Were eight hundred admissions really that many? Arthur could only express that no, they were really not.
Compared to universities of later generations that easily had tens of thousands of students, Australian National University, as the only university in Australia, enrolling eight hundred students was already very few.
Yet this actually depended on Australia's population. At present, all told, Australia only had a little over 3.7 million people, and the number of people who had graduated from high school, were around eighteen to thirty, and were suitable for attending university was even fewer—perhaps not even ten thousand could be gathered across the entire Australia.
"Principal Wilfred Freeman Weinberg, what is your estimated number of applicants this time? Can it reach the prescribed admission standards?" Arthur asked.
Admission numbers still had to align with the number of applicants. If not many people applied, then setting the admission numbers high at this point would serve no purpose at all, instead only courting ridicule.
"Your Highness, after we combine the data from the Ministry of Education and make preliminary projections, there are about twenty-one thousand Australians who have graduated from high school and are of appropriate age. Subtracting those with stable, high-income jobs, there are still less than ten thousand people who are potential candidates for this enrollment. Under normal circumstances, this enrollment will have at least one thousand applicants, but if we have your appeal, this number can multiply severalfold," Wilfred Freeman Weinberg said while speaking. Yet the underlying meaning between his lines was an implicit request for Arthur to call upon eligible Australians to apply for university.
"Hahaha, very well. You are all elites in the education industry, and naturally you know that talent of this kind is refined to perfection. I hope that you will be able to select about one thousand of the most outstanding talents from among the applicants and cultivate them; they will be the backbone of Australia a few years from now." Arthur laughed heartily, which could be considered agreeing to Wilfred Freeman Weinberg's proposal.
"Your Highness, I'm afraid we must also consider a problem: whether the families of the applying students can sustain the expensive costs of their university? I believe the royal family and the government should pay for the large majority of these students' expenses, or else perhaps most of our students will only be able to give up halfway." Having achieved his goal, Wilfred Freeman Weinberg still did not stop, continuing to offer suggestions to Arthur.
As one of the senior, leadership-type talents in the education industry, most of Wilfred Freeman Weinberg's earlier half-life had been spent serving as principal or dean in various major universities of the British Empire.
Having been hired at a high salary by the Australian Government this time, Wilfred Freeman Weinberg had only one requirement, which was that he must have a say in the development of the university.
Naturally, Arthur did not mind. After all, professional matters still had to be done by professional people. Although Arthur possessed a vast amount of experience and knowledge from future generations, as a monarch, handing his subordinates' work over to his subordinates to do was the mark of a qualified ruler.
"No problem, the royal family pledges to pay seventy percent of all students' tuition fees, and the remaining thirty percent will also be advanced by the royal family first. When these outstanding students graduate in the future and enter all walks of life in Australia, their performance will determine whether the advanced tuition fees are waived," Arthur nodded and said with a smile.
Arthur was not some great philanthropist either. He did not mind waiving a portion of the tuition fees for these students, but it was only a portion.
The remaining tuition fees would be advanced by the royal family for them first. On one hand, this could serve as an excuse to make these students work for the royal family; on the other hand, it could also narrow the distance between these talents and the royal family, disguisedly cultivating talent for the royal family.
Wilfred Freeman Weinberg also saw through Arthur's intent, but he did not stop it.
His goal was merely to develop Australian National University into one of the world's top colleges. As for other matters, Wilfred Freeman Weinberg did not want to manage them, nor did he care.
"In addition, the royal family will also establish a royal scholarship within the university, annually selecting two hundred impoverished students of excellent character and subsidizing them with a fund of at least ten pounds," Arthur said with a smile.
This sentence could certainly be called a blockbuster. In an era where university talent was one in ten thousand, a university student counted as unflinchingly top-tier talent anywhere.
Aside from the uneven development of educational conditions in various countries, the other factor causing this phenomenon was the rather high cost of attending university.
The people present were all elites of the educational world, but they had only ever heard of tuition being partially waived for attending university; they had never heard of university actually paying money back to you!
Arthur had previously waived the majority of the expenses, and the remaining expenses could even be advanced in advance. In other words, attending university could cost absolutely no money at all. Under such circumstances, the royal family would still provide scholarships—was this not enticing everyone to come to Australia for university?
Yet upon careful thought, it seemed what Arthur paid each year was not much either—merely two thousand pounds a year.
Even so, this measure would definitely substantially raise the degree of attraction that Australian National University held for those students. After all, with a one-quarter chance at a scholarship, everyone had the urge to take a gamble once.
"Very well, the policies are just this many. You will adjust the university's admission numbers at your discretion based on future application conditions, but at most do not exceed fifteen hundred people, and at least do not fall below eight hundred. I will mobilize public opinion to call upon all Australians to apply for university; how to select the most outstanding talent from among them is your business." Having spoken his final sentence, Arthur took his guards and left the conference room.
After Arthur left, the group did not settle down either, instead entering a new round of quota competition.
Although Arthur had limited the admission numbers for the entire school, he had not limited the actual enrollment numbers for each major.
This also caused each major to be able to undergo a certain degree of increase based on the original theoretical numbers, allowing their own major to become the one with the highest enrollment number this time.
Just as the teachers of the five departments were fighting tooth and nail over their respective admission quotas, Arthur had already returned to the manor and begun preparing to set public opinion in motion.
Australia currently also had newspapers, inherited from the newspapers of several original colonies, which were now uniformly purchased by Arthur.
It had to be said that in this era, newspapers were the best tool for controlling public opinion. Controlling a country's newspaper publishing essentially meant controlling that country's public opinion.
After all, in this era devoid of many entertainment facilities and activities, the only way most people allowed themselves to understand outside information was by purchasing newspapers from news agencies or bumming newspapers off others to read.
Second update, begging for support! Today's data determines the next round of recommendations, everyone I'm kneeling and begging for support! Begging for collections, begging for investments, begging for comments, begging for all kinds of tickets, begging for readership!
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