The focus in these pages and in the commentary has been on their overreliance on full-fee paying foreign students, particularly Chinese. Whilst this rightly receives attention, especially with regards to how some people who are all but incapable of speaking English somehow manage to graduate, we should also critically examine whether our universities, especially in the liberal arts, are really educating students.

Like many students, my first concern was in appeasing the apparent (mostly left-wing) biases of markers rather than freely inquiring. Moreover, the expectations on students in the liberal arts are so pitifully low it is little wonder that employers take little notice of Bachelor of Arts degrees.

The reality that someone such as myself, with somewhat limited scope, could have no problems passing despite at most completing 20 per cent of the so-called required readings and lectures is a sad indictment on the university system.

Taxpayers should expect more.

Aaron de Wit, Riverside.

IT is so good to see all political parties working together in Tasmania at present, to protect our people and our state.

Peter, Rebecca, Cassy, Sue and Madeleine, thank you all, especially Peter. If only this could be the way of the future for Tasmania.

H Donaldson, Westbury.

LIKE him or not, US President Donald Trump is absolutely right in accusing the World Health Organisation of failing in its basic duty to investigate initial reports coming out of China of the influenza-like virus now known as COVID-19.

The US alone contributed $900 million to the WHO's 2018/2019 budget, and I believe has every right to be extremely disappointed, to say the least, in its performance. Not to mention the silence from the WHO on China resuming its wet markets, which is believed to be the source of the outbreak.

Robert Lee, Summerhill.

I HAVE no doubt the idiotic, moronic imbecilic children of 14 to 17 years of age with a mental age of 4-7-year-old bike riders on Punchbowl Road today (Thursday, April 16) would not read the paper.

My son and I went for a 10-minute drive down Punchbowl Road towards Amy Road about 4.30 pm. Just after passing the entrance to Punchbowl Reserve, we were confronted with about seven or eight morons on bicycles all over the road. One was on my side of the road but just let out a juvenile scream as I swerved to pass. I turned around and came back up Punchbowl Road and they were five to six abreast over the white line in the right lane, so I sounded my horn.

I got the middle finger (that didn't hurt ) and yelled at. Beware, drivers, they are 14-17-year-old long-haired twits out there that can cause chaos.

Steve Rogers, South Launceston.

WHY is so much money being thrown at the newly unemployed?

If the government thought unemployment benefits were enough for everyone to live on before, why the change now?

Will it all just be wasted on drugs and alcohol? Why are the newly unemployed to receive almost three times what the unemployed used to get before coronavirus?

How did this get past anti-discrimination Laws? Wouldn't it be more prudent and economically responsible to spend whatever is required of our budget to fix the health system, and keep the rest in reserve for afterwards and use it to re-establish our manufacturing and agricultural industries so that we never have to rely on other countries or economically go through this again?

Wouldn't that also provide full employment nationally?

Or is the government just trying to buy votes? It's lunacy.

Russell Langfield, Waratah.

MILLIONS of Australians have lost their jobs through no fault of their own due to the Coronavirus.

Many households will be desperately short of money to buy essential things like food and electricity.

There is one way many households may be able to claw back some vital cash.

If you have paid for an airline ticket, hotel accommodation or cruise ship holiday you may be entitled to a full refund if you have paid by credit card. If you contact the issuer of your credit card you can complete a chargeback form if the following applies:

Non-receipt of goods or services, or goods or services not as described.

When Ansett Australia ceased flying in September 2001, 47,000 people with tickets and no planes to the board would have fitted the description of non-receipt of services.

Ansett Australia ticket holders who had paid by cash or cheque lost all their money.

Ticket holders who paid by credit card were able to complete a chargeback form and had a full refund credited to their credit card. As Ansett Australia did not have the money to refund ticket holders who had paid by credit card, the bank that provided the merchant agreement to Ansett Australia found it was liable to make the refunds.

It came as a huge surprise to many bank executives that a merchant agreement had credit risks that could run into tens of millions of dollars. If you have not received goods and services that you have paid for by credit card, you should talk to the issuer of the credit card without delay.

Alwyn Johnson, Legana.