we do have aerospace engo at unsw, just that it doesnt stand out in the uac booklet since the cut-off is 81 as opposed to 99.4 at usyd. besides, all our engo pwns usyd's engo. we dont have seperate space engo streams but offering m.biomed on hecs is pretty good...
well i think with the inevitable complete privatisation of universities in the future (like when our hypothetical children enter uni), its up every institution to convert from being a mere educational centre to a recognisable brand. unsw has the advantage of being a recognised brand in SE asia and therefore they capitalise on this by making half the uni commerce students and maximising international student places. i know that not ALL international students do commerce (hell, some do engo) but did you know that if you finish an accounting major as an international student, you get 70 pts towards getting your PR (you need 110-120 pts depending on circumstances)? compare this to doing something like social science, where you get only 40 pts.
specialist liberal arts and the like are simply not cost effective degrees to offer because they most probably wont be popular amongst international students and full-fee people. any lack of demand from hecs people means that they have to pay the government back money that was allotted for that particular course. out of the people i know, the only reason some are on full fee is because they're doing bcom/llb. offering com(lib) or econ(lib) only serves the purpose of keeping undergrads a year longer than usual, like the current combined com/econ course. i wonder if they receive extra funding from the government for offering courses that take longer, since com/sci is going to 5 years also for next year.