Whats the most underrated/overrated aspect about UNCLE? (1 Viewer)

[blue_chameleon]

No, I dont want to know about your uncle, jumb.

Overrated:

The land the uni is on. Wtf?
No, I dont care how you try and spin it, the tree's and shrubs dont make me feel more at ease or positively influence my studies in any way. Rather, im actually walking around slapping all uncovered parts of my body (especially the Shortland to Great Hall walk). Also, ooohhhh trees. Big deal. They fall down too (re: last year's episode).

Who every thought "oh, a great big area of land, perfect place to establish a tertiary institution for Newcastle" needs to be dug up, spat on, and fed to the sharks. Its not like we have a solution to it either, dipshits.

Underrated:

The quality students.
Sure, the uni has basically "opened the floodgates" in recent years, and it seems anyone with at least two straight teeth can do a Bachelor's of some sort. But there are a few diamonds amongst the rough, and from through getting to know some of these people, its evident that newcastle does harbour a few students who seem to be actually heading for success, as opposed to simply getting a piece of paper and racking up a HECS debt the size of an average mortgage.

Its hell frustrating though, knowing that there are a large number of people that, year after year, will take courses such as EBUS1010, or LEGL1001 and the like, and fail it. The uni is in a catch22 situation. Nobody seems to want to come here, because its not recognised for anything with any clout (except its mozzies), which in turn causes the requirements for courses to plummet to rock bottom, hence doing further damage. Now I like Newcastle as a city, its not too bad. But some of the fellow "students" I take courses with....fuck me. EDIT: (Ok, so this whole last para is pretty much focused on my faculty, excludes Med and Eng).

End massive rant. I think.

 

[The_highwayman]

Overated:
i hate the location.
i mean, who decides to stretch a university across an entire suburb and then timetable consecutive classes into rooms at opposite ends of it?! (not to mention that it's hilly. Sure, they put in bridges and stuff to avoid some of the bigger slopes, but the most direct route from shortland to hunter is along the engineering road which doesnt have a path running along it's full length or any brigdes)

i like the grassy areas near the fountain (which is barely ever on) near the mcmullin building but the whole scrub/bushland thing is really uninspiring.

i also dont like the food. why are the chips so soggy? why do they leave hamburgers in a warmer all day so the salad goes warm?

Needs more Parking!!

Underrated:
the proximity to my house.
Parking is cheap compared to other unis (assuming you can actually get a park)

 

[darkliight]

I couldn't agree more about the land thing. Actually, the land they have is pretty decent, it's not too hilly and there is still plenty of room around. The problem is with their obsession with shitty plants and landscaping. They do know better too, because the Ourimbah campus is perfect.

Underrated? The maths department, the library and the unis proximity to a city, despite not being in a capital city. Not many other unis can really say that I don't think .. they're either in a capital city, or out in the sticks somewhere. Wollongong comes to mind as another exception.

 

[blue_chameleon]

I couldn't agree more about the land thing. Actually, the land they have is pretty decent, it's not too hilly and there is still plenty of room around. The problem is with their obsession with shitty plants and landscaping. They do know better too, because the Ourimbah campus is perfect.

Underrated? The maths department, the library...

In regards to the maths dept, you've obviously heard the news that the uni is recruiting two new professors, Borwein and Boland to develop "a world-class centre for computer assisted research mathematics and its applications."

So, what do you this this means for the department? Do you think its got the potential to actually raise the profile of the maths department in newcastle uni?

Link: http://www.newcastle.edu.au/news/2008/04/majorinvestmentinmaths.html

 

[darkliight]

Well, at the beginning of last year, we lost 4 really good researchers. Iain Raeburn, David Pask (http://www.newcastle.edu.au/news/2006/04/maths.html), Aiden Sims and Jacqui Ramagge. For such a small dept (compared to the other big unis), it meant research took a serious hit. Still, there are good members around, and now they're building it back up.

What they planned to do, and what it looks like is going to happen, is to take the dept in a more applied direction. Applied just gets more funding, period. Also, more students want to do applied apparently since it gets the big money jobs (as much as pure is fun, it doesn't tend to make people money until people figure out how to apply it .. and that could take ages, number theory took a few thousand years, but now security related fields can't get enough of it ).

