Victoria University has a clear mandate to undertake research with impact, ensuring that its outcomes benefit people, place and planet. There is no doubt that in research VU is strong, both thematically and pragmatically. For more than 100 years, Victoria University (VU) has offered accessible education to students in Melbourne’s west and beyond.
It was the worst possible timing ever! I was moving house on the day of the opening ceremony. For years I have been set up with Foxtel to ensure that I was not going to miss any sporting event of great…
There are numerous satellite events at the Games that can keep you as busy as going to the actual sporting competitions. Saturday night it was Austrade’s Australia Unlimited Event taking place at the impressive…
Without volunteers, the Olympics would be a disaster. But will the “Games Makers” - the army of 70,000 Olympic and Paralympic volunteers - stimulate a spirit of volunteerism in and beyond London? Volunteering…
Our International Convention on Science, Education and Medicine in Sport in Glasgow ended on a high note with a great closing keynote address by US medico Robert Sallis, former President of the prestigious…
I was talking to a reporter of the website Euronews the other day, and he asked me why we, as a species continue to be so obsessed with sport. Why is it that irrespective of the increasingly dramatic changes…
Aussie academics in all fields are used to travelling around the globe to attend conferences, network, sight-see and participate in social and educational pursuits. Before every Olympic Summer Games it…
From the ancient Greeks to modern soccer World Cups and the Olympics, there has been an enduring belief by some athletes and coaches that engaging in sexual activity before athletic competitions may be…
Stop acting like idiots and get down to business is what Eddie McGuire advised our Olympic athletes to do in his Sunday Herald Sun column. And Eddie is right in so many ways! There is nothing wrong with…
Athletes are generally seen as a stoic, tough, uncomplaining lot. But the last few weeks before an Olympics always tend to bring on athletic tantrums. As the last chances for Olympic selection fade away…
“Smart drugs” and “steroids for the brain” are just two of the terms used to describe pills that students sometimes take in an attempt to improve their scholastic performance. The New York Times has recently…
This will be my seventh Olympics. There is huge amount of activity associated with the Olympic Games that is often not well known as it is peripheral to the Games but important to various interest groups…
Tourism and hospitality course closures have featured prominently in the recent announcements about redundancies flowing from the estimated $200 million of Victorian TAFE funding cuts. While the causes…
A global event for global sponsors and global media barons. All the rhetoric about the Olympic Games delivering a lasting and local legacy for the (socially disadvantaged) of London and the people of England…
Despite their good intentions, The Modern Olympics tend to polarise the general public. Like many other brands of their magnitude, people have become emotionally attached, or detached, to the Olympic brand…
The Olympics is arguably the greatest show of combined physical and mental prowess we’ll ever see. The Games challenge competitors and challenge the watching public to think about the achievements they’re…
For more than 50 years, sport scientists have used a variety of physical tests to try and identify those exceptional athletes who walk among us. Despite most countries having some sort of athlete talent…
A catchment threatened by salinity can’t be repaired by one or two landholders. Revegetation designed to lower watertables has its greatest ecological benefit where the plants are, but its net impact on…
One of the most controversial aspects of the Olympic Games is whether regular punters can get tickets to events. So can they? When the ticketing strategy for London’s Olympic Games was launched in 2011…
Results from the Chinese university entrance exam, the Gaokao, were released last week. For students, it’s the long culmination of years focusing on tests and learning by rote. Again and again, East Asian…
There is perhaps no greater sporting rivalry than that between Great Britain and Australia – it’s like the little brother trying to knock off his older sibling in any pursuit possible, simply for the glory…
Honorary Professor, School of Kinesiology, Western University, London, Canada; Adjunct Fellow, Olympic Scholar and Co-Director of the Olympic and Paralympic Research Centre, Institute for Health and Sport, Victoria University