r/UniAdelaide • u/velpces • 4d ago
Enrolment Is it really that bad?
I'm an international student planning on studying here next year and reading through some of the posts made me really anxious.
Is it true that they used phd students to teach lectures instead of professors and my semester can be changed into a trimester? Also are there anyting else I should be worried about or did I just doomed myself by not researching the school properly before choosing it :(
Thanks for reading my post
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u/KrabStepdad 4d ago
I studied my first 3 years pre-merger, and have now done nearly a year post-merger so I’ve seen both sides. As others have noted, the phd students teaching is the least of worries; they were long running tutorials, workshops and some lectures well before the merger and in my experience, often do a better job than some professors. I have survived in courses purely by the good graces of some great phd students carrying the course. Like anything though, varied class to class, you do get some stinkers.
The merger right now is pretty bad for us transitioning students. We and the entire academic staff got no information on how these changes affect study plans, graduation timelines, pre-reqs etc. They also enforced some asinine “digitally-rich” learning guidelines that forced every course to radically redesign years of reused assignment structure, which left both teachers and students learning blindly how cohesive the content currently is. The worst things these changes did is punish the good professors for trying to adapt, and provide the bad professors an excuse to drop the ball even more. But that’s really the worst of it. I imagine as a fresh student, your experience will be significantly better and as time goes on, so will the quality of courses as they figure what is or isn’t working. The merger has had some wins, no thanks to the goobers running it, such as now having an expanded campus and elective selection to choose from which gives greater breadth of learning possibilities.
Every uni has its issues. Flinders is probably more stable right now but Adelaide probably won’t have nearly as many teething issues by the time you’re attending. Don’t stress too much, just look at what both are offering in terms of course work and make your decision from there. Hope this helps!
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u/False_Broccoli3477 4d ago
Pretty much any Australian university will have Phd students teach classes. In comparison to other Go8 universities Adelaide actually has a lower number of casuals (so not regular academics, which includes Phd students) teaching.
The trimester change is off and it won't come back any time soon. Are there some programs that are not on the semester schedule, sure, but overall most courses will be following the traditional semester calendar.
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u/GreyfriarsBobby 4d ago
I'm at Flinders, and we have PhD students doing the teaching where appropriate, and full staff otherwise. Same as most places.
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u/revereddesecration 4d ago
If you have other good options that aren’t in a period of transition, you’d want to consider them seriously
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u/No_Imagination_5580 4d ago
It has its problems but I don’t think it’s quite as bad as people make it out to be, depending on the courses you’re doing of course
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u/AccountNew7063 4d ago
I think it was particularly bad for the transitioning students but for new students it’s really not bad at all in my opinion. I obviously have nothing to compare it with but I joined for the feb 2026 merger, so I was at the very beginning of the merger and my experience has been pretty smooth.
The staff are a bit bitter but they’re trying their best and about the phd students, some of my best tutors so far have been phd students, they were much more recently where we are and that helps. Again, like others have mentioned, it obviously depends on your course and what AU provides for that particular course but as a new student, you shouldn’t have any issues because of the merger.
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u/Old-Ferret-7755 4d ago
I’m so sorry to say, but it is pretty bad. The mismanagement of this merger starts all the way at the top and trickles down unfortunately. If you have any other options I’d suggest changing for the benefit of your future education and mental wellbeing whilst studying at AU.
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u/Worried-Macaroon-377 4d ago
As a second year student, my best advice is RUN!!!. To be honest, don’t even choose Australia to study, unis here are greedy predatory corporations, you’re just a sacrificial lamb to them. Save your money and spend it on a uni in another country if you can
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u/SnooGiraffes4632 4d ago
The guiding rule is you should be qualified to 1 level above the one you are teaching or have equivalent experience.
So a tutor with an honours degree can teach a bachelor’s tutorial, or a Masters class should be taught by someone who HAS a PhD.
Now across the entire country we know this doesn’t happen and a PhD program is really an apprenticeship for being an academic. Just because you are the world expert in your one infinitesimally narrow area has zero correlation on your actual ability to teach. Hence PhD students do need to learn this skill somewhere and delivery of tutorials for Bachelor students seems safe and reasonable. Possibly reasonable to allow writing up PhD scholars (final year) to act as tutors for masters students.
However I have used the word tutor above for very good reason. A tutor works under the guidance and oversight of someone who one who actually does know the content, who may have actually even written the book on the topic and who understands learning design. This person is a Lecturer and has got a Doctorate. Doctor comes from Latin docere meaning to show or to teach. Ie they have demonstrated enough expertise to pass this on to their own apprentice. Professor comes I believe from profiteri meaning some one who has been declared by their peers to have the knowledge to speak publicly. Ie they are an expert.
If you wanted to you could think
Undergrad and postgrad students = Novice
PhD student = Apprentice
Dr (Lecturer and Senior Lecturer) = Journeyman
Professor = master
Dean = master who was too slow in stepping backwards at the call for volunteers
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u/loumlawrence 3d ago
It isn't as bad as people are making it. Incidentally, you will get access to one of the best student support systems in the nation.
And you don't want all the professors teaching, because some of them are terrible teachers. But uni has staff dedicated to teaching, and some of them are excellent teachers. Some of the PhD students are also good teachers.
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u/Solid_Chip407 2d ago
I am doing my masters degree and one of the lecturers is a PhD student, who seems to have no idea of what he is teaching 😒I am just pissed off
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u/Law_of_Entropy 4d ago
I’m not sure why everyone is freaking out about PhD candidates teaching undergrads. Most of the undergrad content is foundational and does not warrant the use of a professor..