Decades of research shows how the higher education system has failed to give Australians a “fair go”. How can we move from good intentions to long-overdue change?
Tara McAllister, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington; Leilani Walker, Auckland University of Technology, and Sereana Naepi, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
New research examines why Māori and Pacific representation in university STEM subjects remain so stubbornly low.
African countries need to start producing and developing their own medical devices. Suitably skilled biomedical engineers are needed for this sort of innovation to take root.
Assessment should be a part of teaching and learning at universities. It’s important because it will subvert exclusion and allow all students to take responsibility for their work.
There is a very real risk that South Africa’s major research projects will stumble and the whole research machine will be shut down by ongoing student protests.
Australia produces thousands of PhD graduates every year but many will find it hard to secure a university career. So we should do more to help them consider a career outside of academia.
Peter Ngure, African Population and Health Research Center
Many people are left floundering when they try to get working on their PhDs. In Africa, this is often because the skills they need haven’t been developed earlier in their academic careers.
The limits of fertility and an elongated academic career path are currently at odds. If the choice to bear children contributes to the ‘leaky pipeline’ of women in STEM, what can be done?
Shouting past each other via different kinds of media isn’t going to help researchers – from éminences grises to new postdocs – effectively work together on issues in the field of science.
Previous Vice President of the Academy of Science of South Africa and DSI-NRF SARChI chair in Fungal Genomics, Professor in Genetics, University of Pretoria, University of Pretoria
Director of Centre for Postgraduate Studies, Rhodes University & Visiting Research Professor in Center for International Higher Education, Boston College, Rhodes University