ERIC Number: EJ1267566
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2020
Pages: 8
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0818-8068
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Available Date: N/A
The Elusive Siloed Subjects: Sacrificing Humanities to Techno-Tehan
Daly, Jim
Australian Universities' Review, v62 n2 p90-97 2020
This article questions the use of the term 'siloed' to describe certain degrees or subjects in the Australian university curriculum. Education Minister Dan Tehan used the term as part of a justification of a re-set of funding priorities for university education from 2021 which he announced in June 2020. The Minister partly turned his argument on the floating of an impression that humanities degrees are 'siloed'. They or, more specifically, units within them, would become more expensive for students since 'job readiness' needs to be prioritised. The author analyses the term, its uses and applications to fields of knowledge, and concludes that such a term is neither accurate nor useful. He suggests that focusing on needs arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic might provide a less conflicted and future-oriented way of thinking about the problem rather than making superficial judgments of the merits of particular undergraduate degrees as a foundation for dictating education and education funding policy.
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, College Curriculum, Undergraduate Study, Humanities, Art, Educational Policy, Educational Attitudes
National Tertiary Education Union. PO Box 1323, South Melbourne 3205, Australia. Tel: +61-3-92541910; Fax: +61-3-92541915; e-mail: editor@aur.org.au; Web site: http://www.aur.org.au
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative; Opinion Papers
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Australia
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A