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Yemlin
Joined: 11 Oct 2006
Posts: 21
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 Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2006 2:58 am Post subject: Open Universities Australia: legitimate, worthwhile, etc.? |
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Does anyone here have any experience with this distance learning institution?
Their website mentions enrolling but not applications or admissions. I call the school and am told, "There is no admissions process. Once you enroll, you're in."
Open U is owned by several Australian universities. The degree I want is done by Monash Univ. Another phone call, and I hear, "The diploma will say the same of whichever university you studied with. 'Open Universities Australia' will not appear on the diploma at all."
So I pay $8070AUD (including international fees) and enroll without applying and after a year of studying, I have a master's degree from Monash U?
It sounds too good to be true, but I've Googled for Open Universities Australia and fraud or scam or legitimate, but I've found no complaints or accusations so far.
Any info would be appreciated! |
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Gordon
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 5309
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2006 3:10 am Post subject: |
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| Why don't you apply directly with Monash? No middleman or anything else and you will get exactly what you are paying for. |
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Yemlin
Joined: 11 Oct 2006
Posts: 21
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| Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2006 3:40 am Post subject: |
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| Gordon wrote: |
| Why don't you apply directly with Monash? |
It's cheaper and quicker (1 year full-time vs. 2) through Open Universities. |
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Gordon
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 5309
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2006 7:54 am Post subject: |
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| How could this be possible? Think about it for a minute. How could you get a Monash degree cheaper and faster through a third party? That is either wrong or it is not legitimate. What legit university would do such a thing? |
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Stephen Jones
Joined: 21 Feb 2003
Posts: 4124
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| Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2006 8:52 am Post subject: |
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They are a totally legitimate organization, Australian government institutions, the distance learning branch of legit Australian Universities.
I doubt you will be able to do a Masters in half the time. Whilst the flexibility of the schedule allows it, there are only so many hours in a day; I would think that if you were working you would probably need three years. |
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Yemlin
Joined: 11 Oct 2006
Posts: 21
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| Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2006 10:41 am Post subject: |
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| Gordon wrote: |
| How could this be possible? Think about it for a minute. How could you get a Monash degree cheaper and faster through a third party? That is either wrong or it is not legitimate. What legit university would do such a thing? |
All that is exactly what I was thinking, and what I'm still thinking. On my other thread, Ted posted a link to an earlier thread in which Monash was called a diploma mill, along with USQ, U New England, and Macquarie. I'm going to keep looking into this. |
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Yemlin
Joined: 11 Oct 2006
Posts: 21
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| Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2006 10:43 am Post subject: |
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| Stephen Jones wrote: |
| I doubt you will be able to do a Masters in half the time. Whilst the flexibility of the schedule allows it, there are only so many hours in a day; I would think that if you were working you would probably need three years. |
I understand your doubt. I'm VERY lucky: I get absurd amounts of time off at my job and I want to make good use of this time. |
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Gordon
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 5309
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2006 12:55 pm Post subject: |
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| Yemlin wrote: |
| Gordon wrote: |
| How could this be possible? Think about it for a minute. How could you get a Monash degree cheaper and faster through a third party? That is either wrong or it is not legitimate. What legit university would do such a thing? |
All that is exactly what I was thinking, and what I'm still thinking. On my other thread, Ted posted a link to an earlier thread in which Monash was called a diploma mill, along with USQ, U New England, and Macquarie. I'm going to keep looking into this. |
Monash, UNE, USQ and macquarie ARE NOT diploma mills. Don't make me laugh. |
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Aramas
Joined: 13 Feb 2004
Posts: 874
Location: Slightly left of Centre
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| Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 8:48 am Post subject: |
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| Gordon wrote: |
| Monash, UNE, USQ and macquarie ARE NOT diploma mills. Don't make me laugh. |
Well for one thing, they don't issue diplomas - well, except for 'postgraduate diplomas' for people too cheap and lazy to do a master's  In Australia, the word 'diploma' is usually preceded by something like 'hairdressing' or 'beauty', and followed by a snigger.
