Chief Scientist Ian Chubb’s Health of Australian Science report, launched today at the National Press Club, starts on an optimistic note. Australian science is generally in good health: school students…
Serious, interconnected risks are closing in on the globalised community, from climate change to anarchy. Are we heeding the warnings?
AAP/EPA/Daniel Deme
In that world of peripheral vision, essential for business, social and political leaders, it is surprising that the World Economic Forum’s report, Global Risks 2012 has not received greater publicity or…
Australian higher education achieves a high output with fewer resources.
EPA/Jorge Ferrari
Australia is ranked eighth out of 48 countries in a new global measure of higher education - behind the US, Canada and Scandanavian countries, but ahead of Britain, France and Germany. The Universitas…
A British sense of superiority: Australia shows little interest in the Asia, despite its rapid rise.
EPA/Made Nagi
There will be no more important piece of policy making this year than the White Paper on “Australia in the Asian Century” led by Ken Henry. It is a rare case of long-term thinking in government, of policy…
The ongoing decline in international students is placing Australian universities under financial pressure.
AAP/Julian Smith
Anxiety gave way to relief across universities last night after Labor handed down a higher education budget that maintained indexation and delivered a $120 million increase to the overall research budget…
“And then there’s this…” Will there be any surprises in store for this year’s budget?
AAP
Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan will be busy tonight handing down the Federal Budget with all the policy settings we’ll need to ensure Australia’s future prosperity (and not simply as a re-election platform…
Let’s be clear, anything that demystifies the complex processes of choosing and enrolling in tertiary education is a good thing. With this in mind, the Federal Government today launched the My University…
Forensic police examine the scene where Roberto Laudisio Curt died.
AAP/Paul Millar
Sadly the issue of international student security in Australia has never been far from a headline over the past few years. Many remember well the spate of attacks on Indian students in Melbourne, which…
The humanities could be dwarfed in a deregulated university marketplace.
Shoes on Wires
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…
Bureaucracy is stymieing academic engagement.
StripeyAnne
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…
The University of Western Sydney has a proud history. Now it must compete on the market.
Colt Group
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…
Elite universities need not fear students with an ATAR lower than 70.
jkim.ca
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…
As university offers increase, the proportion of lower performing school leavers who take them will rise sharply.
Flickr/Barack Obama
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…
Scientists are concerned about dampening enthusiasm for mathematics, physics and chemistry on campuses.
Flickr/Integrated Laboratory Network
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…
India says it needs help to educate the ballooning middle class in its population of 1.2 billion.
Flickr/reinholdbehringer
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…
Traditional publishing methods could soon be a thing of the past.
Unhindered by talent
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…
Campus life is going to get more crowded in coming years.
Flickr/University of Saskatchewan
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…
What does it mean to be truly open?
D Sharon Pruitt
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…
Associate Professor of Philanthropic Studies and Donald A. Campbell Chair in Fundraising Leadership, Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, Indiana University