The good thing about Borwein is his stuff is sort of in the middle, so hopefully pure people won't be missing out on the fun stuff, while applied people get what they want. I spoke to Jon breifly a few weeks ago, and went to a talk of his, and he seems ok. He has a stack of interesting research papers, and I envy his collection of books. I have run into Boland, but haven't spoken to her yet.

Will it raise the profile of the dept? I don't know, it won't hurt, but good researchers tend not to attract many students .. even though UNSW and Sydney both have excellent maths depts, they're hardly the only choice. You only have to ask in any BoS thread to see 'they're the only unis worth considering' though. Even ANU hardly gets a mention. (This is where my 'underrated' comment stems from btw ) From an academic point of view, I'm sure it will bring the research output back up after the loss of the above four, and that can only be a good thing.

 

[jumb]

maths is srs business

 

[blue_chameleon]

Overrated:The Bar on The Hill. I really dont see the attraction. Its not that great, everything about it looks budget.

Get some decent furnishings and bar taps in there, and try with a theme, because last time I was there, it looked like a patch quilt.

Also, is it just me, or is the university focusing everything on growing its research capabilities and neglecting some of the more serious issues that "some" schools in "some" faculties presently have with staffing and resources? Not mentioning any in particualr here.

For what they have to work with, most of the guys are doing an outstanding job.

 

[darkliight]

I wasn't aware there was a (teaching) staff shortage? I know they cut the admin fat a couple of years ago .. but did the teaching staff cop it too?

 

[The_highwayman]

I wasn't aware there was a (teaching) staff shortage? I know they cut the admin fat a couple of years ago .. but did the teaching staff cop it too?

based on the fact that my one anatomy lecturer teaches over 600 students from 2 different year levels and about 6 different degrees, i'd say yes.

 

[darkliight]

Ok .. but how many subjects is that? I mean, some maths / stats subjects get crazy numbers with people from degrees all over the uni .. that doesn't mean the lecturer for that subject is hard done by.

 

[The_highwayman]

but when the people dont fit into the lecture theatre you have to question whether it might have been better to split the course up a little.

 

[blue_chameleon]

I wasn't aware there was a (teaching) staff shortage? I know they cut the admin fat a couple of years ago .. but did the teaching staff cop it too?

Its not so much lecturer shortages, but more the fact that a lot of the courses that some of the school offer have become extremely stale, mainly through the co-ordinators. There just doesn't seem to be anywhere near the amount of go-forward for these schools as im seeing in certain research fields.

Since the shake-up a few years ago, there have been some big changes to what used to be the accounting and finance department. It was basically shut down completely, and new departments were created, without re-establishing the resources and support that made the older department such an asset. I think they do actually still have the old department, but its now known by a small storage room.

Cutting costs needed to happen quickly, because the uni's balance sheet was a nightmare so I can understand why they had to change things. But to me, it seems as though a lot of people have their heads in the sand about the high failure rates for certain core first and second year courses and what is causing them.

On a brighter note though, there are some younger guys in finance coming through as academics, which is nice to see and its quite evident that on average, the courses they take have much higher student participation and greater feedback.

Question. Apart from those doing PhD's and honours, are there many younger guys out there that you see co-ordinating courses in your schools? Would be interesting to see how many the uni has.

 

[blue_chameleon]

but when the people dont fit into the lecture theatre you have to question whether it might have been better to split the course up a little.

What lecture theatres are we talking about here? CT202 or GDTH?

 

[The_highwayman]

What lecture theatres are we talking about here? CT202 or GDTH?

Yeah. Ct202
all the health coordinators I've come across are prob at least early 40s

 

[darkliight]

Its not so much lecturer shortages, but more the fact that a lot of the courses that some of the school offer have become extremely stale, mainly through the co-ordinators. There just doesn't seem to be anywhere near the amount of go-forward for these schools as im seeing in certain research fields.