Much like in any other developed country, Australia's universites are accorded varying levels of prestige, which has little or nothing to do with the quality of the education that they offer. The first tier includes the oldest unis such as Melbourne and Sydney, along with UQ etc.. They're also the most conservative, and have excellent reputations in the professions. The second tier are marginally less hidebound and have excellent reputations in certain fields, particularly in research. These include Monash and UNSW, among others. The third tier are what one might describe as 'liberal' universities, and are the most innovative of the bunch. They include Macquarie and LaTrobe, etc.. Here I'm talking about public perception rather than any ranking system. The public tend to view prestige solely as a function of the age of the institution. If you want a more qualitative assessment, check the link at the bottom of the page, and for further categories, click on 'groupings' at the left.
To call any of them 'diploma mills' is absurd. Perhaps Oxford or Harvard graduates might say the same about less prestigious institutions, but that would be due to pomposity rather than insight. With very few exceptions (private universities like Bond), Australian universities are required to comply with government educational standards in much the same way as primary and secondary schools are. They each try to carve out a niche for themselves, with the newer ones having to try even harder since, unlike the oldest institutions, they have few laurels to rest on. Additionally, courses have to be accredited by the appropriate professional and/or academic institutes, so all universities are held to the same standards. Since the bizzarre educational reforms introduced by our brain-dead right-wing government, the academic mantra has changed from 'publish or perish', to 'profit or perish'. However, Australia is not the USA. As far as I now, we only have one privately owned university, and it usually doesn't rate a mention unless it's in a derogatory sense. If you want a 'diploma mill' then try Bond.
In recent years, Australian universities have been converted from traditional institutions of higher learning to weasel-driven corporate entities chasing market share (ie somewhat like in the US). They even advertise on the sides of buses now. A lot of unis are cutting back on traditional courses like arts, classics etc. and focusing on 'professional degrees'.
However, having said that, they still have high standards. I've done a number of units at Macquarie through OUA, and I can attest that it's damn hard work. Try four hours of lectures and 200 pages of reading per week, per subject for first year arts courses. And that's not 200 pages of fluff, it's 200 pages of heavy going, such as the annotated blatherings of Greeks, Romans, academics and philosophers. Expect to be downloading and reading .pdf's on a computer, or you'll be printing out up to a thousand pages every semester. (Only at MQU - Monash and Griffith send out printed notes - I don't know about the others) That is of course in addition to the textbooks, which you'll have to arrange to have posted to wherever you happen to be.
Of course you could do a degree in less time through OUA because they have four three month semesters a year and no holidays, but in terms of workload it's no different to taking extra subjects through the unis themselves, who still adhere to the conventional uni timetable. The standard academic year is 26 weeks long. The OUA academic year is 52 weeks long. Is anyone still confused about how you can do a course quicker through OUA than through the uni offering the subjects?
I'll tell you this much. Studying with OUA gives you zero time to 'get in the mood' before heaping on the work. You jump in at the deep end and it just keeps getting deeper. On campus you get at least a month to party before you have to do any work, then you have a few exams and a holiday before starting the cycle again, then a big holiday at mid year etc.. At OUA you start working from day one and your exams finish the week before the next semester starts.
Oh, and I should probably point out that the degree you get through OUA is exactly the same as the one you get through doing it on campus.
Of course, I'm writing this as a means to avoid writing an essay on the role of heroes in Greek mythology  Procrastination is an art, I tell you! An art! (actually, a curse)
Edit: I forgot to address why OUA is cheaper than going directly through the uni. Think of it as a cartel with its own board that sets prices and does its own marketing. They're fixing prices low in order to try to get market share in Asia, as since the crash there are far fewer Asian students coming to Australia to study.
The prices can be kept low since the only resources required are a computer, a bit of bandwidth, a desk, and someone to sit at it for an hour or two a day. Online students are like ghosts - it's money for jam. Individual unis might tend to get a bit greedy and charge more to deal with them directly, but if they want to deal through OUA the cost is fixed.
Similarly, the reason they accept anyone is that, since it uses no additional resources, it really doesn't matter. They don't need campus facilities - hell, the course tutors could operate from home if they wanted to. The more people sign up, the more money they make. Just because they accept anyone doesn't devalue the qualification, since they still use the same pass/fail criteria as regular uni. Anyone can enrol and give it a go, but only those with the appropriate level of aptitude can pass. They don't use statistical methods of assessment.
http://www.australian-universities.com/rankings/ |
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