Chapter 38: Public Opinion Preparation

Is enrolling 800 students really a lot? Arthur can only say that it is not, really not a lot, compared to universities in later years that often enroll tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of students. As the only university in Australia, the enrollment of 800 students is already quite low.

However, this also depends on Australia's population. Currently, Australia has only slightly more than 37 million people, and the number of high school graduates suitable for attending university between the ages of 18 and 30 is even smaller. It may not even reach 10,000 people. Australia's geographic location determines that it is destined to be a maritime power, seeking hegemony in the Asia-Pacific region, and interfering in the Indian Ocean region with great force, in order to further seek world hegemony.

"Principal Wilfred Freeman Weinberg, how many estimated applicants do you have this time? Can you reach the required enrollment standard?" Arthur asked.

The number of admissions must match the number of applicants. If there are not many applicants, then the high enrollment number set at this time will not have any effect, but will only increase ridicule.

"Your Highness, based on our calculation combining with the data from the Ministry of Education, we have initially estimated that there are about 21,000 high school graduates in Australia who are suitable for attending university at the right age. Among them, after deducting those who have stable high-income jobs, there are less than 10,000 potential candidates for this enrollment. In general, there will be at least 1,000 people applying for this enrollment, but if there is your call, this number can be multiplied several times." Wilfred Freeman Weinberg said, while also hinting that he wants Arthur to call on eligible Australians to apply for the university.

"Hahaha, that's good. Everyone here is an elite in the education industry, and naturally knows that talent is something that should be refined constantly. I hope you can select about 1,000 of the most outstanding talents from the applicants and cultivate them. They will be the backbone of Australia in a few years." Arthur laughed and agreed to Wilfred Freeman Weinberg's proposal.

"Your Highness, I am afraid we also need to consider another issue, that is whether the families of the applicants can afford the expensive tuition fees of the university. I think the royal family and the government should pay for most of these students' expenses, otherwise, most of our students may drop out halfway due to financial difficulties." Wilfred Freeman Weinberg achieved his goal but still did not stop, continuing to offer suggestions to Arthur.

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

This time, when he was hired by the Australian government at a high salary, Wilfred Freeman Wayneberg had only one requirement: he had to have a say in the development of the university.

Arthur naturally didn't mind, after all, professional matters needed professional people to handle them. Although Arthur had a lot of experience and knowledge from the future, as a monarch, it was only proper to entrust the affairs of his subordinates to them.

"No problem, the royal family promises to pay seventy percent of all students' tuition fees, and the remaining thirty percent of the tuition fees will also be paid by the royal family in advance. When these outstanding students graduate and enter various industries in Australia in the future, their performance will determine whether the prepaid tuition fees will be waived." Arthur nodded and smiled.

Arthur wasn't a great philanthropist, he didn't mind exempting some of the tuition fees for these students, but it was only a small part.

The rest of the tuition fees would be paid in advance by the royal family. On the one hand, it could be used as an excuse to make these students serve the royal family, and on the other hand, it could also narrow the distance between these talents and the royal family, which was a way of cultivating talents for the royal family.

Wilfred Freeman Wayneberg also saw Arthur's intention, but he didn't stop it.

His goal was only to develop the National University of Australia into one of the top universities in the world. As for other things, Wilfred Freeman Wayneberg didn't want to deal with them or care about them.

"In addition, the royal family will also establish a royal scholarship within the university, selecting two hundred outstanding and virtuous impoverished students each year and providing at least ten pounds in funding." Arthur smiled and said.

This sentence was like a heavy bomb. In an era where there were no talented people in universities, a university student was considered a truly talented person anywhere.

In addition to the uneven development of education in various countries, the high cost of going to university was also a cause of this phenomenon.

Everyone present was an elite in the education industry, but they had only heard of partial exemption of tuition fees for attending university, and had never heard of actually getting paid to attend university!

Arthur had already waived half of the fees before, and the remaining fees could be advanced. That means one could attend university in Australia without spending any money. In this situation, the royal family still provided scholarships, which could entice everyone to attend university in Australia.

However, upon careful consideration, it seemed that Arthur didn't pay much each year, only two thousand pounds per year.

Nevertheless, this move could definitely greatly enhance the appeal of Australian national universities to those students. After all, everyone had the idea of taking a chance with a one-quarter chance of winning the scholarship.

"Well, that's all for the policy. You can adjust the number of university admissions according to future enrollment conditions. But it should not exceed 1,500 people at most or less than 800 people at least. I will mobilize public opinion and call on all Australians to apply for university. How to select the most outstanding talents from among them is up to you." Arthur said the last sentence and left the conference room with his guards.

After Arthur left, the people did not relax, but entered into a new round of competition for admission quotas.

Although Arthur limited the enrollment of the entire school, he did not limit the actual enrollment of each major.

This also led to each major being able to increase its theoretical number of students to a certain extent, making their major the one with the highest number of enrollments in this admission.

As the teachers of the five majors fought for their admission quotas, Arthur had already returned to his estate and began preparing to mobilize public opinion.

Australia currently had newspapers that were inherited from several colonies and were now unified under Arthur's ownership.

It must be said that in this era, newspapers were the best tool for controlling public opinion. Controlling the distribution of newspapers in a country was equivalent to controlling public opinion in that country.

After all, in this era with few entertainment facilities and activities, the primary way for most people to learn about the outside world was to purchase newspapers from the newspaper agency or to borrow someone else's newspaper.