FUTURE OF HIGHER EDUCATION: The rise of online and blended learning and the development of free online courses is set to transform the higher education sector. We’ve asked our authors how to remake the…
Squeezing a thesis into three minutes sounds impossible. But it’s an important skill to learn.
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Imagine condensing a thesis – which would normally take nine hours to read aloud – into a presentation just three minutes long. Today at the Australian and Trans-Tasman Three Minute Thesis competition…
Using technology to tackle plagiarism is important, but universities need to understand why students do it in the first place.
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Trying to control and prevent plagiarism is a problem for all universities, and nearly all universities these days use some kind of technology to combat it. But in a recent article on The Conversation…
Ranking universities is useful for only understanding the bigger picture.
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The release of The Times Higher Education World University Rankings will be welcomed by many people in the Australian university sector. See the full list of The Times Higher Education World University…
Ah, excuse me, I’d like my money back.
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Would you like to go to a university where “free thinkers from all over the world come together to make a difference” or, if you like getting to know people, you could go to a university where you can…
La Trobe’s Vice-Chancellor John Dewar defends his cuts to the humanities program.
ABC News
On Sunday, La Trobe University held its most successful Open Day ever, with more than 19,000 visitors. But the day was disrupted by student protests against recently announced changes to our Faculty of…
The pressure on academics is becoming too much, there needs to be cultural change.
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The pressure is on. More and more universities and academics are working in a culture that is untenable and cracks in the ivory tower have already begun to appear. The work environment is now characterised…
By deliberately making false historical sources, students can learn to think more critically.
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What happens when you teach students how to lie? Answer: they become better historians. More than a decade ago, back in the days of Web 0.5, a student of mine submitted a generally well-written essay on…
The rise of open online courses will affect almost every part of higher education, including the international student market in Australia.
AAP Image/Julian Smith
Mass Open Online Courseware (MOOCs) is less than a year old but it is already clear this will be the game changer in higher education worldwide. Right now it is reverberating through Australian universities…
According to new rankings, Australia now has more elite universities.
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More Australian universities are now in the top 100 ranked universities in the world, according to the Academic Ranking of World Universities released today. Five Australian universities – University of…
Education minister Peter Garrett along with his state counterparts have agreed upon some pretty big changes to teacher development.
AAP Image/Alan Porritt
Finally, perhaps the time has come. The Australian Charter for the Professional Learning of Teachers and School Leaders and the Australian Teacher Performance and Development Framework, both signed off…
Art history is falling out of favour with universities but why? We need to look at the reasons behind this change.
AAP Image/Warren Clarke
The impending closure of art history at La Trobe University has drawn sharp criticism from academics. They have pointed out that students enjoy art history: it is economical, has enduring value and demonstrably…
UNSW Vice-Chancellor Fred Hilmer at the National Press Club in Canberra.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Universities must adopt the campaign tactics of the mining industry if they are to have any chance against oppressive government regulation and fee structures, says the University of New South Wales Vice-Chancellor…
Universities sell more than just lectures and lessons.
Flickr/Butler University
When some of the world’s most prestigious universities – including Harvard and MIT in their edX venture or Stanford and Princeton through Coursera – start putting courses online for free, it tells you…
Overcrowded Australian universities must find a way to promote small-group learning if they are to revive education standards, says the incoming vice-chancellor at the University of Adelaide. In his inaugural…
Much like the development of the railway in the 19th century, the National Broadband Network (NBN) will transform our society.
Wikimedia Commons
When I grew up in Canada there was a famous painting on the wall of nearly every primary school classroom. It was called “[The Last Spike](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Spike_(Canadian_Pacific_Railway…
Entire universities may one day fit in students’ pockets.
KidzConnect
More than 1,000 years of formal university learning and teaching does not change quickly, or without a struggle. But we are starting to see some key tech trends engaging staff and students – and therein…
Students from the next generation are heading to university, how should we teach them?
Flickr/iwouldstay
Narcissistic, lazy, and overly confident – this is the way some see the new generation of young people starting to go to our universities. According to teacher Lynn Van Der Wagan, who sparked an online…
Future students need more than rankings to make the best choice.
AAP Image/Julian Smith
Australian universities compete with providers all over the globe. The stakes are high and it is hard to ignore world rankings. In The Conversation recently, however, University of Southern Queensland’s…
The global movement towards open access publishing has taken another step with the release of the Finch report.
Flickr/liikennevalo
A committee convened to examine how UK-funded research could be made more accessible released its report this week. The committee, chaired by Dame Janet Finch, was set up last year by Minister for Universities…