Deakin University was established in 1974 and combines a university’s traditional focus on excellent teaching and research with a desire to seek new ways of developing and delivering courses.
The number of Australians who were homeless on census night increased by 17% to 105,237 in the five years to August 2011. When adjusted for population growth, the increase the increase is still worryingly…
Legal services in partnership with health-care providers can have a significant impact on the health of disadvantaged people.
Secom Bahia
Medical-legal partnerships have broken down the barriers to accessible legal services for people experiencing health issues in the United States. Such programs demonstrate the health benefits of effective…
Gaza under Israeli Defense Forces fire as seen from the Israeli town of Sderot, which itself is the victim of rocket attacks from its Palestinian neighbour.
EPA/EDI Israel
The hostilities between Israel and Hamas this week are just another sad exchange of munitions of no benefit for anyone, least of all the impoverished residents of Gaza. Rockets go one way, Hellfire missiles…
Iranian students demonstrate in Tehran to mark the 33rd anniversary of US Embassy takeover.
EPA/Abedin Taherkenareh
The re-election of Barack Obama to a second term will have significant ramifications for an America struggling with economic and social difficulties. But will it have the same impact on residents of the…
A recent case has meant some reform of Special Religious Instruction in Victoria, but there’s more to be done.
Religious instruction image from www.shutterstock.com
Last month, a Victorian tribunal found that the state department of education did not discriminate against children opting out of Special Religious Instruction (SRI) classes. The plaintiffs – parents who…
Fewer than 1% of people surveyed had experienced corruption directly in the last five years but perception of graft remains high.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25716145@N03/
The media, trade unions and political parties are seen as Australia’s most corrupt institutions but fewer than 1% of people have had recent direct experience of graft, a new poll shows. The survey, titled…
Depression isn’t an inevitable part of ageing.
Elderly man image from Shutterstock.com
As the baby boomers approach older age, the number of Australians aged over 65 is projected to rise from around 14% to 24% by 2056. Given that not even a massive influx of immigrants would reverse this…
The Kihansi Spray Toad has returned home.
Tim Herman
A rare toad from Tanzania declared “extinct in the wild” three years ago has been restored to its original habitat. This is the first time an amphibian species has been returned home after being classified…
The NSW Auditor-General has revealed discrepancies totalling $1 billion in Barry O'Farrell’s coalition June budget.
New South Wales taxpayers could well be wondering whether the news that the state’s finances are in surplus - rather than deficit - is good news or bad. The state’s Auditor-General Peter Achterstaat has…
Some young people aren’t as disinterested in others in politics. Why is that?
Flickr/Adam Scotti
History will be made when Scots vote in October 2014 on whether their country should take independence from the United Kingdom. This has nothing to do with the outcome of the vote: the very fact that 16…
Doping allegations were made against Matt White before he started working for Cycling Australia.
AAP
It has become clear over the past two weeks that Lance Armstrong ran the most well-managed and professional doping system ever seen in professional sport. So how did he get away with it for so long? Questions…
Roger Corbett told shareholders at today’s AGM that Fairfax Media was in good stead for the future, despite the price of the company’s stock falling by half its value since the beginning of the year.
AAP
The Fairfax Media AGM took place in Melbourne today against a backdrop of financial meltdown in the company’s fortunes. The share price — currently at 38 cents — has halved since the beginning of the year…
Barack Obama and Mitt Romney finally discussed the war in Afghanistan during the third debate on US foreign affairs.
EPA/Michael Reynolds
For a war that has gone on for more than a decade, cost the American taxpayer some US$500 billion, claimed the lives of more than two thousand GIs and inflicted many more thousands of wounded, the conflict…
Tertiary Education Minister Chris Evans said online learning offered enormous potential.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs, represent an opportunity for students and universities, tertiary education minister Chris Evans said today. Speaking at a symposium on the future of higher education…
Detox diets may do little harm, except to your bank balance, but neither do they do a lot of good.
katstan
Detox diets make amazing promises of dramatic weight loss and more energy – all achieved by flushing toxins from the body. Toxins have very little to do with it; detox diets “work” because of the very…
Treasurer Wayne Swan’s Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook reveals the government’s commitment to deliver a budget surplus for 2012-13.
AAP
Sunanda Creagh, The Conversation and Gillian Terzis, The Conversation
The Federal Government will make around $16.4 billion in new savings over the forward estimates to keep the budget in surplus despite a decline in revenue, according to documents released today. Treasurer…
Tertiary Education Minister Chris Evans says it’s a “ridiculous proposition” to suggest funding freezes are driving research overseas.
AAP
The Federal Government’s freeze on research grants is damaging investment and recruitment by universities, and is part of a broader trend making funding predictability a thing of the past says Universities…
With online learning, teachers no longer have to be everywhere all the time says online learning start-up OpenLearning.
Ingo Bernhardt
A start-up that enables universities to offer massive open online courses (MOOCs) has opened for business, signing on more than 1,000 students to a 12-week computer science and engineering course from…
Tents at Nauru that await asylum seekers as their claims are processed.
AAP/Department of Immigration and Citizenship
The High Court’s decision in the M47 case is likely to be a pyrrhic victory for refugee rights. Last week the High Court ruled that the regulation that allowed the Commonwealth to deny a visa to a refugee…
Most Australian newsrooms have a blokey culture argues Louise North.
Andy Piper
Australia’s media sector refuses to acknowledge there is a sexism in newsrooms, despite female journalists experiencing sexual harassment at a rate more than twice that of the general workforce, says Monash…