The Abbott government’s proposals for reform of the higher education sector have not found much favour with students, academics or the general public. They have, however, had a good deal of support from…
Tertiary education graduates across the OECD earn on average 70% more than the non-tertiary educated, meaning despite rising costs of higher education in Australia the investment is still worthwhile. The…
By international standards, British universities have extraordinarily high levels of autonomy. They control all of their assets, they employ their own staff, renew their own leadership and governors and…
For years the Australian Vice-Chancellors’ Committee - and then Universities Australia - warned higher education in Australia was moving inexorably towards a tipping point. Without substantial increases…
In all of the debate about the government’s plans for higher education, what people seem to worry about most is the prospect of ballooning student fees, with predictions of A$100,000 degrees or more. So…
Education Minister Christopher Pyne defied historical orthodoxy last week by declaring Gough Whitlam’s free tertiary education a failure. Free education only helped reinforce the place of the rich, Pyne…
Debate begins this week on the higher education bill introduced to parliament last week. If political bartering can result in some sort of compromise, there is potential for the higher education sector…
There’s a devil lurking in the detail of the higher education reform bill presented to parliament. As expected, the bill, introduced yesterday, proposes to open Commonwealth subsidies for undergraduate…
This morning the government revealed the details of the higher education reform package it is taking to parliament. As anticipated, the legislation closely mirrors the announcement on budget night. There…
International orientation weeks for new overseas students are looming for universities across the UK. At all our international airports you will soon see welcoming parties assembling to meet and greet…
A recent joint report by British Future and Universities UK has criticised the Coalition for imposing unnecessary limits on the numbers of foreign students allowed into the country. Its authors say government…
No. And with that, Clive Palmer indicated that the populist Palmer United Party (PUP) would not support the federal government’s proposed deregulation of the tertiary education system. At least in its…
The funding of higher education is a mess, and it is getting messier. New proposals on the table to allow universities to take on the debt burden of their own students could have profoundly worrying consequences…
The British government’s recent decision to suspend the licences of one university and 57 private further education colleges to sponsor international students has generated shockwaves across the sector…
David Cameron’s cabinet reshuffle has been substantial. Nowhere more so than in education, where both the secretary of state for education, Michael Gove, and the minister responsible for universities and…
Students should be given a lifetime loan allocation that they can use for different undergraduate and postgraduate courses, according to new proposals put forward by a group of universities. The University…
Imbalances in the share of growth across the regions continue to be deep-rooted, the Office of National Statistics has confirmed. By 2012, the South East was the only region that had only just crept ahead…
The federal budget proposal to uncap university fees could be taken as a blank chequebook for both universities and self-accrediting colleges offering higher education services. On the ABC’s 7.30 program…
I honestly don’t know the full range of opinion among Australian vice-chancellors about the recommendations in the recent Kemp-Norton Report on the Demand Driven System. I know the opinions of some, who…
The raising of the cap on tuition fees charged by universities in England to £9,000 per year in 2012 does not currently look like it will save the government much money – but it has led to a substantial…