Thomas Paparo

Out with the Old, In with the New

James Greenbriar

Peruse the 2021 UWA handbook and you will quickly become aware of major changes to the University undergraduate degree structure. No longer are we greeted by an undergraduate structure of five specific Bachelor degrees and one concurrent diploma option. Instead, we see a substantial departure from the post2012 established precedent. The University has opted to expand undergraduate offerings with the addition of seven new Bachelor programs, fourteen Combined Bachelor and Master’s (CBM) degrees, twenty-seven new major sequence variants, and thirty-six minors.

Whether these changes will result in increased student satisfaction, better employment outcomes for graduates, a stop to haemorrhaging of future students, or a reduction of UWA’s $70 million structural deficit is yet to be seen; however, it will certainly be interesting to see the outcomes of these changes.

These significant changes to undergraduate degrees at UWA primarily arose out of an increasing awareness of incoming student preferences for ‘job-ready skills’. Communicating to University staff in late 2020, Vice-Chancellor Amit Chakma recognised the limitations of generalist undergraduate degrees which, he said, resulted in UWA being outcompeted by other universities with “more straightforward offerings”. He said such broad undergraduate degrees resulted in UWA losing a considerable share of the state’s post-secondary students.

The roots of UWA’s 2012-2020 undergraduate degree structure lie in changes made between 2008 and 2012 at the University. Following a two-year-long internal University review – which was summarised in the Education for Tomorrow’s World report – the UWA Senate approved the Future Framework in 2008. The most important element of this report was the recommendation that UWA follow the University of Melbourne in introducing a streamlined undergraduate degree structure – dubbed the “Melbourne Model”, which it adopted in 2012. This model is a standardised academic structure that operates broad three-year undergraduate courses which are followed by more specific and job-directed two-year postgraduate programs.

At UWA, this meant the twenty-seven Bachelor degree variants were reduced to only five, resulting in many degrees – including the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS), and Bachelor of Laws (LLB) – moved to postgraduate alternatives.

It also saw some degrees – including the Bachelor of Engineering – broken into a combined undergraduate-postgraduate format. At the time of its introduction, then UWA Vice-Chancellor Alan Robson noted that the Melbourne Model “is a better way to do [double degrees] in sequence.”

In reality, the Melbourne Model is just an Australian manifestation of the ‘Bologna Model’ for tertiary education (a three + twoyear configuration) or the North American Model (a four + two-year configuration). The Melbourne Model initially channels high-school leavers and enrolling students through a generalist undergraduate degree, which is complemented by breadth subjects (or broadening units, as they are referred to at UWA). Students then have the option to enter the workforce or progress to specialist graduate programs. In the case of UWA, these graduate programs include law, engineering, medicine, dentistry, translation, social work, architecture, and teaching, among others.

Moving into 2021, the University and its executive have made the decision to broaden the undergraduate offerings at UWA. Under these changes, the pre-existing five Bachelor degrees will be supplemented by Bachelors of: Automation and Robotics; Music; Business; Environmental Design; Philosophy, Politics and Economics; Advanced Computer Science (Honours); and Economics. There will be fourteen combined Bachelor and Masters degrees introduced, which will allow students to complete both degrees in a reduced timeframe of four years. There will also be twenty-seven new major sequences – many of which are incorporated within CBMs. Though not clearly articulated within the UWA 2021 handbook, there will also be an additional 36 minors – which will include offerings such as Active Citizenship, Women’s Health, and Curatorial Studies.

While UWA is not making a full reversion back to its pre-2012 structuring of degrees, the 2021 expansion does allude to an increasing realisation that the generalisation experienced within the Melbourne Model is not necessarily the solution for all institutions and environments. It demonstrates that the University is, at least in part, concerned about its competition with other Perth universities and their offerings. And, more importantly, it reflects a concern for the job-readiness, employment outcomes, and undergraduate satisfaction levels of student at the University.