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All that Glitters is not Gold

While it is a privilege to be able to afford an education abroad, many unspoken costs like underpaid wages, homesickness, cultural shock, financial instability and underemployment came as a surprise. But as an international student, I’m not sure if these costs are worth the price our parents pay.

Tutorial Torture

Last semester, I graduated from the University of Melbourne with a Bachelor of Science. I am overall complimentary about the teaching I experienced, but one area my experience has been inconsistent, to say the least, is tutorials. This got me thinking: what is the best way to support students consolidating what they learn in lectures? I spoke to students, tutors and lecturers to see how they felt about tutorials. What I found was that many factors influence the (sometimes contradictory) opinions people have about tutorials at Unimelb.

Diversity Issues in UMSU International

On 13th May 2019, the University of Melbourne Student Union (UMSU) International elected a new committee which will lead the union from
August 2019 to July 2020. This year’s newly elected committee continues the trend of previous years’ of having dominance by students from South
East Asian countries such as Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. To Farrago’s understanding, every member of the current committee is from Asia.

Change the Rules

On April 10, approximately 100,000 people took to the streets of Melbourne to protest against the Morrison government in a Change the Rules rally. The rally was organised by the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU).

Trendy Equality

A report launched by the University of Melbourne late last year has found that the academic gender gap in Australian universities has narrowed over the last ten years and more females have achieved high level positions.

Mad About Inequality: Students with Disabilities

Limited data seems to exist about the prevalence of disability amongst the student body at the University of Melbourne. Is this because there are relatively few students with disabilities, in which case, is it because there are barriers to them accessing higher education?

Hurdles for Students with Disabilities

Disability intersects race, gender and sexuality, and we have a department for each at the University of Melbourne. So why then, do we have a history of disability being overlooked on our campuses and within our student unions, perhaps most pointedly exemplified by the delayed establishment of a Disabilities Department and important Disabilities Space? And why do university services like Stop 1, which students with disabilities depend on to make it through their degrees, remain so difficult to access?

Mad About Inequality: International Students

Are international students getting fair and equal access to education in Australia? I spoke to four international students, all current graduate students at the University of Melbourne, one of whom had also completed her undergraduate at the University. Three were Chinese international students, and one was Indian.

Mad about inequality: Gender Representation in Mathematics

In mathematics, there’s a big drop-off in percentage representation of female and non- binary students between undergraduate courses and postgraduate courses. So, to explore this further, I interviewed five women and one non- binary person who are currently undergraduate maths students at the University of Melbourne.

Mad about inequality: Gender Representation in Mathematics Student Interviews

Bursting the Parkville Bubble

With most student services and events located at the Parkville campus, the student experience (or the lack thereof) at the satellite campuses is
often overlooked in favour of their bigger Parkville counterpart.