I’ve been to an Ivy League college – our universities are failing at one vital job

November 2, 2026 — 3:35pm

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.

Remove items from your saved list to add more.

No gift articles left

You've used all of your gift articles. 3 more will become available on the 1st of every month.

I returned from my exchange at the University of Pennsylvania with no fewer than 10 T-shirts and jumpers, an assortment of posters and pins, a mug, several tote bags and, much to my surprise, Penn-branded socks.

I went to Philadelphia halfway through a five-and-a-half-year degree at the University of Sydney, wanting more than a reprieve from the routine. I returned with something less portable than merchandise: a nagging suspicion that Australian universities are failing to prepare us for life after graduation.

Let me dispel one myth early. The content was not harder. My subjects were pitched at roughly the same level as their USyd equivalents and assessed in much the same way, with a similar weekly workload. If you were hoping for a tale of Ivy League rigour flattening a hapless Australian, I can’t oblige.

What differed was the delivery. My professors wrote everything by hand on a blackboard, working through each problem in real time. At home, lecturers often display pre-typed solutions and narrate over them, which is efficient but, I find, ultimately detrimental to the learning experience. Penn’s lectures weren’t compulsory, but they weren’t recorded either. Miss one and your sole recourse was a friend’s notes, so attendance became self-enforcing. Small weekly homework tasks, worth only........

© The Sydney Morning Herald