Victoria University has a clear mandate to undertake research with impact, ensuring that its outcomes benefit people, place and planet. There is no doubt that in research VU is strong, both thematically and pragmatically. For more than 100 years, Victoria University (VU) has offered accessible education to students in Melbourne’s west and beyond.
Victorian parents will have a total of 72 days of free absences from childcare, if services agree to waive the gap fee. And childcare services will receive 25% of their revenue from the government.
Most children can no longer attend childcare in Melbourne. Parents have to look after them if they’re working themselves, while the sector faces collapse if the government doesn’t step in.
Victoria recorded 484 new cases on a day when COVID-19 should have been firmly on the decline if the latest lockdown was working. It’s time to contemplate even stricter measures for longer-term gain.
At the margin, more compulsory super will mean less equity in homes and more borrowing for homes. Australia already has one of the world’s highest household debt ratios.
The government should increase the childcare subsidy for families on low to medium incomes — either temporarily or permanently. This would involve increasing the highest subsidy rate from 85% to 95%.
Melbourne isn’t the only place suffering under a second lockdown. It’s happening across the world as the virus surges in countries that were initially successful in flattening the curve.
The education minister has outlined reforms to higher education funding aimed at producing ‘job ready graduates’. But his announcements don’t seem completely in line with the data.
A Mitchell Institute report has estimated the proportion of international students in various Australian suburbs, and how much they contribute to the local economy.
Governments must ensure access to preschool for all children, many of whom will have had their learning and development affected by COVID-19. It will help children recover, as well as the economy.
The government’s emergency relief package for childcare centres has kept many from collapsing financially due to COVID-19. The transition to other arrangements must be slow and carefully managed.
Snowy 2.0 has been a lightning rod for controversy. From cost-blowouts to climate impacts and threats to native fish, experts say there are many reasons why it should be put on hold.
The evidence on whether wearing masks and gloves in the community will actually protect against coronavirus isn’t strong. But if you’re going to take these precautions, you might as well do it right.
The federal government is trying to entice independent schools to open by offering them advance payments. But do they have powers beyond enticement with which they could control state schools?
The objects we gather around us - from op shops, from roadsides, from the intimate spaces of lost loved ones - are far from inanimate. They carry wisdom, comfort and guidance.
Even before COVID-19, use of the ATAR for university entry was contentious. Now it’s even more so, and universities need to rely on other ways to admit students.
Research Fellow, Institute for Health & Sport, member of the Community, Identity and Displacement Research Network, and Co-convenor of the Olympic Research Network, Victoria University