I returned from my exchange at the University of Pennsylvania with no fewer than 10 T-shirts and jumpers, an assortment of posters and pins, a mug, several tote bags and, much to my surprise, Penn-branded socks.
asserted
I → return → surprise
I went to Philadelphia halfway through a five-and-a-half-year degree at the University of Sydney, wanting more than a reprieve from the routine.
asserted
I → go → routine
I returned with something less portable than merchandise: a nagging suspicion that Australian universities are failing to prepare us for life after graduation.
asserted
universities → return → graduation
Let me dispel one myth early.
asserted
me → let → myth
My subjects were pitched at roughly the same level as their USyd equivalents and assessed in much the same way, with a similar weekly workload.
asserted
subjects → pitch → workload
If you were hoping for a tale of Ivy League rigour flattening a hapless Australian, I can’t oblige.
asserted
I → hop → Australian
What differed was the delivery.
asserted
differed → differ → ?
My professors wrote everything by hand on a blackboard, working through each problem in real time.
asserted
professors → write → time
At home, lecturers often display pre-typed solutions and narrate over them, which is efficient but, I find, ultimately detrimental to the learning experience.
asserted
I → display → experience
Penn’s lectures weren’t compulsory, but they weren’t recorded either.
asserted
they → record → ?
Miss one and your sole recourse was a friend’s notes, so attendance became self-enforcing.
asserted
attendance → miss → one
Small weekly homework tasks, worth only a few per cent of the grade, obliged me to consolidate each week’s material instead of exhuming it in the final fortnight.
asserted
tasks → oblige → fortnight
In classes small enough to allow it, everyone was called on once or twice a session.
asserted
everyone → allow → it
At USyd, a participation mark can usually be secured with one perfunctory comment, after which you are free to drift off.
asserted
you → secure → which
For someone who had never voluntarily raised a hand in an Australian lecture, this was petrifying.
asserted
this → raise → lecture
It was also where I learnt the most because I spent every minute knowing I might be next on the chopping block.
uncertain
I → learn → block
By the end of semester, my professors knew almost every student by name.
asserted
professors → know → name
At USyd, that relationship is largely outsourced to tutors, usually postgraduate students and, in my early years, undergraduates barely older than me.
asserted
relationship → outsource → me
Every American I met could articulate precisely why they were doing their degree and where it would take them.
uncertain
it → meet → them
Second-year students outlined career trajectories that ran, without apparent irony, all the way to retirement.
asserted
that → outline → retirement
They also asked questions.
asserted
They → ask → questions
They volunteered answers with no fear of being wrong and posed silly questions without a flicker of embarrassment.
asserted
They → volunteer → embarrassment
They typically play out as follows: the lecturer pleads for a response, endures a long silence, then supplies the answer themselves.
asserted
lecturer → play → answer
Tall poppy syndrome, as far as I could tell, had not been granted a visa.
uncertain
I → tell → visa
This was the part that unsettled me.
asserted
that → unsettle → me
Three years into a dual degree, I was not sure where it was leading, and neither are most of my Australian university friends.
asserted
most → lead → friends
I don’t think my American classmates are any more intelligent than us.
asserted
classmates → think → us
They had simply been asked, much earlier and much more insistently, what they wanted to do with their lives.
asserted
they → ask → lives
For high-demand courses, an Australian teenager’s future hinges on a few weeks of exams in Year 12, distilled into a single number.
asserted
future → hinge → number
American students carry that pressure across years of grades, testing, sport and side projects, and are nudged from the start of high school to work out what genuinely interests them.
asserted
what → carry → them
I am a case study in what happens without that nudge.
asserted
what → happen → nudge
My ATAR, not my ambition, chose my degree.
asserted
ATAR → choose → degree
Like many of my friends, I was backed into a corner by a number.
asserted
I → back → number
It favours families who can pay for private tutoring and admissions consultants.
asserted
who → favour → tutoring
Still, it makes teenagers confront a question that we put off for half a decade.
asserted
we → make → decade
Another difference is how American universities compete for enrolments.
asserted
universities → compete → enrolments
The top universities chase the same students by focusing on the experience.
asserted
universities → chase → experience
Some campuses have gone as far as building lazy rivers; at Penn, faculties hosted dinners, the Dean threw a formal, and societies handed out doughnuts and sodas by the armful.
asserted
societies → go → armful
My sock drawer, I now realise, was a line item in a marketing budget.
asserted
I → realise → budget
Australia’s roughly 40 universities are almost all public, large and broadly comparable, and with domestic fees regulated, their fiercest contest is for international students.
asserted
contest → regulate → students
…and 15 more, not listed.
The Aporia
