Question of the Day!

A lot.

A real lot.

I went to university and got my first Bachelor's degree in the late 1980s, early 90s, got my second Bachelor's in the early 2000s and got my 3rd Bachelor's in the late 2010s. My son is at university right now (2nd year); my daughter is doing yr 12 and has already been accepted into university next year based on her preliminary grades. I lectured at university in 2004-5. I am still an open student because they are waiting for me to accept the offer to do my PhD.

Of course, Australian universities are a little different to US Colleges; we are more closely aligned with the British system. There are some left wing elements in our universities (hell, my politics skew left), but you find the worst of the left-wing stuff in Sydney and New South Wales (Sydney thinks it's part of the USA), and they don't count as real places. Education at university is rife with lefties, but the national curriculum is run by a bipartisan committee, so a lot of the far-crazy leftie stuff does not reach the kids. Some schools might push barrows, but I haven't come across that many.

We have a 3-tier tertiary education system.
1) Vocational education/ apprenticeships
2) TAFE (technical and further education) - go as high as advanced diploma; I also have 2 TAFE diplomas
3) University - Bachelor's Degrees and up.

All degrees must be approved by the education standing committee; a few international private universities with campuses in Australia do not meet requirements and so their "degrees" are not recognised.

We do not have fraternities or sororities, but there are "colleges" which are places where remote students stay and get tutoring help. There are a lot of groups and associations on campus; extra-curricular activities are encouraged. Sometimes you are required to do a non-aligned subject; this is a subject that is not from your degree, to expand your development. In my 1st degree (science) I did Comparative Religion and Latin; in my 2nd degree it was not required; in my 3rd degree (arts) I did biological research.

Homeschooling in Australia is only recognised to year 10; for a student to get into university, they must complete years 11 and 12 at a recognised high school. However, a student can get into VocEd or TAFE from yr 10 homeschooling.

Most students hit university at 17/18 years of age. We have Kindergarten (3 1/2 to 5 yrs), junior primary (reception, year 1 and year 2), primary (year 3 to year 6), high school (year 7 to year 12). Bachelor's degrees are 3 or 4 years. About half of the degrees have pre-requisite subjects a student needs to study in year 12. Only medicine has a pre-entrance exam.

And that's our tertiary education system!