RMIT has a new student recruitment campaign, of the “our degrees will help you change the world” genre. Examples are presented in rhyme, including; “research world problems across global borders/designing shoes for those with neurological disorders.” Perhaps Lyn-Manuel Miranda was busy.
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University applications from NSW school leavers (41,000) are marginally up on last year but still trail the 2015-16 peak, of 44,700. The results are in new figures released by the NSW/ACT Universities Admission Centre.
Health and “society and culture” courses had 21% each of first preferences, ahead of management (15%), engineering (10%) and sciences (also 10%).
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Lobbies are upset by the US Government sending Australian researchers working on projects it funds a questionnaire about compliance with its policies. The National Tertiary Education Union wants our government to “reject” this “attempt to interfere in Australian research.” That’s easily fixed by withdrawing from US funded projects – then the NTEU can complain about job losses. The Group of Eight takes the opportunity to argue (again) Australia should be an associate member of the EU’s Horizon Europe research partnership. The Commonwealth has previously declined to act on the Go8’s instruction.
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Australian Catholic U has funding from Breakthrough Victoria, the state government’s startup fund. Apparently, the money will create opportunities for ACU people, “to hone their entrepreneurial skills, helping turn their world-leading research into viable commercial ventures.” The $14m in the kitty should fund quite a bit of honing.
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International students like it here, demonstrated by new PRISM numbers. As of end February, there were 707,000 student visa holders in the county, down less than 1% over 12 months.
But there are nowhere near as many new ones in the pipeline. 261,000 visa applications were lodged July-February, down 30% on the same period in the previous year.
Of 314,000 visa applications finalised 247,000 were granted. The grant for applications lodged in Australia was 75%, 15% down year-on-year, But off-shore approved applications increased by 10 %, to 87%.
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The Feds have heard grumblings from the national research infrastructure sector about the way workers are jammed into HEW classifications created when “alchemist” was a university job description. They are asking for responses to a three component plan for the NRI workforce;
- an Academy for Collaborative Research Infrastructure: “to act as the principal voice of the RI workforce in Australia
- “ the technician commitment,” “a conduit for organisations to share mentoring platforms, professional development pathways and highlight outstanding technicians.”
- ways to create an NRI Fellowship Scheme, “time for staff to develop new capabilities “
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Many submissions to the Senate committee inquiry on university governance warn that institutions are corporatised, commercialised and overall, things ain’t what they used to be. But submissions from people wily in the ways of governance recognise a Minister could use the Committee’s report to expand TEQSA’s remit. The Agency itself submits new powers it would like.
Which may be why QUT explains the agency already has ample authority, “with the power to investigate, procure documentation, make reports and recommendations, issue civil penalties, withhold accreditation or registration, issue warning letters, seek statements of compliance, and compel enforceable undertakings from providers.”
When they put it like that …
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The Australian Bureau of Statistics does the international enrolments lobby no favours with stats on purpose-built student accommodation, which are growing, but not enormous. The ABS reports approvals for new rooms more than doubled between 2021-22 and 2023-24, from 1,650 to 5,178. Not numbers to placate critics who think, albeit erroneously, that housing shortages are the fault of foreign students.
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Jobs and Skills Australia reports bad news in its new internet vacancy index that is not too terrible. Over the year to February, on-line job advertisements were down 15%, but there were still 20% more than in 2019. The biggest decline by skill level was 16.1% for jobs requiring a bachelor degree or better, the lowest was 12% for jobs that need secondary schooling.
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Victoria U introduced its block teaching model in 2017 and now VU’s John Weldon and Loretta Konjarski have a book on how to do it. It was, is, a big achievement and it should be shared with all interested. But it won’t be, Block Teaching Essentials: a practical guide, is published by Springer (part of the for-profit Nature group). Without a library subscription it’s yours as an e-book for $A125.
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In the home of the Brave and the land of the Free, Congressman Riley Moore (R, West Va) introduces a Bill to the House of Reps to ban visas for Chinese students. “Every year we allow nearly 300,000 Chinese nationals to come to the U.S. on student visas. We have literally invited the CCP to spy on our military, steal our intellectual property, and threaten national security.” Apparently last year the FBI charged five Chinese nationals on student visas for photographing military exercises. As many as that! It’s a natural for Coalition candidates here campaigning for quotas.
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As the leaks from ANU pour forth, Genevieve Bell is seeking to calm the waters – externally at least. The Vice-Chancellor complains to staff about “the four-month negative media campaign attacking our university.” Certainly there is a bunch of half-baked reporting on ANU, but it mostly cites unnamed university sources aggrieved by the Vice-Chancellor’s cuts program. ANU is a hard place to change and Professor Bell has clearly not convinced everybody that savings must be made.
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Research publishers continue to change their business models from pay to read to pay to publish. Dan Pollock and Heather Staines from consultant Delta Think report article processing charges were up 6% in the 12 months to January. The top APC for all-OA journals was US$8,900, US$ 12,690 for hybrids. There are now 2.6 times more hybrid journals than full open-access.
