Melbourne 1970
VOX was the Secondary Teachers College student newspaper, GRIFFIN was the Melbourne Teachers College student newspaper.
Some other Melbourne student newspapers during this period were FARRAGO Melbourne University, LOTS WIFE Monash University, RABELAIS La Trobe University, SCRAGG Swinburne Technical College, CATALYST Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology RMIT.
The two Teachers Colleges were administered by the Victorian Education Department. Melbourne Teachers College provided a program for Primary School teacher education. Secondary Teachers College provided the program for Secondary Teaching education. The Secondary Teachers College undertook a four year Higher Diploma of Secondary Teaching, a combined undergraduate degree and diploma in education.
The other common pathway to secondary teaching was completing an undergraduate degree at a university and a subsequent Diploma in Education.
Particular to the two Education Department Teachers Collage programs was they provided a paid ‘studentship’ stipend (which involved a formal agreement to work as a teacher in Education Department for a period of time when qualified).
Notwithstanding any desire to enter the teaching profession, the paid studentship program was very attractive, for example it therefore possible to ‘leave home’ and live independently (in inner city shared houses etc etc). (GRIFFIN Oct 1970 p8)
The two Teachers Colleges were located next to each other on corner of the (now) Melbourne University campus. The two Teacher Colleges were administered as separate organisations. Staff and students in each establishment were separate cohorts.
During this period, 1970, there were plans proposed by the Education Department to amalgamate and restructure these colleges. There is a lot of discussion about this matter published in these teacher college student newspapers.