We see what you did there. Swinburne U states it is “putting its money where your mouth is.” The university is investing in a company using computer aided design for dental products that started as SU research.
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Brian Schmidt is putting space between himself and ANU. The former VC and Nobel physics laureate will be at Maynooth University in Ireland Monday week, where he will lecture on “the universe from beginning to end.” Which prompts a question for his ANU successor Genevieve Bell, was the University Council’s recent statement of support the end of the beginning for her savings plan, or the beginning of the end?
Whichever, there is a way to go – the question is how far. Chief Operating Officer Jonathan Churchill tells staff the National Tertiary Education Union has “recently submitted a dispute” re the savings consultation paper. It isn’t in the Fair Work Commission, yet.
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Sarah Henderson tells The Australian newspaper that as Minister she will instruct the Tertiary Quality Education Quality and Standards Agency to take action against “indoctrination’’ because “universities must be places of higher learning. ” Presumably Senator Henderson will provide definitions to distinguish between the two and legislate including them in the 2021 Higher Education Standards Framework.
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First announcement of the campaign – QUT has a medical school, opening in 2027. The long in development program was “fully funded in in the budget,” conveniently ahead of caretaker kicking-in but ahead of Australian Medical Council accreditation being completed. First intake will be 48 students. The feds will fund it via reallocation of CSPs at the university, perhaps from the 11,000 in QUT’s Faculty of Health, although given the feds state this will not “impact other national priority or skill shortage areas such as health and teaching” maybe the cuts will come from performing arts courses being considered for the chop.
How happy a coincidence that the announcement just happens to have been scheduled for what turns out to be the first week of the campaign.
QUT will have the State’s fifth med school, joining Bond U, Griffith U, James Cook U, and UoQ.
Second announcement of the campaign; Labor promises Flinders U $150m for a healthcare centre employing nurses, social workers and a variety of therapists. Initial media reports stated it would graduate an additional 1,300 medical students annually, which would have caused conniptions in the various doctors guilds which do not like too much competition. It is a win for Flinders U whoever forms the next government, with the Coalition agreeing to the funding. The centre will be in the seat of Boothby, which Labor won for the first time since WWII in 2022. The Liberals would like it back.
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La Trobe U, announces a $1m investment in an ag-tech startup, with funding from its Eagle investment fund –itself a joint venture with the Victorian Government’s Breakthrough Victoria. The university has long been game to have an entrepreneurial go; in 2018 its Strategic Investment Fund kicked-in $200,000 to adapt LT U historian Clare Wright’s book, Forgotten Rebels of Eureka for TV. If it ever screened, FC missed it.
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The idea of merging WA universities appeared to exit the agenda when former WA premier, Mark McGowan stepped down. There has been no word of the review he commissioned and successor Roger Cook did not mention it in last month’s election. But Edith Cowan U appears to think something is still afoot. Its annual report’s brief on “significant issues and trends” mentions the State Government is yet to comment on the review. Given the Labor Government’s still enormous majority in the lower house and with four years to the next election, now would be an opportune time if Mr Cook has anything in mind.
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Monash U management could not wait to announce the financial good news with VC Sharon Pickering reporting the 2024 financials to staff, ahead of the university’s annual report being tabled in State Parliament. The Monash U Group had a $48m “underlying net result” compared to a $145m deficit in ’23. Universities that prefer not to boast like to use “underlying results” which strip out investment income (it varies year to year) and philanthropy (money is committed and can’t be used for general costs). Unless, of course, it is because managements want a reason why they can’t afford pay rises. Certainly, on the basis of headline income Monash U Group was in the money last year, with a $308m operating result, compared to $33m in 2023.
Professor Pickering attributed the result to an across the board performance, “strong growth” in local student enrolments, a “steady recovery” in internationals, research revenue, investments and “diligent expenditure management.”
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Uni Newcastle announces construction will start on its 445 student accommodation project, in the CBD fringe Honeysuckle precinct – it has been a while coming, being talked about since 2019. But so far so good – with Honesuckle adding to the new high-rise teaching building downtown, in what seems so far, a calm and uncontested process. Unlike in Hobart, where Uni Tasmania’s bitterly contested move into town drags on.
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UoQ VC Deborah Terry concludes her statement in the 2023 annual report, “I would like to pay tribute to the extraordinary team of talented people who work at UQ – and thank them for their deep commitment to our mission of delivering for the public good. It’s a great privilege to work alongside them every day.” She has done this before and it is stylish every time.
