SAVE OUR MAJOR - HOW THIS WILL AFFECT A STUDENT OF CHINESE
SAVE OUR MAJOR
STUDENT ARTICLE
Below is a response from one of the students studying Chinese.
HOW THIS WILL AFFECT A STUDENT OF CHINESE
To ensure that enough voices are heard I have put in writing how this uon manoeuvre has effected me and how I feel.
I am angry and disheartened. Since being informed that the Chinese major was being reduced to a minor and would come under the Confucius Institute, because of recommendations made by an external view which based its findings on bogus information supplied by the uon, I have been unable to focus on my studies and have been distressed and somewhat confused about my future. I just don't feel that I can trust the uon with my best interests and as a student, am vulnerable to their whims and flights-of-fancy.
From the 15th of September, when we (students) received an email from Owen Jackson who assured us that "current students... [would] "not be disadvantaged in anyway" to now, one week before end of semester, we have been nothing but disadvantaged.
Isn't university stressful enough without the addition of lost hours with our only teacher, Dr Li Xia, and a huge question mark hovering over our studies. Sure, the uon has assured us that we can continue with our major - but who will be our teacher? What are their qualifications? Do they even compare with our current teacher Dr Li Xia*? What will be the value of our degree, considering that a large part of it will be under the direction of a foreign government and not the university itself? What about the options of Honours or Phd? ...
I am a mature age student who returned to Uni not because I had nothing better to do, but because I foresaw a time in the not too distant future, when my teenagers would be out of the nest and I wanted to be prepared for the next phase of my life. What a mistake I made choosing the Newcastle University for that preparation. I feel as though I have wasted two years of my life and am questioning whether to even continue with this farce. I would recommend future students steer clear of the minefield which is Newcastle University.
I now have a HECS debt which I will have to pay off, and a burning desire to seek compensation for my lost time and wasted effort as well as my plans for the future being scuppered and having to be reassessed, in light of this debacle.
My experience at this university has been one let down after another. This latest cock-up with the powers-that-be at the uon manipulating the external review recommendation that the important Chinese discipline be strengthened, and interpreting that to mean that that the only valuable language being taught here should be cut down and reduced to rubble, is a joke. Having read the review, I am confident that the recommendation to reduce the Chinese major to a minor was based on erroneous information supplied from the university, as my experience on the ground is radically different to what is claimed.
I have come to the conclusion that this decision has been made by people with an agenda. What do they have to gain from this latest maneuvering?
Daphne Stent
Student, University of Newcastle
*Dr Li, Xia (Qualifications)
PhD, University of Newcastle (thesis title: Chinese Translation Theory
and Practice: A Critical Re-appraisal), 2002
Postgraduate Diploma (Contemporary Critical Issues), Curtin University
of Technology, 1988
Bachelor of Arts (First Class Honours), Dalian Foreign Languages
Institute, P. R. China, 1985
CELTA (Certificate of English Language Teaching to Adults, Cambridge
RSA), 1991
National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters Level
III Professional Certificate, 1988
Below is copy of my email reply to Owen Jackson. To date there has been no further student consultation as promised.
Mr Jackson,
Unfortunately your email concerning the replacement lecturer and a meeting on Tuesday morning, came with too little notice for me to attend. As a working mother who also happens to be a university student, I cannot rearrange my schedule at the last minute. I am sorry that I was unable to attend the meeting, as I would have loved to have my two cents worth, in front of an audience.
It seems ridiculous to me that such a valuable course (one of only a few Newcastle offers of any real value) is being downsized, probably with a view to eliminating it altogether in the future. Very short-sighted and in fact not what the review recommended.
"Chinese is offered as a minor until such time as the discipline is strengthened by the
addition of suitably qualified staff..."
The review seems to be recommending a strengthening of the existing discipline with ADDITIONAL staff, not a weakening. It certainly makes no sense to go backward before going forward. Why not hire more staff and expand what's on offer within the major without the unprofitable backward step of first making it a minor.
"This is an important subject for UoN, for strategic and other reasons; however it
is not sustainable as a major on current staffing levels. It is therefore recommended
this subject is offered as a minor, until such time that the subject is renewed by
additional and appropriately qualified staff...."
(This IS an important subject for UoN. If not for Chinese, I don't think I would have continued at UoN after my first semester, but would have transferred to an alternative university.)
It seems to me that the review is once again commenting on the staffing levels causing restrictions within the discipline. And once again the solution is simple... "Strengthen" and "renew" the existing discipline by offering more subjects under the major and INCREASE STAFFING LEVELS.
"The Panel notes, as with other language disciplines, this major is language focused,
and suggests the curriculum is expanded to include aspects of Chinese culture. This,
the Panels asserts, would greatly enrich students’ learning."
Once again the review is recommending EXPANSION not reduction of the major to include culture based subjects to "greatly enrich students' learning." It can only be surmised that UoN has no intention of enriching learning as it is choosing to do the opposite of what has been recommended.
How can reducing Chinese to a 40 unit minor possibly be following the review's recommendations?
Why should I be satisfied that this change won't "disadvantage" my outcome "in any way"? What about those students who enroll from 2012 onwards? There is no promise that they won't be "disadvantaged in any way". Those future students don't have a voice right now, someone needs to speak on their behalf.
It seems to me there is an agenda here that is not being openly discussed in public forums, but is made obvious by the glaring disparity between what has been recommended and what is being proposed.
I welcome your reply and look forward to hearing from you.
Concerned student,
Daphne Stent
These people are working on this:
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| Save our major | Heather Richards |
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