Just before Open Day Federation U announced the end of undergraduate arts. The timing was not great with outrage on and off campus set to obscure the big O Day reveal – a new UG course structure

But the university got back on message, saying arts would stay as part of the new model (CMM August 8, 12 and 15). And then the news was obscured by the university confirming that it is consulting on redundancies in business courses and the Institute for Innovation, Science and Sustainability.

Which was not great for explaining the university’s big plan to introduce the “cooperative education model” which VC Duncan Bentley did in the Ballarat Courier, the paper serving Federation U’s homebase.

This is big, and brave plan, indeed to, “bridge campus-based learning with learning in the workplace so when our students graduate, they have real work experience.”

The intent is for students to take 150 hours of workplace learning that counts for credit, and “include transferable skills as well as the technical skills to prepare students for their career “

“Federation will be the first choice for regional students wanting a head start on having a successful career and for regional employers wanting graduates primed for the workplace,” Professor Bentley adds.

But it will take some selling.