My research project aims to answer the question, 'are subject cuts having a positive or negative impact on students' university experience?'
To answer this question, I am requesting any other BCM 212 students who are willing, to fill out a survey that will ask a series of multiple choice and short answer questions concerning your degree.
All responses are anonymous, and you will not be required to fill out any identifying information. None of the data supplied will be used for any purpose outside of this project. No questions are compulsory, except for a checkbox informing me of your consent to use the supplied data for the purposes of the project.
The survey will be available until May 22nd.
Consent will be able to be withdrawn at any time up until May 29th.
If you have any questions or concerns about the survey, or wish to withdraw your responses, you can email me at: [email protected]
The survey is not currently up, but will be available soon here.
This research project aims to address the topic of the recent University of Wollongong subject cuts. In particular, I wish to answer the question, ‘are subject cuts having a positive or negative impact on students’ university experience?’ My research methods will incorporate both a survey, as well as an analysis of literature.
The survey will be used to more directly assess students’ thoughts and feelings on the proposed topic and question. A survey has the benefit of providing both qualitative and quantitative data.
Qualitative data is likely to be collected from short answer responses that will allow survey-takers to respond to the overarching question with personal anecdotes and elaboration on why they chose certain answers to the more quantitative questions.
Quantitative data, such as percentage statistics, will be collected from multiple choice and yes-or-no-style questions. By collecting both kinds of data from the survey results, I hope to broaden the depth of my research, which will assist in creating a more in-depth response to the question.
Additionally, an analysis of literature will aid in crafting a deeper response to the question, and may provide a means of exploring specific issues that the survey-takers might raise. Examining literature written about broader groups, such as university students in Australia, or more generally, may allow for an opportunity to compare and contrast the results of my own survey with the perspectives of academic works on relevant subjects. As such, I will mostly look at this after collecting survey data.
At this point, I have looked at three journal articles concerning modular teaching structures.
The article by Hennessy discusses students’ motivation for choosing non-programme electives, and brings up concerns about students’ essay-writing skills from both staff and students who took the survey. It suggests that it is the university’s responsibility to determine whether such concerns be addressed in the individual subject modules, or through modules that focus on such generic skills.
The article by Mazrekaj looks into the effect of modular education on school dropout rates. Its findings support the claim that ‘modular education has been widely used in vocational education and training programmes based on the premise that it reduces the school dropout rate significantly.’
The article by MacLaren is a discussion of the disconnect between the supposed value of creativity within universities, and actual managerial practice. It focuses on a number of topics relevant to the current subject cuts, such as workplace culture, planning and management, and curriculum and student experience.
The UOW subject cuts have already proved frustrating to me personally, as a double-degree student within the arts and humanities faculty. A number of subjects I had previously planned to do have been cut, specifically those within the English literatures major, some of which were originally core subjects. As a student with already limited elective choices, removing these subjects has further reduced my ability to ‘customise’ my degree. I have personally found it a rather restrictive decision on the university’s part.
For this reason, I am interested to learn whether or not this is a sentiment shared by other students at UOW. I anticipate that the subject cuts will prove to be a currently relevant concern amongst students, particularly those who study double degrees and those studying under the arts and humanities umbrella.
References
Hennessy, E, Hernandez, R, Kieran, P & MacLoughlin, H 2010, ‘Teaching and learning across disciplines: student and staff experiences in a newly modularised system’, Teaching in Higher Education, vol. 15, no. 6, pp. 675–689.
MacLaren, I 2012, 'The contradictions of policy and practice: creativity in higher education', London Review of Education, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 159–172.
Mazrekaj, D, De Witte, K, 2020, ‘The effect of modular education on school dropout’, British Educational Research Association, vol. 46, no. 1, pp. 92–121.
This research project aims to address the topic of the recent University of Wollongong subject cuts. In particular, I wish to answer the question, ‘are subject cuts having a positive or negative impact on students’ university experience?’ My research methods will incorporate both a survey, as well as an analysis of literature.
The survey will be used to more directly assess students’ thoughts and feelings on the proposed topic and question. A survey has the benefit of providing both qualitative and quantitative data.
Qualitative data is likely to be collected from short answer responses that will allow survey-takers to respond to the overarching question with personal anecdotes and elaboration on why they chose certain answers to the more quantitative questions.
Quantitative data, such as percentage statistics, will be collected from multiple choice and yes-or-no-style questions. By collecting both kinds of data from the survey results, I hope to broaden the depth of my research, which will assist in creating a more in-depth response to the question.
Additionally, an analysis of literature will further aid in crafting a deeper understanding of the question. I aim to look into academic research that may either support or refute the results of the survey.
Literature may also provide a means of exploring specific issues that the survey-takers might raise. Due to the limited sample size of the survey (only BCM 212 students) some patterns or trends in the data might not immediately be visible upon first glance. Examining literature written about broader groups, such as university students in Australia more generally, may allow for an opportunity to compare and contrast the results of my own survey with the perspectives of academic works on relevant subjects.
Ultimately, this method of research should help to provide a solid, well reasoned answer to the question, that utilises both first hand experience from students and academic reasoning that might support and validate these experiences.
The UOW subject cuts have already proved frustrating to me personally, as a double-degree student within the arts and humanities faculty. A number of subjects I had previously planned to do have been cut, specifically those within the English literatures major, some of which were originally core subjects. As a student with already limited elective choices, removing these subjects has further reduced my ability to ‘customise’ my degree. I have personally found it a rather restrictive decision on the university’s part.
For this reason, I am interested to learn whether or not this is a sentiment shared by other students at UOW. I anticipate that the subject cuts will prove to be a currently relevant concern amongst students, particularly those who study double degrees and those studying under the arts and humanities umbrella.
