A Wagga Charles Sturt University graduate thought her degree was not worth the money as a national survey found nearly half of students regret their degrees.
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Findings by Studiosity, an online study support service, revealed 49 per cent of 1000 Australian university students surveyed in January did not believe their degree was worth the money it costs.
Chelsea Sutton graduated from CSU with a bachelor of photography and although her course has since been cancelled, she said more "hands-on" based learning was needed.
"There were no placements in my course and it was all in-class or online learning and I've found that a degree is not needed to become a photographer, unlike other professions," Ms Sutton said.
"Assignments were completely different to shots I've been taking out on the field and jobs have deadlines.
"I'm doing this beauty course at TAFE and it's very hands-on and I've learnt more in the month that I've been there than in three years of my photography degree."
Ms Sutton said lecturers would need to be active photographers and students would need to be taught to a range of mediums, if CSU were to reinstate the photography course.
"I think the teachers should be actively working as a photographer so that they're up to date with what is going on as I found my degree was very opinion based," she said.
"I also wish they taught me camera settings as I just had to wing the practical side in jobs. The course was also seen as arts-based rather than photography for commercial work."
Ms Sutton said she focused mainly on portraits but said building a broader portfolio would have made her degree more valuable.
"I think they should have taken us to places to teach how to shoot for real estate or photo journalism and all the different aspects of photography, so that when you go to a job you've got all of that covered," she said.
Despite calls for improvement, Ms Sutton said she "enjoyed" university and campus life.
Student liaison officer at the Wagga campus Bree Jeffries said CSU's student-centred culture is what sets the university apart.
"This culture is the basis of everything we do, through our divisions of student services to fundamentally enhance the experience, overall success and making them job ready," she said.
While Ms Sutton said placements and hands-on learning were missing from her course, Ms Jeffries said CSU's highest employment rate in the country is the result of practical teaching methods.
"We offer a holistic approach to our support services as well as careers officers available and a large workplace element for practical learning on the job," she said.
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