Professor insists Australia is not a country

daagahminayin

Mon, Feb 12 2018, 8:21 pm

It was silly and unprofessional of the professor and I’m glad the student got refunded for the course (I also hope her work was regraded by another unbiased professor).

However, it’s a shame the student felt the need to take her story to Buzzfeed and publicize it. Public humiliation over the internet is a cruel and unwarranted punishment that very few people deserve. Terrible consequences have resulted from it including ruined reputations, clinical depression, and suicide.

Also, in school I learned that the continent was called Australasia - can someone re-educate me?

MitzadSheini

Mon, Feb 12 2018, 8:48 pm

The professor is not named, so I say kol hakavod to the student for speaking up.

People can make mistakes. But when that happens you're supposed to say "I'm sorry. My bad."

This is one of the funniest things I have seen in a while.

Australia is indeed a country. It is often called an island continent, but I guess that this is a little misleading in the sense that the are islands off the mainland that are still part of Australia. Big ones like Tasmania, but also lots of smaller ones such as Lord Howe, Hayman and Rottnest, just to name a few.

The term Australasia is sometimes used to refer to Australia and surrounding island countries that are not part of Australia, such as New Zealand. But I think that the countries that do or do not fall under this umbrella term are not clearly defined.

Here is the Wikipedia article on the subject

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australasia

but FWIW the 15th (and final) printed edition of Encyclopedia Britannica from 2010 does not appear to have a listing under "Australasia" at all.

seeker

Mon, Feb 12 2018, 10:27 pm

I've always heard the "continent" including Australia, NZ, etc, called Oceania. Is that not a thing anymore?

Although the professor was not named, the college was named. At the end of the article it seems they handled it professionally and were surely very embarrassed by all this, but they are first named at the beginning, followed by a highly embarrassing story.

So I do think it should be shared because the absurdity is hilarious, at least in retrospect when you're not the hapless student being flunked by the inept professor, but perhaps the college should only be named at the end where it describes how the school resolved it.

But goodness, that is one for the books.