Job losses and the lockdown lift demand at VU

Victoria University has seen a sharp uptake of new students starting degrees this month.

Victoria University vice-chancellor Peter Dawkins teaching a small-sized, interactive class in block mode before the COVID-19 lockdown. Picture Stuart McEvoy

Victoria University has seen a sharp uptake of new students starting degrees this month, adding to the evidence that job scarcity and the COVID-19 lockdown are increasing demand for university courses.

Under Victoria University’s block mode system, in which students concentrate intensively on one unit at a time in each four-week block (completing eight blocks in a year if studying full-time), students can start as late as May (in the third block) and still complete a full year’s study during the calendar year.

In this year’s third block (which began last week) nearly 600 students started study for their bachelor degree, about 20 per cent more than in the third block last year.

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Southern Cross University has already reported that applications for its next teaching session, starting in July, are about 15 per cent up on last year.

In Victoria University’s block mode, which began in 2018, all on-campus undergraduate courses are taught in small classes of about 30, with a high level of interaction between students and instructors.

This year, because of COVID-19, Victoria University had to make rapid transition to fully online teaching between blocks one and two.

Senior deputy vice-chancellor Marcia Devlin said the pedagogy of block teaching, with its small, discussion-oriented classes, had translated well to being conducted on Zoom.

“The move to remote delivery has worked very well,” she said.

The university has compared the distribution of grades achieved in block two this year to those achieved by students in block two last year and found the results were very similar.

Vice-chancellor Peter Dawkins said the success of teaching online had given the university confidence in its plan to phase back to on campus teaching gradually.

“We don’t have to rush back.” he said.

Professor Dawkins said that for some students, the remote learning they have been doing online during the lockdown was their preferred method, and the university would consider offering remote options for its regular classes in future.