PAUL MURRAY: Unis failing their own tests

A staggering three-quarters of students being admitted to university are failing the most basic of entry standards

Three-quarters of students being admitted to university are failing the most basic of entry standards. Picture: iStock

A STAGGERING three-quarters of students being admitted to university are failing the most basic of entry standards.

This week a report was released from the Mitchell Institute at Victoria University showing an amazing 131,555 students were admitted using something other than the ATAR score given to students at the end of Year 12.

This is yet another example of how broken the university system is.

We all agree there should be some flexibility in the system for kids who just fall short, or overseas students who pay up front, or like me they find a place for you because someone makes a case for you.

But when the exception has now become the rule, what's the point of even trying at school when you'll get in anyway?

The fatal flaw in our tertiary sector is that courses are paid for up-front by the taxpayer, thus incentivising universities to all classrooms to not draw a line where admission is based on the marks you get.

Until this is fixed, we cheapen the value of the degrees and waste billions that will never be paid back.

THERE'S NO NEED FOR LOCAL CLUBS TO HOLD ON TO DATA

While the media has been focused on the data breaches at Facebook, there is a far more worrying breach happening here in Australia.

This week we learnt that 20,000 members of a workers' club near Newcastle had their data hacked.

This wasn't just names and birthdays like the Facebook breach.

These devious people took driver's licence numbers and in some cases passport details.

A name, address, passport and date of birth would be enough to open a bank account in someone's name.

Crooks use these accounts to run up debts and take out loans you end up having to pay thousands to get out of.

In the age of the cloud, we need to rethink why would a club need so much data to become a member.

In the old days they needed all of that because the only way to join these clubs was to be recommended by an existing member. But now clubs offer lifetime membership for a dollar. I know because that's what I was able to do in clubs across Queensland.

Clubs don't need all that data. They need the basics for you to sign up and that's it. Especially when stealing data can be as valuable as robbing a bank for some criminal syndicates.

LABOR'S ELECTION RESULT SHOULD BE FATAL

There's no excuse for the Victorian Labor Party rorting taxpayers' money to get an unfair advantage at the last election.

They used up $388,000 in funds that were meant to be for people to work in electorate offices to fund political activists for Labor.

Even worse, the government spent more than $1.5 million to stop investigations into the scheme.

The Ombudsman was scathing in her detailing of the rort, saying this clearly crossed the line. But Premier Daniel Andrews says everything is ok because they paid it back after they were caught.

Please, this doesn't just fail the pub test, it fails the bistro test, the gaming room test, the storeroom out the back test and the people who live next door test.

If a politician racked up $388,000 in dodgy travel, they'd be hounded out of office. But Andrews is committed to doing nothing.

So here's hoping the people of Victoria make the choice for him at the coming state election in November.