Many Australian students specialise before they’ve had a good general education. American undergraduates do get that, and perhaps Australia has gone too far down the path of early specialisation.
In a volatile and uncertain world, academic freedom is the foundation of universities’ capacity to be responsive to all of the challenges we face today.
Australia has gone backwards in global gender parity rankings, with even universities, which should be leading the way, failing on this front. But women are now saying enough is enough.
Increasingly strained relations between the two countries are adding to the challenges of teaching students enrolled in Chinese studies at Australian universities.
The budget splashed out extra money for almost every sector deemed important to economic recovery (or politically sensitive). But with universities in a state of financial crisis, they missed out.
International students have been admirably persistent in studying online for more than a year. But as other countries open their doors, Australia risks losing them if it fails to show they are wanted.
Interviews with students, tutors, tech workers and university administrators reveal the problems with online exam monitoring systems — but also show they’re unlikely to go away.
Mainstream academic publishing presents many obstacles to Indigenous authors, especially the conventional peer review process — but there are ways to overcome this.
Treating online education as a cheap alternative to lectures will be a mistake. At first universities will probably have to allow more preparation time and invest more in training and technology.
Universities are a step ahead in having adopted a number of practical changes, but it’s clear transformative cultural change in our institutions requires all the expertise they can muster.
Not everyone needs to be on campus to learn. Governments, which subsidize higher education, need to change their funding models to support affordable remote learning.
Necessity truly can be the mother of invention. A new university president explains how the pandemic forced massive changes at his institution — and why smart use of technology was invaluable.