Jason Clare was talking to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia yesterday, focusing on expanding numbers of students from disadvantaged backgrounds in HE and giving them the support they need for study. He referred to Manning Clark’s division of Australia into “straighteners and enlargers” adding that Labor is the latter. One thing the Government is certainly enlarging is government authority over university operations. Frank Larkins and Ian Marshman set out what ATEC will do in Future Campus on Monday.
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ainieFlinders U VC Colin Stirling appears to share not in the Hanrahaning about international ed being ruined before the year is out, by Minister Clare’s proposed caps on student numbers. Professor Stirling is on the board of IDP and has just bought on market $49,800 worth of shares in it.
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The National Tertiary Education Union and its pals in the papers are campaigning, again, against universities not paying staff what enterprise agreements specify. The comrades are calling for a Parliamentary Inquiry and Labor Senator for NSW Tony Sheldon tweets, “university executives need to be held accountable for this industrial-scale wage theft.” That will be the Tony Sheldon who chairs the Education and Employment Legislation Committee and is the deputy chair of the Education and Employment References Committee.
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Uni Melbourne’s research puff-sheet runs an extract from a new monograph on the history of the university’s interactions with Indigenous Australians. “Universities can change names without distancing themselves from troubling histories; removing a person’s name from a building need not mean the university severs its relationship with its past” is the core quoted. Can University of Naarm-Melbourne be far away? Across the ditch such is already the norm with Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland and Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington
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The Feds are recruiting for a new Chief Scientist. Incumbent Cathy Foley leaves at year end.
She was reappointed for 12 months, last December, at the end of her first three-year term. The advert emphasises that this is a job for somebody who understands Ministers and mandarins and “how to operate effectively within a public sector context.” However, after the huge achievement of entrepreneur Alan Finkle, who served two terms before Dr Foley, there appears to be a room for another of his ilk, with a reference to the career of the “ideal candidate, “spanning academia and industry.”
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Optimists of the Khan Academy kind announce AI can support teachers by providing intensive tutoring. Pessimists suggest the tech will take over. Not in California, though, if the State legislature has its way. A Bill is going to the Governor which specifies that in the community college system, “the instructor of record for a course of instruction shall be a person who meets the minimum qualifications to serve as a faculty member.” Note “person.”
Problem is, human tutors can’t work well without system support. The Victorian Auditor General’s Office reports on the State Government’s $1.2bn Tutor Learning Initiative, for small-group support in schools. VAGO found, “the initiative did not significantly improve students’ learning compared to similar non tutored students.” Apparently, the State DoE has the information it needs to improve performance but has not used it.
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Sculptor Andrew Rogers donates 31 works to Deakin U, adding to the 81 already in its collection.
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The gloom in Uni Tasmania’s newly-released 2023 Annual Report starts with the VC’s introduction. “In every corner of the planet, we are confronted by a growing ecological and climate crisis, rising inequality, and increasing instability. These challenges come at a time when we face the headwinds of an ageing population, slowing productivity growth, rising costs of living, and global tensions,” Rufus Black writes.
And that’s without the endless campaign by Hobart activists who now look closer to achieving their goal – blocking the University’s plan to sell off the Sandy Bay campus to fund an in-progress move to the CBD.
Unless the VC is informed by ordinary financials. The consolidated accounts report revenue down a bit ($10m) on 2022, but $100m down on 2021. Costs were up nearly $44m on 2021 to $770m with most of the increase due to a $28m increase in employee expenses. On “core activities,” the university’s financial “focus,” it lost nearly $54m last year, three-times the 2022 loss. The university is also nudging its State Government-set $400m borrowing limit with $356m in debt.
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Jason Clare’s office announced the new Australian Research Council board the other day – stating it “included” the people mentioned. So who do they want but are yet to sign?
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The long march to a med school continues at CQU with its existing “regional medical pathway” renewed for five years. It is a partnership with Uni Queensland and the local state hospital system, which consists of a three-year pre-med degree at CQU followed by a four year Uni Queensland med course. The whole program is offered at both Bundaberg and Rockhampton. The first starters move from CQU to Uni Queensland next year. It’s another stage in a process that then CQU VC Scott Bowman started in 2018 with a campaign for a med school in Rockhampton. CQU says half the current intake are locals who do not have to leave home to study medicine.
