Might as well do some auspol (Australian politics) polls today 🤷

Background from link

The Australian Government just passed a plan that means course fees for "job-relevant" degrees (in their words) will be decreased: agricultural and maths degrees will see a 62% decrease, while nursing will see a 46% decrease. However, this is at the cost of humanities degrees (which are implicitly not "job-relevant") having their fees increased by 113% (ie. more than doubling), putting them in the same fee bracket as law students and making the degree cost more than medicine.

First of all fuck math.

Second of all I think that people who are good at math have it significantly easier than people who aren't. Like I never hear about people dropping out because they can't pass an English/Literature course but there's a high statistic for people dropping out because math is impossible.
And now they get a decrease in prince while others see an increase. That's some bullshit.

Third of all; fuck math.

Fourthly, while I do support decreased prices I don't think that it's right that they're going to increase prices for different majors in order to make that happen. To me this comes off as sacrificing one group of people for another. At the very least decrease the price for math students and leave it the same for humanities.

To conclude: Fuck math.

I would like to emphasise that maths should be fucked. Just as it has fucked me.

"While I do support decreased prices I don't think that it's right that they're going to increase prices for different majors in order to make that happen. To me this comes off as sacrificing one group of people for another." exactly my issue with this. The price is increasing by MORE than double.

Edit: one of the law firms rejected me after making me do one of those "speedy quick mental arithmetic!!" tests. Fuck maths.

I also liked link by a woman with both an engineering and a humanities degree, which critiques the idea of technical degrees being more "job-ready" in the first place. Key quotes:

- Technical fields move very quickly: The interesting thing about the "job readiness" skills I learned at university is that these are the skills that quickly became outdated in technical professions such as engineering. The programs, project management methods, manufacturing methods — in fact nearly every practical example — were laughably out of date with five years of graduation. I believe another issue is crucial: industry doesn't necessarily know what it needs, and especially what will be needed in the future.

- By contrast, my humanities degree has not dated much at all. The main skills you learn in a humanities degree are timeless: critical reading, critical thinking, communication of complex ideas, and most importantly (in my opinion) logical reasoning. These skills have made me a far better engineer than I would have been without them, and I expect the same is true for most others with an arts degree, no matter which field they enter.It may not be a straightforward ticket to employment — like an engineering degree — but wherever graduates end up, they are almost guaranteed to do a better job than they would without that intellectual training. For these reasons, we need to be careful which courses we encourage students to take on, and we especially need to rethink giving degrees aimed at "job readiness" preferential treatment in relation to student fees. It is not so easy to anticipate what is ahead of us. If students don't get a strong education in theoretical basics they will not be as prepared to adapt to the future when it turns out to be different from what today's politicians imagine it will be.

- As a humanities student, I gained critical thinking and logic skills, and practised applying them to a variety of issues until they were deeply embedded in the way I now interpret and interact with the world.

Ok kids, who wants to give me the libertarian solution in 5 words or less?

Something something free market? :p

Wow I haven't used that emoji all year, it felt gross

Forgive me Lord my emoji sins

@DarkSarcasm No math, only degree.

The answer is "get gubmit out of education."

"Edit: one of the law firms rejected me after making me do one of those "speedy quick mental arithmetic!!" tests. Fuck maths."

I legit couldn't get more four year degree because of math alone. I managed to get a two year one because they sprouted some brain cells and realized that people with dyscalculia should have a chance too and made a degree that doesn't require math. Granted it's a basic degree but it's better than nothing. So I'm more than a little bitter.

It's gonna be "students pay ALL the degree" ain't it

Don't hurt my law / biomed double degree soul like this D:

(Possibly the two most expensive undergrads of them all... combined. Lol)

@zan Wow that's shitty. I don't understand why American colleges require students to do maths?? Isn't "specialisation in a field you like" one of the points of a university degree??

"dyscalculia" lol gonna have to look this shit up. I cannot retain numbers in my brain, either in the long-term or short-term. They do not stick. They do not work. Only words for me pls.

Yup. And yeah that's what I never understood either especially since we're forced to pay for it all. Like if the government is paying for the classes then I understand them forcing you to take whatever. But since I'm paying for this shit, I should get to choose what classes I want to take and don't want to.

Dude, I see numbers and my brain blue screens.

Like I had a moment and typed all about it in the midst of retaking the same math class for the fifth fucking time. link

"My brain blue screens" lmao. Yeaaah I had to do biophysics in first-year biomed. There were tears.

Just had a quick scan through that article, I completely agree that if you don't get the basics in elementary school you're sorta screwed.

The charitable view is that they want to give students a "broad base" of knowledge - but then, high school maths is definitely enough for that. And if that were true, as you said, why don'y maths majors have to take arts classes??

I'm not saying this is the sole motivation, but colleges must enjoy the fact that they get more money out of students if they take more classes, and even more so if people have to retake them. Also "the author believes that required algebra is a relic of the Cold War. That America began to require it only after seeing that Russia was beating us in the math department" lmao that too then

It's genuinely ridiculous (and infuriating) that you have to do uni-level maths just to get an unrelated degree