Sunday, April 22, 2007

Equity and Access at Melbourne University

There have been many concerns about equity and access under the Melbourne Model. Please share your experiences or concerns here.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I’m a final year undergraduate student at Melbourne, and am thinking of applying for Melbourne’s graduate law (JD) course in 2008. Details regarding application requirements were recently released on the faculty website, which I believe reveal a serious access and equity issue.

One of the three requirement in the 2008 law application process is to sit the Law Schools Admission Test (LSAT), an international aptitude test widely used throughout the US and Canada to assess a student’s suitability to the study and practice of law. However, there is only one so-called ‘published’ test venue in Australia, located at Macquarie University in NSW, at which the normal registration fee applies (approximately AU$148).
Short of driving to Sydney, Melbourne-based applicants must pay more than twice that amount (approximately AU$365) to take the test at an ‘unpublished’ test venue to be nominated in Melbourne. The LSAT website (www.lsat.org) clearly states that fee-waivers only apply to students in financial need who are US citizens or permanent residents. This fee is not prohibitive for me personally, as I have no out-of-home living expenses and can save the amount by the registration deadline, but I am sure this is not the case for all students.

Since this is a non-negotiable requirement in Melbourne’s application process, it does not seem unreasonable to expect the University to arrange a Melbourne-based venue with the LSAT administrators for its prospective students. Indeed, if the University is as committed to equity and diversity in The Melbourne Model as it maintains, it should surely be willing to do so?

Anonymous said...

Although it may not be listed on the faculty website yet, I have heard from prospective students inquiring about the JD course that they have been told that you will only be able to take the JD graduate law course full time. This means that students who have children or are unable to study full time due to financial reasons, disability, family commitments, or any of the many reasons that students are unable to study full time will NOT be able to study law at melbourne uni.

also, the LSAT test, because it is an aptitude test, is unlikely to have any room for students with disabilities to have extra time or other special considerations that they would normally receive in a test or exam situation. This means that these students are basically being told by the university that students with disabilities are not wanted studying law at melbourne uni.

how is the university addressing access and equity in this situation?

Anonymous said...

how can they say that giving $2000 to every student who gets an ENTER score of more than 98 is an access and equity measure? It looks like a bribe.

Anonymous said...

Small one-off scholarships don't do all that much to promote equity. How about using that money to provide access scholarships that provide an allowance and hold the scholar to academic standards (e.g. pass all subjects/maintain a Hx average)

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Simultaneously
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blasted from the pages
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dial-an-identity-glossy-catalogue-spread
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with
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Lubed to the
elbow
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because privilege
creates a class of blindness
called
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bowing to the deep throat
of McDonaldisation
simmering in the sauce
of self aggrandizing
idolation.

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