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The times I was a "failing university student" was because: (1) I was struggling trying to understand the mechanics of being at university, given I was the first person in my family to finish high school, yet alone get a tertiary education. (1/6)
(2) My cousin's suicide in second year almost made it impossible to study. A tutor at the time graciously bumped up my mark, as he had lost a friend to suicide when he was my age. I got a ten day extension on another assignment. Ten days. (2/6)
(3) I didn't have the confidence to access resources or speak to my tutors. I was too proud to ask for help. Asking for help meant admitting to being a "failing university student." It meant all of my parents sacrifices were wasted on someone who didn't deserve to be here. (3/6)
If the government had told me that too, I never would've finished my degree. Sometimes 'extenuating circumstances' are abstract and complex. Sometimes, who you are proves to be its own hurdle. Often, when I was a "failing university student", I didn't have an 'excuse'. (4/6)
And I felt all of this as a scholarship kid who had the privilege of getting a private education. Whose ATAR fell in the mid-90s. I ticked all of the boxes, bar a few... historical exemptions and hick ups. There was no excuse for doing badly on paper. For failing. (5/6)
Who does Dan Tehan think this legislation is helping? How will this motivate individuals to 'work harder'? All this will do is inject tertiary spaces with more shame, exclusion and discrimination than it knows what to do with. It is a truly authoritarian move. (6/6)
