The legacy of capping funding for universities will be a less skilled future workforce, and an Australian youth that miss out on the educational opportunities available to their parents.
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Discontinuing the demand driven system will mean less people are able to get a higher education, particularly groups of people who are already at a disadvantage.
Financial stresses and the mental wellbeing of students play leading roles in rates of attrition.
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Much of the research on attrition focuses on the first year of university, but little is known about why people drop out later in their studies. A recent study looked at some factors.
Academics who are closely aligned to professional practices in health professions, engineering, teaching and social work also value work integrated learning highly.
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Work Integrated Learning includes placements, internships and work experience. It is increasing as students are expected to be more work-ready and to contribute to the economy post-graduation.
There are now several new gate-keeping measures to test teacher quality introduced by universities in the last two to three years.
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With HELP debt likely to increase to A$75 billion in 2020, research from the US shows offering students financial literacy courses may be a gentler way to combat student debt.
Kenyan public university lecturers protest low pay and poor working conditions in Nairobi.
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Staff wages are a huge challenge facing the survival of Kenya’s public universities, but strikes are another.
Barney Williams Jr., a residential school survivor, hugs Santa Ono, president of the University of British Columbia, during the opening of the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre at Vancouver, on April 9.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ben Nelms
The role of universities in the shameful Indian residential school system needs to be addressed. The president of one of Canada’s leading universities explains why it’s time to apologize.
Students and lecturers at the University of Queensland researching ‘students as partners’ activities across Australian universities.
The University of Queensland
When higher education is thought of as a commodity, students and teachers lose out. A new partnership-based approach can provide a much richer learning experience.
Through their commitments to, and dependence on, professional education and multidisciplinary research, universities have skin in the epistemic game.
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It’s time to (do more than) talk about knowledge. Universities must take leadership in helping develop students capacity to recognise different kinds of knowledge and work flexibly.
Ethical review is often seen as a barrier to research and innovation within universities, but it can be constructive. More attention should be paid to the potential benefits of the process.
Men ask more questions then women in academic conferences and are more visible. Roads Academy Masterclass, Warwick University, November 2010.
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Academia is not immune to gender bias. One way to see this in action is to observe who asks questions during conferences – and men appear to ask more than women.
China’s Xi and Trump look on as U.S. and Chinese business leaders sign trade deals.
Reuters/Jonathan Ernst
The gender pay gap at Canadian universities cannot be explained away as the holdover from discrimination of long ago. It’s high time universities valued male and female professors equally.
The US has charged and sanctioned nine Iranians and an Iranian company for cyber attacks.
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The international community should set bright line rules on appropriate responses to cyber attacks before an expansive reading of the “self-defense” clause triggers war.
Despite the Federal Government’s teacher education reforms and the push for evidence-based teaching, less than 2% of ARC research funding is directed to educational research.
Australian military personnel during a counter-terrorism training exercise in 2014.
Dave Hunt/AAP
Research partnerships between Australian universities, the Department of Defence and weapons manufacturers may not be ethically justifiable.
Universities under serious financial and enrolment pressure that cannot negotiate the time to build their way out of their difficulties may have to resort to being ‘merged’ or taken over.
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Despite serious financial and enrolment pressure for some, our universities are unlikely to close their doors – but some may have to resort to being ‘merged’ or taken over by a stronger partner.
When paperwork, forms and bureaucracy start to dominate, universities suffer.
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