In breaking news … the Australian Science Media Centre reports (via the platform formerly named Twitter) that “young people have been urged to wash their hands and follow food safety tips.”
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Duncan Bentley (Federation U VC) endorses what might be in the Universities Accord, unless he is lamenting in advance what isn’t. “The joint efforts by employers and education providers, with strong union support and government funding, are a vital step to incentivise a joined-up approach to skills and training,” he announced in an out of the blue statement, Tuesday. He pointed to the “significant number” of school leavers who do not train or study for a “career outcome” and warned the post-school binary system means Australia, “has failed to keep up.” However, he pointed to work by Commonwealth and state governments to reform voced, without mentioning universities, except dual-sector ones such as his own.
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So how’s the National Quantum Strategy going? Hard to tell, given funding agency, the Department of Industry, Science and Resources, is silent on spending. The strategy appears in the portfolio’s Additional Estimates Statement but payments for the program are “not for publication.”
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There are 21 new Cooperative Research Centre Projects (industry led collaborations with generally university researchers that have three years and $3m to meet a specific need). Some 15 universities, plus CSIRO and Monash IVF are members of projects – RMIT leads, participating in six. Recycling is a recurring theme – it’s an objective in 13.
Overall, the grants get $50m from the feds and nearly $80m from participants.
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The National Tertiary Education Union is pleased indeed with the government’s new industrial law. The lobby that represents university managements (ex most of the Group of Eight) not so much. There are multiple wins for the union (staff right to disconnect, pathways to continuing jobs for casuals) but the one that really cheers the comrades is what happens when the Fair Work Commission gets involved in stalled negotiations. The FWC cannot allow terms which undercut conditions in existing enterprise agreements, any conditions.
Wedded to your ale ration after longbow practice on the university green? It is as safe as hovels.
This strikes the Australian Higher Education Industrial Association as bad indeed, leaving in place work conditions “that are no longer fit for purpose.” AHEIA laments it will lead to “antiquated and unproductive provisions being retained to the detriment of staff and employers. Salaries are likely to be dampened without efficiencies and productivity offsets.” Unless, of course, it leads to union negotiators finding ways to use obsolete terms in old agreements as a way to bargain for more than they might otherwise have won for members.
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Shadow education minister Sarah Henderson warns against the bit in the Bill for Australian Research Council governance that gives the new board approval of research grants. “Without oversight from the minister, there is the risk wasteful or questionable projects, which may involve large travel or other inappropriate costs, will be funded without recourse. This shows how little Labor cares about safeguarding taxpayer funds.” So how big a risk? Senator Henderson also advises that, “of the many thousands of ARC research projects, the former Coalition government vetoed just 32.”
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There is a review of Commonwealth Government funding for the independent and unity based organisations that research and debate on national security. Prime Minister and Cabinet has appointed Uni Queensland Chancellor Peter Varghese to “advise on “value-for-money, administrative efficiency, and appropriate levels of governance, accountability, probity and transparency”. Mr Varghese knows of what he will review, being a former head of DFAT and the Office of National Assessments.
The 2023 Open Think Tank Directory report identified 63 Australian organisations overall. Optimists among them pointed to the areas they covered “being in alignment with the national agenda”. Pessimists feared changes in trade policies.
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Skills and Training Minister Brendan O’Connor tweets (sorry, X’s) that “dodgy providers in the vocational education and training sector are on notice. Our new integrity legislation is aimed at giving the VET regulator greater powers to go after the bottom feeders who exploit students and remove them from the sector.” Removing exploited students seems harsh.
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Days before Christmas, the National Health and Medical Research Council warned against using its funding for “the forced swim test” and smoke inhalation procedures” in research using rodents. There was no mention if anybody had been doing so, but there was a point to the admonition TWTW missed. It was revealed last week when the NSW Legislative Council passed a bill prohibiting both. It’s now to the lower house. Sponsor is Emma Hurst who represents the Animal Justice Party in the Council.
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There’s a pass mark granted by the Senate Committee inquiring into the Australian Research Council governance bill. However, it “sees some merit” in submissions, “that could improve the operation of the legislation” and suggests possible “clarification” in the Bill’s Explanatory Memorandum or perhaps amending it. The three meritorious issues are,
- allowing the new oversight board “some flexibility” on membership, “to ensure that it can draw on a board range of skills, experience and expertise”
- clarification of the relationship between CEO and board, including whether the former is an ex officio member of the latter
- the board be reviewed for its effectiveness at “an appropriate time”
However, the Opposition wasn’t happy, in particular at giving the board sign-off on grant funding, which, “suggests that the board, not the Minister or the Parliament, is more informed about our nation’s priorities than the elected Government.” The Bill does not suggest this – it does it – which is what the research establishment wanted, (although the minister retains veto power on grants involving national security and “international relations”).
The Greens are also exercised about this, but from the opposite direction, arguing the executive has too much authority over funding decisions. The party also thinks the ARC board and committees created by the bill, “should be democratically elected by researchers to better represent the interests of researchers.”
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Southern Cross U steps up for Lismore, again. The university will release 72 acres adjacent to its Lismore campus for housing development, sponsored by the NSW Government – there is no word on terms. SCU Lismore was a base for rescue and recovery during, and long after, 2022 floods.
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The Feds are insufficiently clued in on the characteristics and career pathways of the health and medical research workforce and want somebody to undertake an audit. The Department of Health and Aged Care also wants to know about “areas of national strengths and gaps in capacity and capability.” Apart from curiosity, there is a reason for this – “a number of past surveys and grant funding statistics point to job insecurity and attrition”. Concurrently, there is general call from the sector for support for researchers to be improved, particularly job security, training and career development/ pathways.”
Good-o, but why not ask the National Health and Medical Research Council, which people aggrieved about such as issues have been ticking-off for years.
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Griffith U has $6.3m from the Blackmore Family Foundation to fund a business school chair and three “leadership summits.”
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Just before Christmas, Education Minister Jason Clare pulled back original expansive ideas on the support universities must provide struggling students and the penalties for those that do not, as part of the abolition of the previous government’s 50 per cent pass rate for undergraduates. The pass rate is gone, but now it appears the government is not much interested in what universities are doing to support students. The new additional estimates statement for the Department of Education allocates $1.1m over four years to remove the 50 per cent from 1 January 2023 and “increase reporting on student outcomes.”
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The Times Higher reputation ranking is out. Uni Melbourne is first in Australia, as usual on all league tables, in the global 51-60 bracket. Uni Sydney follows (71-70) ahead of ANU and Monash U (81-90) and UNSW (126-150). It is based on “the world’s largest invitation-only opinion survey of senior, published academics.”
