Residential Colleges: New Directions Needed

Abstract

To those folk accustomed to the campus at James Cook University of North Queensland the first impression upon entering a university "down south" is one of size, perhaps excitement and maybe even a feeling of intellectual fervour. In due course the major impression caused by large classes, the remoteness of staff members, the impossibility of the Library conditions, the largeness of the Union, and the over-all frenetic scramble becomes one of isolation. Australian universities are impersonal, usually huge degree factories not greatly caring, despite occasional gestures, about the person and certainly never caring about any I-Thou relationships. And it is precisely here that some worthwhile contribution can be made by university colleges to the lives of those engaged in the academic enterprise.