Adelaide Uni shrinks class sizes

Adelaide University's new vice-chancellor, Professor Warren Bebbington.

SMALLER classes, fewer lectures and research projects within every degree are the key elements of a University of Adelaide plan to become the nation's premier tertiary institution.


The university's new 10- year strategic plan, released last night, also has plans to offer advanced bachelor degrees to top students, triple investment in online learning and make work experience or study abroad compulsory in every course.

Vice-chancellor Professor Warren Bebbington said yesterday that for the past 25 years, Australian universities had focused on extreme growth, but had "dumbed down" content in the process.

"As the number of students grows, that has meant class sizes grow and the experience becomes more and more impersonal. Adelaide did too, we doubled our size in the last 10 years," Prof Bebbington said.

"My memory of university is two professors that changed my life and believe you me, I didn't meet them in a class of 800."

Prof Bebbington said it was likely that lectures would only be conducted a few times a semester, replaced by small classes of 12 to 20 students and high-quality online content.

- adelaidenow