“Shock and Ore” the Australian Academy of Science promotes lecture by Stephen Cox (ANU) on connections between earthquakes and ore deposits. Young people ask a passing oldster who remembers Gulf War Two. GW2? Well in 2001, oh, never mind.
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Education Minister Jason Clare is not waiting on Parliamentary approval to cap international student numbers, saying Wednesday that providers will get the detail “in the coming week,” FC suspects thiswill be after Tuesday, when the Senate Committee inquiring into the caps Bill hears evidence.
A flat-out no from the Senate is a risk, but not one that appears to worry the Minister. Certainly the Committee could recommend amendments but on the principle of caps, Mr Clare must think he has the numbers in the Upper House.
He is more than likely right. However crossbenchers and Greens vote, the Coalition will likely point to flaws in the bill but back its intent. If they don’t, the Government will announce, loud and long, that the Opposition is soft on immigration rorts. New skills minister Andrew Giles tested lines the other day when announcing “ghost colleges” in VET, were being shut down. “The Albanese Government is calling time on the rorts and loopholes that have plagued the VET sector for far too long under the former Liberal and National Government,” he said. That this has nothing to do with universities is a point the government guesses voters worried about immigrants pretending to be students will not notice. Especially if they are told about YTD May international commencements, up 30 per cent on ’23.
And for all the deploreagrams from university lobbies, it looks like the realists know it. On Wednesday, Mr Clare argued that caps are a better way to regulate international numbers than the present Ministerial Directive 107 which restricts numbers through visa delays and denials. Peak lobby Universities Australia was quick to announce that the end of 107 is “non-negotiable” but made no mention of caps, which looked to FC like a whiteflag.
The campaign against caps appears to have failed.
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Industry and Science Minister Ed Husic promotes STEM with small additional sums, at least compared to his $!bn investment on a quantum computer for Australia. Women in STEM and Entrepreneurship Grants gets $8.5m, “to fund long-term projects.” Science in Australia Gender Equity has $7.1m for an expanded accreditation framework. Superstars of STEM scores $3.8m “to continue making diverse role models visible in the media.” And there is $2m more for The Girls in STEM Toolkit, “to inspire more diverse young people of all ages in school to study STEM and choose STEM careers.”
For anybody wondering why there is no new dosh for the Women in STEM Ambassador, the office was abolished in June following a review which called for “targeted changes to the government’s suite of women in STEM programs.”
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The Senate has sent Jason Clare’s latest Accord Bill to the Standing Committee on Education and Employment. The Bill caps student loan indexation at the lower of the CPI or the Wage Price Index, honours the Budget commitment to provide prac placement support for nursing, teaching and social work students and funds no-fee university prep courses. So what will the Coalition do, other than harrumph (the KPI for all Oppositions)? One practical question Shadow Education Minister Sarah Henderson will undoubtedly ask is when will people get paid back for indexation tied to CPI. ”After months of delays, Education Minister Jason Clare has sold out 3 million Australians by failing to provide any certainty as to when refunds will be delivered,” she says. The government’s FAQs state that when the legislation passes, the Australian Tax Office will automatically apply the indexation credit.
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Peak voced body Jobs and Skills Australia wants a new national skills taxonomy and sets out the issues in a complex discussion paper. Universities Australia responds in kind, demonstrating that both policy teams should never collaborate on Ikea instructions, they would need 1000 pages on how to assemble a chair. But UA does make a point worth stating simply – the need to fix the Australian Qualifications Framework to underpin skills. It remains as it was when the late Peter Noonan and colleagues drafted a restructure in 2019. There is widespread agreement it needs fixing, but that is as far as change gets.
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TEQSA wants it known it has long been on to bodgy international enrolments. Its submission to the Senate inquiry into the government’s bill to cap numbers sets out how it warned providers in November ’22 that they had to ensure international students are genuine. In March ’23 it warned other agencies that there was “poaching” between providers.
Plus it is already imposing caps of its own, “limiting the number of overseas students certain providers are allowed to recruit and admit.” Perhaps Jason Clare could outsource his new caps, although given the Department of Education is grasping any jobs going, probably not.
The agency adds that while it is “committed” to supporting the Government in protecting the integrity of HE, “any additions to TEQSA’s regulatory function will require commensurate resources.”
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Newish Monash U VC Sharon Pickering announces a new student services structure. “To ensure we remain modern in our student experience, and robust in our compliance we need to move in line with our students’ expectations,” she says
DVC E Allie Clements gets a “centre of expertise” handling student conduct and complaints and “regulatory activities.” Plus there will be a Registrar, “to lead and strengthen compliance-driven student functions in line with increasing obligations.” FC thinks she means the Student Ombudsman announced by Education Minister Jason Clare and the proposed Department of Education unit to monitor gender violence on campus. Sarah McDonald is promoted to DVC Student Experience, consolidating functions now across the administration. The Indigenous portfolio is expanded, led by another new DVC, Tristan Kennedy.
The university also appears to respond to Mr Clare’s push to increase low SES student numbers, announcing it is expanding/extending five access programs.
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After a 2022 pilot, the VESKI (that’s the Victorian Endowment for Science, Knowledge and Innovation) announces a “near miss” fund for 13 early and mid-career medical researchers who nearly, but not quite, won National Health and Medical Research Council “emerging leader” Investigator Grants. There’s $72,000 via VESKI, with matching money from employers. The WA Government has had a similar scheme for years as do some individual universities, including Flinders U.
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The High Court has dismissed an appeal by a voced provider which used the former VET FEE-HELP scheme. Captain Cook College appealed the Federal Court ruling that it engaged in systemic unconscionable conduct by ending consumer safeguards in its enrolments and withdrawal systems. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission brought the case, alleging the College enrolled people in courses they were unlikely to complete but would incur study debt.
Another outcome from the now distant VET FEE-HELP policy disaster.
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Submissions close today to the Senate Committee of inquiry into a Liberal Party Bill for an inquiry into antisemitism on university campuses but as of yesterday Deakin U was the only university with a listed submission. “We condemn antisemitism, islamophobia and all other forms of racism and bigotry, whether in a university setting or beyond,” is the message in a straight-bat statement that sets out policies. As to antisemitic behaviour this year, there have been “a small number of allegations in 2024 of student misconduct and/or student complaints relating to perceived antisemitism. All complainants receive information on support services; where the respondent is a student, appropriate action has been taken under Deakin’s Student Misconduct procedure.“
But where are the submissions from universities, the unis of Melbourne and Sydney, for example where there is way more campus tension over Gaza? Perhaps they will turn up today.
