where liberal education is supposed to be the rationale for their existence. The numbers come from impressions (not mine, someone in the system) rather than hard "scientific" research, so feel free to be sceptical. Take the 30% and eliminate approximately a third who are completely lost on campus, so the best thing they can do is drop out and find something at TAFE that prepares them for a job. In the residual 20% (of the population at large) about half are hanging on by the skin of their teeth, survivors of the system at best. In the residual 10% most are competent and capable of completing assignments and getting "good" results but they are not really engaged in the process, they do not read beyond the absolute minimum, they demand photocopies of lectures rather than listening and making their own record. Etc. Further, they do not usually have the time or inclination to participate in any of the traditional campus life of clubs and societies. Some residue, perhaps 2 or 3% (total population base) are switched on and serious about scholarship and the life of the mind. But of course given the course content, both these and the others are most likely to come out of many courses more stupid than they went in. (Thinking of journalism for example, not to mention sociology and media studies). As George Orwell wrote "You have to be an intellectual to believe such nonsense". So much for the expansion of the universities. And some