00:00No, there's been really little proactive response from the University in terms of
00:04consultant use or you know broader management processes and over time
00:11more and more comes out. It's clear that we were effectively paying for
00:16two Vice Chancellors with both the payout for our former Vice Chancellors at the
00:21same time we were paying a consultant to be Vice Chancellor and then the process
00:27going forward hasn't been laid out by the University, how they might change that.
00:32Vice Chancellor Max Liu has talked about the Values in Action program where he's
00:39promised that greater transparency measures will extend all the way to the
00:43top. Are you confident that's going to happen?
00:46We'd like to hope that Max is bringing change with him but the University staff
00:52have seen a lot of promises over many years so for us the proof is in the
00:56putting, we're going to reserve our judgement on that and call it as we see it.
01:02The Morrison-Era Job Ready graduates program which caused the cost of an
01:07arts degree to go up above $50,000 and a business degree, whereas mathematics for
01:13instance is around $14,000 continues to be a big problem for students
01:17affecting our large debt and affecting enrollments which can then in effect
01:22affect where the courses can continue. This government's been in, this is their
01:27second term and Federal Minister Jason Clare has been saying he wants to get rid of this
01:32and change it. Is it about time that actually happened?
01:35Absolutely and it would be really good to see our local Federal MPs put pressure on
01:40Jason Clare to that end because we know those changes particularly impacted regional
01:46universities and regional students and that's what the Illawarra is.
01:51And why is the high cost of an arts degree a particular problem?
01:58A lot of first-year family students and those from a disadvantaged socio-economic background,
02:04they're going to start, they're not going to jump into a maths degree, they're going to start their
02:08tertiary education journey as I did myself with an arts degree and that often leads them into pathways they
02:15didn't envisage whether it be technical or other pathways they need a place though to allow them
02:21to expand and grow and contribute to the community whether that's through their work or their social
02:26you know their public activities and so you know that the jobs ready graduate package hasn't led more
02:33people into doing mathematics or education or teaching it's not a simple fix they need more
02:41fundamental changes to change the system and part of that's just getting more students into education.
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