An update from the GSA President: December 2022
Despite all my assessments having been finalised, our work at GSA has only ramped up.
This month we have been busy advocating for Veterinary Medicine Students, due to the Universities’ proposed changes to the U-VET Clinic.
On the governance side, we have appointed 3 new board members via casual vacancy. I would like to welcome Rosy, Yujia (Lucy) and Bolor to the GSA board. We are delighted to have their expertise, passion and energy in the GSA family, and are excited to see what they accomplish between now and the next AGM.
Proposed Changes to Faculty of Agriculture and Veterinary Science/U-VET
Myself, Yingchen (General Secretary) and Matt (Vice President), alongside several other students attended the Veterinary Student sit in at the Werribee campus on the 21st of November. We used this opportunity to speak to a range of Veterinary Medicine students from first year to fourth year, to learn about how these proposed changes will change their learning experience.
It is clear from our discussion with these students, that the potential closure of the U-VET hospital will negatively impact the delivery and outcomes of the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine course. Likewise, it will create unnecessary financial burdens onto students, many of which have moved to Werribee to better access the Werribee facilities.
Our concerns are that a shift to the fully distributed model, away from the embedded model utilising the U-VET, will potentially see a more variable delivery of placements, which could disadvantage some students. Likewise, the change of model, without an option to ‘teach out’ current students, could be an exceptionally jarring experience for students, many of which enrolled explicitly for the U-VET clinical placements.
GSA will continue to be advocating hard for our Veterinary Medicine students. If you have any concerns regarding these changes, please reach out to me at president@gsa.unimelb.edu.au
Dual Delivery
The GSA Team has just handed down our Dual Delivery Report. Since the pandemic began, the University teaching model has had to adjust to the necessity for online delivery, and since, dual delivery when needed. However, in the graduate space, dual delivery of classes is vital for many students. Graduate students may be undertaking placements, internships, medical research, field trials, or may have family or work commitments, which require them to be off-campus. While this has been heard and actioned by the University, with dual delivery still an option for graduate study, the implementation of this policy can be improved.
With the recent outbreaks of COVID in mainland China threatening to delay the return of students to Melbourne, generating unreasonable financial burdens on those students, there is a clear need to push for increased dual delivery classes in the graduate space.
We have heard from 600 graduate students from mainland China, who have voiced their need for this flexibility, and we will continue to advocate for fair implementation of dual delivery.
If you need any support, feel free to reach out to me at president@gsa.unimelb.edu.au
Jesse,
GSA President