McDonalds pulls the plug on free access to Maths Online

I think that I had previously posted that Maths Online is a great study tool for secondary students (or advanced year 5/6 students) and how it was great that McDonalds was sponsoring access to it for all Australian students...

Well, the SMH had an article today revealing that McDonalds had decided to wind back its sponsorship, so that from next year only McDonalds employees will get free access (available while on their MeTime breaks!).

I think this is a poor decision by McDonalds, and I sent them a comment today (via their website feeback form) telling them as much.

As you can see below, their response wasn't very satisfactory, especially in light of the TV ad campaign they had previously run trumpeting the expansion of their sponsorship to make Maths Online available free to all Australian students (without any mention of a time limit)...

"We look to fund projects that support our employees and compliment the skills they learn at McDonald's by supporting their studies at school. When we decided to finance the program for all secondary students, it was always for a three year period and that's now come to an end. We have been pleased to be able to support such a great initiative.

We are still providing the service to our 85,000+ employees, so if you have a family member who works at McDonald's they will be able to access it through the internal MeTime website."

Hopefully if enough customers complain about this decision McDonalds may change their mind.

Otherwise I'll have to save up the annual fee by cutting out my occasional meal at McDonalds ;)

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Finally, a High Distinction

My uni results for last semester came out this morning, and I finally got an HD. 'Galactic Astronomy and Cosmology' (aka GAC) was probably the most difficult of the subjects I've completed so far towards my Master of Astronomy degree, so I was a little surprised to get an HD. Looks like none of the other MAstron students found this subject any easier than I did.

I recently came across the blog of Rick Boozman, a 58-year-old retired software developer who recently completed his MAstron from JCU (with nearly straight HDs!), was awarded the University Medal, and is now working on his PhD in astrophysics. Its reassuring to see another mature age student has successfully progressed from the JCU Mastron degree to a PhD, although my results aren't quite up to his standard ;)

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