The primary reason universities exist (and have existed for centuries) is to provide an education, they are not job factories or vocational colleges (more or less). IF you want something like that, TAFE is an option. University is about learning first and getting a job second.
What is the purpose of physically going to university? To get an education, I hear you say. Now - could you not do the same thing with the plethora of free online courses going around? Then you say - well, that's not going to get you a job anywhere. To which I say - exactly, and THAT is the reason you physically go to university.
You could learn from online courses but what you forget is that universities predate them by centuries. Online courses have only appeared in the past 5 or so years. So, its not that they were created at the same time. We are in the middle of a paradigm shift (although all history is constant change). Universities have this new challenge and need to find ways to adapt. Classically, universities were *the* place for learning. How online courses change this and how universities respond remains to be seen. They are however not job factories or TAFE's.
But...it won't even guarantee you a job. And even if you do get a job, prospects aren't great.
Or are you someone who has a seemingly prestigious job that, in truth, is like turning up to a sweatshop each day?
The writer is a privileged, whinging, bastard. I know it's harsh language but what he says is simply outrageous. I'm sorry mate, turning up to your air conditioned office job, in a safe enviroment, with labor laws that protect you is nothing like a sweatshop. I know he is trying to create an analogy but it's such a shit analogy it doesn't even stand.
Technology, outsourcing and globalisation are turning some traditional white-collar office jobs into lower-paid labour, more akin to some types of blue-collar work.
Oh no, you might be like those filthy working class people, boo hoo.
Once among the most revered white-collar jobs, it has become a production line
I know people who work on
actual production lines, i can assure you they would kill for a lecturing job.
A sessional academic with two masters degrees might earn $320 for a two-hour lecture. That sounds great, until you realise the academic spent a day preparing the lecture. Do the math and they might be on $30 an hour – less than the local barista earns on a public holiday, or the water-truck driver at a remote mine.
Oh shock horror! A lecturer gets paid less than someone who has to perform a dangerous and demanding job in a remote location? How dare that bogan mofo make a salary like that!
. Today, the average pharmacy graduate’s starting salary is $39,000, according to Graduate Careers Australia.
It's called starting salary for a reason sunshine. It's the salary you *start* on, it's only up from there. Hardly a reasonable or fair comparison point unless you are trying hard to make a distorted point with the facts.
. The chronic, scandalous, oversupply of university graduates will flood the market with highly educated, highly indebted white-collar workers this decade
It's called competition, get used to it. Blue collar workers have had to deal with it for centuries. There is no special government cap on shop assistants, brick layers or truck drivers. You only see the media whinging when it affects the rich middle and upper classes, suddenly its an oversupply and its a problem! What's the alternative? Cap places again? This will remove many low SES students (who are less likely to get into uni) and is pretty much a government protection racket for the upper classes when no other professions have caps like this. If it isn't one graduate to one job, its suddenly a crisis!