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1 - The students

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2012

Simon Marginson
Affiliation:
University of Melbourne
Chris Nyland
Affiliation:
Monash University, Victoria
Erlenawati Sawir
Affiliation:
Central Queensland University
Helen Forbes-Mewett
Affiliation:
La Trobe University, Victoria
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Summary

There's hell a lot of differences between living there and living here. The advantage of living out here is it teaches you how to be independent, the survival of the fittest. How to do things, manage your entire life. Back home, you have your parents to support you, back up. Out here, there is no back up; you're on your own. There are crucial decisions, and the decisions have to be taken by you, not by your parents. You learn a lot.

~ male, 27, business, India

INTRODUCTION: HAPPY DAYS

It is early December in Melbourne, Australia, and a pleasant 24°C. Summer has just begun. Those hot dry north winds that make life difficult in southern Australia and drive everyone to the beach, are still weeks away. We are on a large university campus where people are gathering for the graduation ceremony. The string quartet is tuning up to welcome them. The baroque musicians would be out of place in other student settings but today they seem to be exactly right, hinting at something special, at that reservoir of ineffable culture, the mediaeval mystery of deep learning, that the university represents. Graduation is about rites of passage and the journey into work and profession, about long years of investment of family money and economic benefits received, but it is also about something scholastic and timeless and the ceremony will reflect that. Altogether 415 students today will be invested as bachelors, masters and doctoral degree holders. Among the students and their families entering the university hall are many Asian faces.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

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