The Victorian Government and Monash U announce the Velos Accelerator which “will focus on the connections between obesity, diabetes, chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular disease.” Must be some schmick kit to do all that? Not quite – it’s a building.
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Western Sydney U issued a “public notification” yesterday that staff and student information, in 25 categories, stolen from its systems in October last plus February and April was published on the “open and dark web.” The last of three sites that ran the files was down in June. Information that was accessible included multiple personal IDs plus bank account details, tax file numbers, passports and driver licence details. Worried staff and students should panic in office hours. WSU has an advice-line staffed Mon-Thurs 0900-1630.
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On Monday the parties of government voted down Senate motions for ANU to produce documents on just about everything covered in the present restructure. Finance Minister and ACT senator, Katey Gallagher and the Opposition’s Paul Scarr agreed that review processes in place are preferable. It was a good result for embattled ANU management which could have taken the win and kept quiet – lest Senator David Pocock, whose motion it was, decide to have another go, if only to assert the authority of the chamber. Vice-Chancellor Genevieve Bell didn’t. “This is new territory for us and the sector more broadly and I want to be very clear that we have all watched the overreach of politicians into daily operations of American universities and the consequences have been far reaching,” she told staff.
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There is a union protest tomorrow at UTS’s Open Day against management’s savings plan and the first-Semester hold on new enrolments for 120 low demand degrees. Plus the National Tertiary Education Union is also back in the Fair Work Commission arguing management can’t proceed with the freeze because it did now follow process. Just the thing to tell visitors shopping for somewhere to study.
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Last year the top paid executive at Uni SA and Uni Adelaide (presumably the Vice-Chancellors of each) were paid $1.3m. So how much will their successor, Nicola Phillips, inaugural VC of the new Adelaide U receive? It’s a question being asked around Adelaide, but not being answered. When FC inquired why, a representative of the new U replied, “Professor Phillips has not commenced in the role yet, so it would be inappropriate to share those details.”
So there! Problem is VC pay packets are on the political agenda – as in a Senate committee inquiry into capping them. Another is investigating into university governance, including what senior staff are paid. It’s a live issue and a good way to ensure it stays so is to keep schtum in the hope it goes away. FC has a diary note to ask again when Professor Phillips starts.
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There is a petition at ANU calling for Council to sack Chancellor Julie Bishop and VC Genevieve Bell and stop the restructure. Perhaps the authors missed that now is not a great time for Council members to be calling for Professor Bell’s head. The TEQSA inquiry into ANU focuses on Council’s oversight of finances and campus culture, starting way before she became VC, in January 2024.
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The tumbrils roll on at Uni Wollongong with another 99.8 FTE positions to go, across service and operations. Management’s announcement was silent on how the admin abstraction translated to people and how much of the reduction would come from roles now vacant or through voluntary departures. As is its restructure practise, UoW pointed out that consultations had restrained the pain, with jobs to go in this round down from an initially-proposed 185 max.
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Chief Scientist Tony Haymet’s website reports two media interview since he started early this year. There was one in June on ABC Radio National and another a couple of weeks ago on ABC Radio Breakfast. Plus there was a third Wednesday night, on ABC Radio “Nightlife.” Is there a pattern here?
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The Department of Defence announces 23 grants, including to 11 universities under its Strategic Policy Grants Program. All up, there is $5.7m to “deepen public debate on topics relevant to Australia’s strategic circumstances, and inform Defence’s policy decision making.” As to what debates will be deepened, Defence does not say. Perhaps officials don’t want the Minister finding out, lest they ask questions about the policies DoD is making.
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The U Tas Annual Report is tabled in State Parliament. Not that there is much to remember, with a great deal of glossy copy and styled shots. As for the bottom line, there was a headline surplus of $12.4m on revenue of $821m. However, there was an underlying loss of $47m on the HE system’s preferred income measure, which excludes tied-funding and one-off earnings. And the controversial-but-not-complete program to relocate of much of the Hobart campus from Sandy Bay to the CBD, rates not much of a mention. “Integrating our physical presence into the heart of Hobart, and in close proximity to relevant industries, remains an important step in fostering the crucial symbiotic relationships between student population and general public, study and workplace, research and industry.” Also little focus on the with the compromise of creating new STEM teaching facilities at Sandy Bay. “Without significant external funding support (it) will not be economically feasible for the foreseeable future.”
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The Fair Work Commission is looking at industrial awards in degree-required work in women-strong occupations including higher education and research. The assumption is they need investigating because pay rates might undervalue work because of gender-bias. This does not apply to universities, which pretty much all have individual enterprise agreements, but the NTEU reckons the review is required, “an important and significant response to the statutory imperative for the elimination of gender-based undervaluation.” But the Australia Higher Education Industrial Association, which represents universities (ex most of the Group of Eight) demurs because the sector does not widely use awards. What’s more, HE does not meet the definition of a “feminised occupation” – defined as 60% for the project. AHEIA points out higher education is out of scope, what with women accounting for just 58.69% of the workforce. Who knew pedantry was an occupational hazard in industrial relations.
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The Feds announce 100 new med school places from next year through to ’28 – when the allocation will increase to 150. It follows the April announcement that QUT will open a med school in 2027 with an annual intake of 48, funded by reallocating others of its Commonwealth Supported Places.
This does not sound many but who knows? Overall last year there were 18,000 or so people in med schools, half in CSPs, but there is no headline announcement of annual med school starts and the numbers bounce around – making the process as transparent as a private hospital bill.
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Uni WA announces work is set to start on a 671-apartment student residence, “designed to enrich the student experience.” It follows Murdoch U publicising a $100m donation for the veterinary med school. Can big news from Curtin U be far behind? The three universities are being considered by a State Government committee for some sort of merger and surely want to look good. Edith Cowan U, the State’s fourth, has a pass, what with it already delivering its transformative achievement. It relocates to flash new city digs in the new year.
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Government funded voced student data is out, via the estimable National Centre for Vocational Education Research (FC covered the not-great numbers earlier this week) But alas the stats still do not include FEE FREE TAFE. The NCVER does not appear to have the state-specific numbers, referring anybody interested to the feds’ Department of Employment and Workplace Relations where the current information was published on February 3.