov) law Victims compensation Consumer complaints Domestric violence Insurance law

• University complaints • and more ... please ask us NEED a Justice of the Peace?

Our solicitor will certify documents The declarations SRC’s operational costs, space and & witness statutory

Appointments Phone the SRC Office to make an appointment 02 9660 5222 Drop-in sessions (no appointment needed) Tuesdays & Thursdays 1pm-3pm Location Level 1 (basement) Wentworth Building, City Road, Darlington Camperdown Campus e

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Jane Foss

We have a solicitor who speaks

Cantonese, Mandarin and Japanese 法律諮詢

法律アドバイス Students’ Representative Council, University of Sydney Level 1 Wentworth Building, Uni of Sydney 02 9660 5222 | www.src.usyd.edu.au

administrative support are financed by the University of Sydney.

If you are a postgraduate student please contact SUPRA www.supra.usyd.edu.au 02 9351 3715

ACN 146 653 143 PAGE 53

SAVE on textbooks

Don’t pay full price for textbooks... buy them at SRC books.

• We buy & sell textbooks according to demand • You can sell your books on consignment.

Please phone us before bringing in your books.

• We are open to USYD students & the public Search for text books online www.src.usyd.edu.au/default.php Call 02 9660 4756 to check availability and reserve a book.

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NEW Location! Level 4, Wentworth Bldg (Next to the International Lounge) Hours: Mondays to Fridays 9am - 4.30pm Phone: (02) 9660 4756 Email: books@SRC.usyd.edu.au SRC Co u n t e r co u r se h a n d bo o k 2 013

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SRC Co u n t e r co u r se h a n d bo o k 2 013

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UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS Support & Advocacy

• Centrelink • Academic Appeals • Discontinuing/Withdrawing • Show Cause • Exclusion • Tenancy • Fee Refunds • Harassment & Discrimination • International Students • Plagiarism & misconduct

Free Legal Advice

• Referrals • Discrimination & Equal Opportunity • Employment law • Minor criminal matters/traffic offences/ fines • Victims of violence • Debts

The SRC’s operational costs, space and administrative support are financed by the University of Sydney.

SRC Books - Buy your textbooks cheap!

• Buy & sell your textbooks • Search for books online SRC website Wentworth Level 4 (next to the International Lounge)

Emergency Loans

$50 emergency loans for students in need

Student Publications

• Honi Soit weekly newspaper www.src.usyd.edu.au/honisoit • International Students Handbook • Orientation Handbook • Counter Course Handbook • Growing Strong - Women’s Handbook

Student Rights & Representation

SRC Representatives are directly elected by students each year to stand up for students’ rights on campus and in the wider community.

Find the SRC at...

Level 1 Wentworth Building (under City Rd footbridge) Ph: 02 9660 5222 www.src.usyd.edu.au If you are at another campus, email: help@src.usyd.edu.au

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