In his recent speech to the National Press Club Glyn Davis, Vice-Chancellor of The University of Melbourne and Chair of Universities Australia, made it clear that from now on higher education in Australia…
The idea that universities should return to their “core business” of teaching and research has become a favourite mantra of vice chancellors. It is reinforced by increasing evaluations imposed by Canberra…
Can anyone recall why Monday 12 December 1983 was such a crucial date in Australian history? It was – of course – the day everything changed for the Australian economy. On that December morning the Australian…
This week’s statement by Group of Eight universities on the potential consequence of lifting the cap on places at university allowing more “low performing” students to enter courses reads like a cautionary…
The proportion of low performing school leavers who enter university is likely to rise sharply from this year, potentially causing a spike in drop-out rates and a slide in learning outcomes, the Group…
The take-up of “enabling” science subjects such as mathematics, chemistry and physics has fallen behind the overall increase in science enrolments at universities over the past decade, according to a report…
The numbers are numbing. India is home to 1.2 billion people (a seventh of the world’s population), of which 230 million are school students and 23 million are studying at higher education institutions…
Most forms of publishing across the globe are in a state of flux. But university-based scholarly publishing faces a set of challenges all of its own. How can an industry whose target audience is so highly…
A 4% increase in the latest round of offers at Australian universities will place overstretched teaching staff under more strain and lower the quality of education for ballooning student ranks, the higher…
The word “open” has grown educational wings over the past decade. From the British Open University, which enrolled its first students in 1971, the concept has expanded to mean various ways of relaxing…
Contrary to fears of falling enrolments in the sciences, the proportion of students taking science at Australian universities has been remarkably stable over the past half century: in 1962 16.4 per cent…
RMIT University’s School of Health Sciences has rejected the suggestion that it peddles pseudo-scientific quackery via its courses in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Acting head of the school…
A Melbourne University architecture graduate interested in sustainable development and reducing our reliance on fossil fuels has bagged a 2012 Australia at Large Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford. Angie Darby…
The Group of Eight alliance of universities that dominate research funding today appointed as its new chairman, Professor Fred Hilmer, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of New South Wales. Professor…
In 2012 a dozen Australian universities will trial a system of assessing the impact of their research on the world outside academia as a possible means of directing funding. The pilot scheme is being led…
Kim Carr has lost the research portfolio to Chris Evans in today’s cabinet shuffle announced by Prime Minister Julia Gillard. Evans will now be the Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Science and…
The Higher Education Base Funding Review’s blanket dismissal of all possible arguments supporting varying the level of government subsidies across disciplines, as happens now, is the “single weakest aspect…
The world is in a state of transition. The Indian and Chinese economies continue to grow at around 9 and 10 per cent respectively each year, while the North Atlantic economies - the 20th century epicentre…