Leaf through the 2023 Code of Conduct for Australia’s oldest university college and you get the sense that it is an institution having to really work hard to try to shed unwanted baggage.
The College has again hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons, with six students expelled and 21 suspended due to bullying.
No strangers to controversy, the Paulines, as inmates at the august institution are called, attracted headlines for exhibiting overt racism in 2012 for an ‘end of the British raj’ themed-party with featuring Asian and Indian waiters serving guests and was forced into leadership changes and reform in 2017-18, prompting a review by Elizabeth Broderick which exposed a problematic drinking culture, sexual harassment and ritualised hazing exposed.
In a statement to media, St Paul’s highlighted that all students were already required to undergo anti-bullying and harassment training and that training would now be reviewed.
“The College has been shocked and deeply disappointed that some of our students engaged in serious bullying of another student within their friendship group. This behaviour is contrary to our values and standards. Our response, upon learning of this and conducting a thorough investigation, has been to expel the perpetrators and suspend the bystanders who failed to intervene.” College Warden Ed Loane said in a statement.
The Code of Conduct is certainly worthy reading for anyone thinking of signing their child up to be a Pauline, specifying 24 unacceptable behaviour types, including advice that : “Participation in Welcome Week or any College or Students’ Club or other festivities or events shall involve no “trial by ordeal” or obligatory participation in or inducement to participate in initiations, drinking games; hissing is demeaning and offensive; (students are prohibited from) demeaning or degrading chants, songs, heckling, banners … publicly-observable urination, sex or nudity …” and the list goes on. That so many behaviours have to be specifically named as socially and culturally unacceptable simply hints at the litany of disgraceful student behaviours allowed to fester for decades.
Images shared on X appearing to show male student politicians ripping up the 2018 Red Zone report documenting past incidents of rape and harassment on campus at a meeting to elect the University’s Student Representative Council this week serve only to reinforce the perception of widespread cultural issues that are yet to be effectively addressed.
Given Education Minister Jason Clare’s advocacy for more university residences, avoiding major scandals in the nation’s elite rooming houses would be preferable for his plans, particularly when they cost at least $34k per year. Perhaps a little more than a brush up of the mandatory training module may be in order. Mr Clare did chime in express his disgust at the incident and suggest the National Student Ombudsman’s powers could include regulation of colleges when it starts work next year.
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The courses that students have chosen as their first preference tend to change relatively little year-to-year, but when you are examining the first preferences of 64,500 early bird applicants to UAC, even a small movement can mean a big change for some disciplines.
IT stands out this year – despite the perennial advance of technology, IT courses have declined from 4.7% of students in 2023 to 4% this year – one fifth of the number choosing to study society & culture. Health remains the discipline leader, attracting just over one out of every four first preferences and management and commerce has earned a respectable bounce in popularity from 12.3% to 13.4%.
Gender still is a strong determinant of course choice, with female applicants far more likely to choose health or society & culture, while male applicants are still far more likely in IT, Engineering and Management & Commerce. Almost 57% of Year 12 applicants were female.
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Here’s an industry partnership that gets a gold star for relevance and simplicity. Netflix has teamed up with NIDA to offer five places in the “Hair and Make-Up for Screen” short course to First Nations people or People of Colour.
This is really cheap publicity for the Streaming Giant, and detractors would suggest that a free one week course doth not a career opening make, but it includes travel and accommodation support for applicants from outside of Sydney and is a really important statement about the need – and desire – to support greater diversity on and off screen.
It’s a nice example to other institutions to sometimes start with simple – with the aim to build short course philanthropy smack in the wheelhouse of industry interests into a longer game.
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University of Southern Queensland VC Geraldine Mackenzie has decided to add herself to the exit queue from Toowoomba, electing to retire following a vote of no confidence from union members.
Professor Mackenzie said she had been planning her retirement for some time and was looking forward to spending more time with her family.
The University faces a deficit of $32 million and the NTEU claims 60 jobs have already been culled, prior to Professor Mackenzie’s departure. The University’s Provost, Professor Karen Nelson, will act as Vice-Chancellor while the Uni SQ Council undertake a search.
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Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus and Education Minister Jason Clare have referred antisemitism at Australian universities to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights.
The inquiry will work alongside the Human Rights Commission, the Special Envoys to combat antisemitism and islamophobia and will set the scene for the National Student Ombudsman.
The inquiry adds to Government pressure on campuses and will help it to build a narrative that governance and management of higher education is failing and requires a government overhaul.
The inquiry is interesting in its scope – no requirement to look at what is going on in VET and no time spent looking at all other groups subject to discrimination. The decision by masked student activists video themselves occupying the office of University of Melbourne physics researcher Professor Steven Prawer last month caused widespread alarm and may have been one of last straws leading to the inquiry.
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And a Happy Diwali to all our readers. As Flinders Dean of Research and global ambassador for engagement and inclusion Raj Shekhawat observed this week, celebrating the festival of lights with the 976,000 Australians of Indian heritage is a simple step towards celebrating and engaging with the diversity in our community. It’s no doubt also a useful step forward in recognising the value of international students and staff in our community as the sector reckons with the challenge of talking less of self and more of those we purport to serve.