Since the shake-up a few years ago, there have been some big changes to what used to be the accounting and finance department. It was basically shut down completely, and new departments were created, without re-establishing the resources and support that made the older department such an asset. I think they do actually still have the old department, but its now known by a small storage room.

Cutting costs needed to happen quickly, because the uni's balance sheet was a nightmare so I can understand why they had to change things. But to me, it seems as though a lot of people have their heads in the sand about the high failure rates for certain core first and second year courses and what is causing them.

On a brighter note though, there are some younger guys in finance coming through as academics, which is nice to see and its quite evident that on average, the courses they take have much higher student participation and greater feedback.

Well I can only really comment on the maths dept, and I know they still have a go-forward attitude, even though the last year they were a little stretched (with the patching up starting this year). I guess I can comment on the compsci dept too, but I was never impressed with it. They put out some research, but their teaching staff are, on the whole, pretty bad (there are two very good lecturers, so its not all bad).

I didn't know that there was such a drop in pass rates for first year courses either. I'm tutoring both first year calc courses this semester, and most of the students in my classes seem to be going pretty well. They have good lecturers this year though.

Question. Apart from those doing PhD's and honours, are there many younger guys out there that you see co-ordinating courses in your schools? Would be interesting to see how many the uni has.

I don't think any PhD or honours students coordinate any courses in maths, but there aren't many young people in the dept. either, if that is what you were wanting to know. In compsci, honours and PhD students ran tutorials the same as maths, but I'm not sure if any ever coordinated a course as such.


Edit: It seems Newcastle is 'defying the trend', so to speak , with regards to maths schools: http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2008/...ics-at-the-university-of-southern-queensland/. It seems USQ, among others Terry mentions, are trying to cut them back to 'service depts' to service the other faculties needs.

 

[jumb]

Wall of texts.

 

[clive]

The good thing about Borwein is his stuff is sort of in the middle, so hopefully pure people won't be missing out on the fun stuff, while applied people get what they want. I spoke to Jon breifly a few weeks ago, and went to a talk of his, and he seems ok. He has a stack of interesting research papers, and I envy his collection of books. I have run into Boland, but haven't spoken to her yet.

Good news about Borwein . I checked out his old website and he seems to have a lot of interesting stuff on there. I have also been doing a bit of daydreaming lately about coming back in 2009 to do honours, probably a mixture of applied and pure.

how has hons been going? crazy difficult?

... and back on topic:

underrated: the lecturers/academics
overrated: the landuse - wish there were more buildings and (slightly) less trees . finishing uni is also pretty overrated.

 

[darkliight]

how has hons been going? crazy difficult?

Starts with 'd', end in 'eath'. Interesting though, just hard .. for me anyway.

 

[blue_chameleon]

Good news about Borwein . I checked out his old website and he seems to have a lot of interesting stuff on there. I have also been doing a bit of daydreaming lately about coming back in 2009 to do honours, probably a mixture of applied and pure.

how has hons been going? crazy difficult?

... and back on topic:

underrated: the lecturers/academics
overrated: the landuse - wish there were more buildings and (slightly) less trees . finishing uni is also pretty overrated.

What are you doing with yourself these days since grad, evilc?

 

[cannibal.horse]

MYTURNMYTURN

Overrated:
- The 'bush environment' bs - the walk from the train station to the McMullin buildings is fucking epic and makes me wish I picked education. Oh and I hate the mosquitos.

- 'diverse student range' - by this I mean mature aged students. Apart from 1-2 of them who are fucking awesome most can't stop phrasing statements as questions or giving life advice throughout lessons - I appreciate the difference of opinion but I don't need to be told by a 40 year old migrant with kids and a family what my priorities in life should be.

- The social scene - shit is pretty dead, most of my friends just go home at the end of the day, probs a completely different story if you lived on campus though.

- The obsession with plagiarism - I had to sit through lessons in every class on this shit. Yes you had an incident in the past, get over it.

- The uni merch is hell tacky. Work needs to be done on a hoodie or jersey.



Underrated:
- The library - are all unis as well resourced as ours?

- Facilities - Newcastle just seems to be able to piss money into the wind, its great.