Tertiary and Continuing Which degrees are useless/useful?

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By the way, I was talking about normal Australian universities, not Melbourne uni, if you were generalising from the Melbourne model.

Most unis have separate faculty of engineering, faculty of science, faculty of medicine etc. undergraduate degrees with options of majors within the degrees.

There is a range of more specialised degrees like mechatronics, but the initial post I was answering suggested that an undergraduate science degree would always be useful. I was saying, yes it will always have some value, but because of the nature of the industries we have in Australia, some majors don't provide as many opportunities.

Such a statement is always relative and if you compare it to a philosophy major you might say what I've said is crap. Alternatively, if you were choosing between science and engineering and taking the course to get a job rather than to learn, it is quite clear that the industries in Australia provide far more opportunities in engineering. There is far less demand for the more fundamental work to which an undergraduate science degree is tailored. Though as you've pointed out some majors have more demand than others. e.g. chemistry for farming and food.
 
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I was talking about opportunities after postgrad because that's naturally the case when you study BSc; you were talking about just undergrad. The range of areas you can specialise in after your BSc is enormous and so are the job opportunities, it dwarfs any other undergrad degree out there.

It's not fair to compare job opportunities for BSc to BEng straight up because nobody does BSc to get a job straight after. For everyone i know, it is a stepping stone to specialise in the field of science that you are interested in. This is why BSc is 3 years compared to BEng which is 4 years. It's literally assumed in our school that people doing biomed/science will go on to do postgrad/honours. This is probably different in other universities with very low ATAR requirements where a student has picked BSc solely because of the low ATAR and has no intention or ambitions in the scientific field. These kind of students are the ones you probably heard about getting no jobs after completing their BSc, which isn't surprising at all...

In every post, i talked about 'specialisations' because that's how the Melbourne model was designed. But yes, just a generic undergrad bachelor of science doesn't provide a lot of opportunities apart from research labs doing PCRs. I've said before that BSc from Melbourne is useless unless you go on to honours or masters. But i think this is the case for any country in the world, a single BSc isn't really enough to get the job you want in a specific scientific area.

Btw, Engineering companies still hire 'Scientists' as well as engineers.

Hospitals hire plenty of 'Scientists'. BSc is pretty much mandatory for genetic counselling and stuff.
 
jinny1 said:
This is probably different in other universities with very low ATAR requirements where a student has picked BSc solely because of the low ATAR and has no intention or ambitions in the scientific field. These kind of students are the ones you probably heard about getting no jobs after completing their BSc, which isn't surprising at all...
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Haha. You'll need the marks for med/dent but relax the focus on them and prestige a bit and you'll be a better scientist (and sound less like a biomed student).

What in science interests you? What made you want to pursue science/med/dent?
 
Mningasimisonda said:
Haha. You'll need the marks for med/dent but relax the focus on them and prestige a bit and you'll be a better scientist (and sound less like a biomed student).

What in science interests you? What made you want to pursue science/med/dent?
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lol i didn't mean it in a condescending way but it came out like that -.- I got very good marks ;) Just waiting to see if i get FFP or CSP offers now.

Evolution and the human body definitely interests me the most. Learning things about physiology, stem cells, evolution, genetics, general biology and some biochemistry. Although i hate anatomy with an absolute passion.

As for med/dent, i wanted something with good employment and high salaries :p
 
jinny1 said:
lol i didn't mean it in a condescending way but it came out like that -.- I got very good marks ;) Just waiting to see if i get FFP or CSP offers now.

Evolution and the human body definitely interests me the most. Learning things about physiology, stem cells, evolution, genetics, general biology and some biochemistry. Although i hate anatomy with an absolute passion.

As for med/dent, i wanted something with good employment and high salaries :p
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If you can earn lots why not :).

Good work on the marks too. Hope you get into what you are aiming for. I definitely wasn't bagging your drive or ambition.

Genetics would be pretty interesting. Guessing in your lifetime we will decode how life works down to first principles and then have the ability to tailor it.

Is the dislike of anatomy because it's just remembering lots of Latin names for things so you can say them to other people who also remembered the Latin names? :) Could see why a scientist would find that boring. Though I suppose it matters that you know where to find things too.
 
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Genetics is an exciting field at the moment, I think it's the fastest growing scientific field right now. Also some of the things we are able to do with stem cells are going to be crazy pretentious but revolutionary for medicine.

