Deakin Speaking

Can we remember a time, any of us, when the value of a university education was described or measured in non-economic terms? The answer comes, most unexpectedly, from a couple of statisticians caught up in what must have been a terrifying decade for number crunchers; the 1960s. Make warmth, not war? Charles and Donivan thought so. And research published last week shows that they were onto something.  

 

Soon after the first ‘electrical computer’ (progeny of les funky beaded abaci) was set up in a room big enough to house a Boeing, blokes with thick-rimmed glasses started to measure everything in sight. Run for the hills! In the spirit of the day, they even tried to create a formula for ‘faculty warmth’.