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UC Vice-Chancellor Bill Shorten revives push to merge with CIT
(www.abc.net.au)
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this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2026
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I feel like, having grown up in a low socioeconomic school in NSW, that TAFE was a lifeline to so many students that did not want further academic study and could go there to learn a trade and not just fuck around for year 11 and 12. A good number of them should have left in year 10 for it imo. I'm not sure they would have had the same sentiment if that education was attached to a university where the norm is considered to be written assignments and exams.
University is just a word, and I'm sure it's possible that it could be well implemented by UC (likelihood of that is a different equation), but people will care about the name and what it implies.
There is truth in that, as someone who also went to such a school (numbers dropped very noticeably in yr 11, either towards TAFE or simply leaving education as soon as legally possible).
Combining CIT and UC would indeed be a hard task to manage without scaring off those who are sick of schooling as they know it and desire more practical experience. The other end would have its own issues too as prestige does still play into people's university choices and the combined edifice would have to spend efforts on maintaining its reputation for research/academia to not scare off those prospective students.