Chapter 38: Public Opinion Preparation

Translator: 549690339 |

Is an enrollment of 800 students really a lot? Arthur just wants to say that it’s not much, really not much.

Compared to the tens of thousands of students in higher education institutions in later generations, Australian National University, as the only university in Australia, has a very small enrollment of 800 students.

But this also depends on the population of Australia. At present, there are only about 3.7 million people in Australia. The number of high school graduates who are between 18 and 30 years old and suitable for attending university is even less, probably less than 10,000 people in the whole country.

“Principal Wilfred Freeman Wayneberg, how many people do you estimate will apply this time? Can the enrollment standards be met?” Arthur asks.

The number of enrollees must be aligned with the number of applicants. If there aren’t many applicants, setting high enrollment numbers won’t do any good and would only cause ridicule.

“Your Highness, after preliminary calculations from the data provided by the Ministry of Education, there are about 21,000 eligible Australians who have graduated from high school and are of the suitable age. Excluding those with stable high-income jobs, there are less than 10,000 potential enrollees. Under normal circumstances, at least 1,000 people would apply for enrollment, but with your call, this number can multiply several times.” Wilfred Freeman Wayneberg said, subtly implying that Arthur should encourage Australians of the right age to apply for the university.

“Hahaha, that’s fine. You are all elites in the education industry, so you naturally know that talent is something to be refined. I hope you can select and cultivate about 1,000 of the most outstanding talents from the applicants. They will be the backbone of Australia in the coming years.” With a laugh, Arthur agreed to Wilfred Freeman Wayneberg’s proposal.

“Your Highness, I’m afraid we must consider another issue, which is whether the families of the applicants can afford the high fees of the university? I believe the royal family and the government should pay for most of the students’ fees, or else many of them might have to quit halfway through their studies.” Wilfred Freeman Wayneberg continued to suggest.

As one of the leading talent in the education industry, Wilfred Freeman Wayneberg has spent most of his life as a principal or dean at various universities in the British Empire.

This time he was hired by the Australian government with a high salary, and Wilfred Freeman Wayneberg asked for only one thing – authority in the development of the university.

Of course, Arthur didn’t mind, as professional matters should be handled by professionals. Although he had a lot of experience and knowledge from later generations, as a monarch, delegating tasks to his subordinates was what made him qualified.

“No problem, the royal family promises to pay 70% of all students’ tuition fees, and provide advance payment for the remaining 30%. The future performance of these outstanding students, after they graduate and enter various industries in Australia, will determine whether the prepaid tuition fees will be waived.” Arthur nodded and said with a smile.

Arthur is not some great philanthropist, so he doesn’t mind waiving part of the tuition fees for these students, but only part of them.

The rest of the tuition fees will be prepaid by the royal family, with one reason being for these students to serve the royal family, and another to bring these talents closer to the royal family, indirectly cultivating talent for the royal family.

Wilfred Freeman Wayneberg also saw Arthur’s intention, but he did not stop him.

His goal was only to develop Australian National University into one of the world’s top institutions, and he didn’t care about or want to deal with other matters.

“In addition, the royal family will set up the Royal Scholarship within the university, which will be awarded to 200 outstanding students with financial difficulties every year, providing them with a financial aid of at least ten pounds.” Arthur said with a smile.

This statement is nothing but a bombshell. In an era when university talents are one in a million, a university student is regarded as a genuine talent anywhere they go.

Besides the different development of education in various countries, the high cost of attending university is also a factor that creates this phenomenon.

Although everyone present is an elite in the education sector, they have only heard of receiving partial waivers for attending university, but they have never heard of getting paid to attend university!

Arthur has already waived most of the fees and offered to pay the remaining fees in advance. That is to say, attending university can be completely free, and under such circumstances, the royal family still provides scholarships. Isn’t this tempting everyone to study in Australia?

But after careful consideration, it seems that Arthur’s annual expenditure is not much, only about 2,000 pounds per year.

However, this move will definitely significantly increase the attractiveness of Australian National University to those students. After all, everyone has the idea to gamble once with a 25% chance to receive a scholarship.

“Alright, that’s all for the policies. You can adjust the university’s admission numbers according to future application situations, but don’t exceed 1,500 people at most and don’t go below 800 people at least. I will mobilize public opinion and call on all Australians to apply for the university. How to select the most outstanding talents from them is up to you.” Arthur had finished his last sentence, then left the meeting room with his royal guards.

After Arthur left, everyone didn’t idle around but instead entered a new round of quota competition.

Although Arthur had limited the enrollment numbers for the entire school, he did not restrict the actual enrollment numbers for each major.

This led to each major being able to increase a certain number of theoretical enrollees, allowing their major to have the highest number of enrollees during this time.

As the teachers of the five majors were fighting fiercely for their enrollment quotas, Arthur had returned to the Manor House and started preparing to mobilize public opinion.

There are now newspapers in Australia, inherited from the original colonies, which are now collectively purchased by Arthur.

No doubt, newspapers are the best way to control public opinion in this era. Controlling the newspaper circulation of a country is actually controlling the public opinion of that country.

After all, in an era without much entertainment and activities, the only way for most people to gain access to external information is to buy newspapers from newspaper agencies or to read other people’s newspapers.