Shard

I thought Australia has some top universities, and there are Australians working internationally gaining good experience. Or is everyone just too keen to get to the beach?

Beoz

Unfortunately they are not churning out countless Mark Zuckerbergs. People who have create billion dollar companies without shred of real work experience.

spouse of scouse

Yep, Australia still needs to import talent in some fields. There's also some excellent home-grown talent though, an example being this company co-founded by a family member
Canva: The startup that's changing how artists work - Feb. 7, 2018

Beoz

It says the offices are still in Perth (and Philippines). Looks like the global brain drain has not occurred here which is good, but rare.

spouse of scouse

Yes. Melanie and Cliff travel a lot but Perth's still their home.

the troubadour

If the truth be known more a case of preferring to employ 457's from abroad rather than a lack of home talent. Rather wide spread these days I'm afraid.

the troubadour

Probably more 'middle range' universities, some say have been dumbed down somewhat in order to accommodate the swag of foreign students, so necessary for funding since government cutbacks some years ago.


Overseas experience can work both ways. Many employers do not necessary take on board international experience to any extent, with local experience being the key. That can take time to acquire often meaning working well under experience to gain 'experience' which often is 'behind' depending on where coming from anyway.


Aussies work some of the longest hours. Perhaps not the most efficient as a result but certainly not at the beach for the most part.

GarryP

Too true.

Their top "group of eight" are well down the tables. I had reason to check up on the University of Melbourne, which gets a Times ranking of 32. Frankly even that flatters. When I checked out the syllabus for "Physics" they were at least 1 year behind the course I did, and seemed to cover some pretty critical elements either superficially, or not at all. Half of it was missing.

They seemed to turn universities into a sausage factory, turning out half educated kids who really need a postgrad/honours course to be useful.

Beoz

I am not sure if we expect too much of our grads these days, but the ones I work with know next to nothing when they leave university. Mind you, not much different in the UK.

The real world of work is where you cut your teeth, and given Australia is certainly not at the forefront of many industries, to get talent, we need to go abroad to areas which are at the forefront.

For example, building a metro - first port of call would be London experience. Not Australia

GarryP

The issue is not training for work, that should be something that the firm should expect to do (though many fail there). Rather I'm saying that you should be educated to a reasonable standard in the subject you are taking, and they just aren't.

The thing that made it jump out at me was 'Special Relativity' being a 2nd year course. That should be a 1st year course, with 'General' in the 3rd year. They don't even cover General in Oz universities it seems. In Physics that's just not on - there should be a minimum level that means something.

the troubadour

There should indeed. Once academics lost positions of influence in Australian universities to a business model the writing was on the wall and sure enough didn't fail to disappoint. The making of Australian education into a visa factory, necessitated a more simplistic approach to intellectual vigour, otherwise foreign students would be unlikely too be 'bribed' to come. When PR pathway was tightened some years ago, numbers fell considerably that loosening was required. Same for English language level being required to be of a moderate level.
Is there anyone here who doesn't/hasn't attend/ed a university? All far too easy as to make it almost a basic entry level requirement.