[LINK] Australian uni review to make sector more competitive

[Tom Worthington]

On 26/2/23 11:53, David wrote:
> ... How do you assess student's performance when the projects would
> vary so much in difficulty and "assessibility" for want of a better
> word? ...

Work integrated learning is more about how students go about doing it, 
than what they end up making (or not).  There is a background on the 
"Many Eyes Process" approach at: 
https://comp.anu.edu.au/TechLauncher/current_students/guidelines/many_eyes_process/

> Are the clients charged and, if so, who gets paid?

Some clients pay the students, some don't.

> I've long felt group projects for internal university clients would
> be a great idea, but surely a single project would have to be chosen
> by the Department in the interests of a level playing field? ...

Universities put a lot of work into finding suitable projects. Some 
employ specialist to find suitable clients, and refine the projects, 
others contract this to specialist companies. The projects vary from 
prototypes for startup business to refinements to large corporate 
systems which have been in production for years.

Some of the projects I have supervised are an App for desensitizing a 
physiologist's patents, a test system for hydro-electric generators, and 
programming a new radar for Australian warships.

> ... client would want to select the best implementation produced rather
> than run the risk of a time-wasting failure by one particular group. ...

The client would not want to have to deal with 20 teams, in the hope one 
would succeed. The clients are told there is no guarantee what the 
students do will work. Many are explorations of new ideas. In any case, 
in the real world most computer projects fail.



-- 
Tom Worthington http://www.tomw.net.au