“Without a dedicated commitment to space science, the long-term sustainability of Australia’s space activities is uncertain,” is the Academy of Science’s celestial insight. It explains all in a submission to the Australian Space Agency. Who would have thought.
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Management plans to cut staff costs are proceeding at ANU. There was a pause secured by the National Tertiary Education Union which listed, but then withdrew, a dispute in the Fair Work Commission. And so position restructures went ahead this week in three operating units;
Academic Portfolio: 46 continuing positions (six vacant) and five fixed term positions go. 19 continuing jobs are realigned and transferred. There are 14 new positions
Facilities and Services: seven continuing and eight vacant jobs are abolished. Two new jobs are created and six continuing staff are realigned
Research and Innovation: 23 continuing and four fixed term positions go, Six vacant continuing and one fixed term jobs are abolished. 14 continuing positions are realigned/ transferred. 13 jobs are moved from the College of Health and Medicine, which is being replaced by the new College of Science and Medicine.
As for the pioneering digital ANU Press: “a review will be urgently commissioned to deliver recommendations … regarding opportunities to reset the governance and operational model of the ANU Press and put it on a more sustainable and strategic footing going forward.”
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Uni Newcastle is pleased indeed with its new academic calendar, to launch in ’26. Two semesters stay, with a “longer flexible mid-year term” which can accommodate placements, extra subjects or “a break.” Management says it is impossible to make everybody happy but the new system “will be better for our students overall.”
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Breakthrough Victoria has $7.5m for fellowships, “designed to ignite research entrepreneurship across Victoria.” Apparently the best time to start a company is “during the PhD level” when “multiple PhDs collaborate on diverse research topics to uncover commercial possibilities.” Problem is, Victorian students aren’t aware of “entrepreneurship and pathways to create research spinouts.” So BV will provide $150,000 for start-ups to commercialise research by founders or “associated university professors.” Only students/ recent grads of Vic unis need apply.
Perhaps the State Government is hoping they will come up with ways that will grow the economy fast, real fast. According to the Parliamentary Budget Office, Victorian Government net debt has nearly doubled since 2021-22, to $160bn.
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Hark! Is that Jason Clare announcing he told us so? Jobs and Skills Australia reports employment growth in the year to August. It was up 155,000 (3.2%) for occupations requiring a Bachelor degree or higher and down 0.2% for jobs with no post-school quals.
Uni Canberra is down yet another Vice-Chancellor, with Stephen Parker losing confidence in council and leaving. The former Uni Canberra VC was brought in to repair the budget. He replaced the previous acting VC, Lucy Johnston who left in September. She had taken over from the last substantive VC, Paddy Nixon, who exited for unspecified personal reasons in December year. The new acting VC is Michelle Lincoln (DVC A) – she has to make it to February when the new VC arrives. That is departing NDIS Minister and former Labor Opposition Leader Bill Shorten.
In 69 CE Rome had four emperors, three lasting not long, before Vespasian took over to calm everything down. Just the job for Bill Augustus.
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Creator of HECS Bruce Chapman has explained how what is left of his original brilliant idea can continue. For a start, he considers making TAFE and university study fee free is unfair to taxpayers who don’t have the economic advantage that qualifications provide. Ditto the government’s election promise to wipe $80bn in existing study deb. But he praises the change to index study debt by whichever of the CPI and Wage Price Index is lower. Professor Chapman also joins what are less calls than a chorus to end the Job Ready Graduates fee mode, which next year will charge humanities students, (along with law and business) $50,000 for a degree .
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Science and Technology Australia proposes an R&D-driven recovery from our present parlous economic state, including an “Innovation Future Fund,” with capital coming from the 3% of GDP we need to support Research and Development.
There is a problem with this; future funds never pay a political dividend. There is $22bn in the Medical Research Future Fund, created less than a decade back, but what, lobbies ask, has the Government done for them lately.
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Labor Ministers insist on saying TAFE when they refer to vocational education and training. It might be working. The estimable National Centre for Vocational Education Research reports TAFE’s share of national publicly-funded enrolments was up 5.6%, to 54.5% while private providers were down 3.7% to around a third of the market. The balance is mainly in other not for profits.
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Curtin U opens a “fully fledged” campus in Colombo, adding health, AI and the humanities to existing engineering, computing and business courses offered in a local partnership. CU Colombo students will be able to “seamlessly” transfer to Curtin U campuses in Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, UAE, or Mauritius.
Unless the Coalition wins and decides to impose quotas on internal transfers.
There is no faulting Australian universities for optimism about Sri Lanka, just two years on from an economic crisis. Curtin U follows Edith Cowan U, which opened a Colombo campus in August. In June, Flinders U was also said to be close to an agreement.
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Staff satisfaction at the Australian Research Council is close to public service averages according to the 2024 APS census. Overall satisfaction is 69%, the same as 2023 which is 5% under the APS overall and seven% below the specialist agencies score.
However staff think the ARC is not for everybody. Just 55% would recommend working in it, compared to nearly 70% across all agencies. That may have to do with how the ARC is run. Just half the staff think internal communication is effective, under half agree they are consulted on change and 36% agree that change is well managed (11% below the system-wide score).
The National Health and Medical Research Council appears a better-run outfit, according to their staff, with satisfaction on, or better, the bulk of APS scores. However one bad one stands out; just 56% of staff agree the NHMRC does “a good job of promoting health and wellbeing” (10% below the service average).
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Zlatko Skrbis has been reappointed as ACU VC for a second term. The University Senate approved the new five-year term, commending Professor Skrbis for strengthening ACU’s Catholic mission and developing a vision based on flourishing.