Yep, i hate mindless rote memorisation of words :( Can't understand how anyone would find anatomy interesting over physiology, especially if you had our physiology lecturer who was an absolute gem.
 
Too many universities offering too much choice. The minnow universities now provide an array of courses so everyone is coming out with a piece of paper and clogging up the system. There is therefore conjecture as to which degrees are useless, and what other "fields" can a degree provide an individual access to as an alternative.
 
RAPPA said:
Too many universities offering too much choice. The minnow universities now provide an array of courses so everyone is coming out with a piece of paper and clogging up the system. There is therefore conjecture as to which degrees are useless, and what other "fields" can a degree provide an individual access to as an alternative.
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Agree. Universities were not meant to be job training institutes that teach work skills and give people pieces of paper to certify such skills. The push toward them being that is a bit worrying.

Universities were meant to be for the study of various academic disciplines. This is important to pass on the knowledge and understanding in these disciplines and to make further progress in these disciplines. Whether they are studies of law, literature or history, or science, all that knowledge and understanding is important.
 
Azzlandia said:
I am currently doing a postgrad diploma part time.

After failing to find work in my field in two years the currency of some engineering degrees in this country leaves a lot to be desired.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Might be a silly question but has your search been limited to just your home state? A lot of my friends had to move to Brisbane to get an engineering gig
 

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craffles said:
Might be a silly question but has your search been limited to just your home state? A lot of my friends had to move to Brisbane to get an engineering gig
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I've applied for jobs interstate too.

I'm happy to relocate, doing it without having something to earn money can be risky

My current study is fully online so that is no issue.
 
Azzlandia said:
I've applied for jobs interstate too.

I'm happy to relocate, doing it without having something to earn money can be risky

My current study is fully online so that is no issue.
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Have a look at brisbane/toowoomba
 
Azzlandia said:
Environmental engineering.

Have about two years experience.

Haven't been able to find work since the end of 2012.
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Seemed to be a booming industry a few years back.

Cross discipline undergrad degrees can be a bit of a danger, because they are geared toward certain types of work rather than understanding a certain discipline.

They look atractive, but tend to be less adaptable than say a civil, mechancal, chemical, materials or electrical engineering degree, because you learn a bit of each thing with a specific job in mind rather than getting an in depth understanding of one of the disciplines.
 
Mogwai said:
I am applying for a BArts/Master of International Affairs at ANU. Thoughts?
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ANU does have a good IR/Politics/Policy department, so the standard of teaching, reputation of your degree etc. should be good (although there are a lot of cuts going on at the moment, so it could change as the uni axes staff).
Realistically though (as has probably been mentioned 1000 times in this thread) it's what you do outside study that makes the degree useless/useful. ANU does have active IR/debating/policy discussion communities on campus so if you get involved in them a fair bit your degree will be more valuable. Arts by itself isn't much of a degree, but you'll meet plenty of people who are very active in campus life and you can build a strong network if you don't just * about.
 
+1 the networking. I'm did my masters in Switzerland in a similar field, and looking to get work back home I'd be ****ed if I didn't already know people in the ANU sphere. The fact that you are already in Canberra is a big help.
How does the programme work there? You do the BA and it easily rolls into the MA?
 
manboob said:
+1 the networking. I'm did my masters in Switzerland in a similar field, and looking to get work back home I'd be stuffed if I didn't already know people in the ANU sphere. The fact that you are already in Canberra is a big help.
How does the programme work there? You do the BA and it easily rolls into the MA?
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Not entirely sure, but I think ANU have introduced 'vertical double degrees' which are like the one mentioned; you do your Bachelor's and straight afterwards start on a Masters, provided you keep your marks up.
 
Dory_77 said:
Not entirely sure, but I think ANU have introduced 'vertical double degrees' which are like the one mentioned; you do your Bachelor's and straight afterwards start on a Masters, provided you keep your marks up.
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What's the point? How is it different from just applying for a masters after? Or is the workload of the masters slightly reduced as a result? Doesn't appear to be?
 
manboob said:
What's the point? How is it different from just applying for a masters after? Or is the workload of the masters slightly reduced as a result? Doesn't appear to be?
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Most normal masters courses require a few years of experience in the field before you can start them as far as I know, so having the degree structured like this gets around that.
 
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