A bunch of people want a seat in Uni Queensland’s Senate. The poll is open for the eight elected members (out of a total 22) with 186 staff and graduate candidates standing. Including Annastacia Palaszczcuk running to represent alumni.
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Jacqui Lambie’s bill to cap VC pay is in Senate committee, with a hearing on the 17th in Canberra. There is no witness list yet, but the National Tertiary Education Union will surely welcome a chance to complain (again) that “the average Vice-Chancellor earns almost two times more than our Prime Minister.” And the University Chancellors Council may want to explain its admission of defeat on governing bodies setting their own VCs pay. Their excellencies now propose thar hiring committees take advice from the Commonwealth Remuneration Tribunal.
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Universities Australia is keen-indeed for the government to cough up the fee for associate membership of the EU’s $A170bn over seven years Horizon research fund. So keen, that UA chief Luke Sheehy was in Brussels this week talking up the idea, which would open the door to his members competing for funding. This is starting to look a matter of time. Last month the Department of Industry, Science and Resources announced “technical discussions” with the EU and invited the research establishment to make the case.
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NSW regulator SafeWork is cross at Macquarie U over a procedural breach, said to be not formally consulting health and safety committees in two faculties, as part of staff consultations over proposals to cut 60 or so positions. This might delay the process a bit – much the same thing happened in July at UTS.
In both cases, the regulator was said to be unhappy that management failures to consult according to the rules could upset stressed staff, increasing their risk from psycho-social hazards. National policy agency Safework Australia defines these as “anything that could cause psychological harm (e.g. harm someone’s mental health)” and warns they must be eliminated or minimised “as far as is reasonably practical.” The ever-helpful National Tertiary Education Union provides more examples, including “violent or traumatic events – such as suicide and vicarious trauma” at the extreme end through to “too little to do or monotonous tasks.” Preventing the hazards appears primarily the preserve of state government workplace safety agencies, at least until somebody brings on a test case in the Fair Work Commission.
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Western Sydney U announces an MOU with its region’s WS Philharmonic Orchestra. Apparently they will “strengthen music education, increase access to musical performances and develop career pathways for musicians.” Perhaps they could make an overture to ANU to take over the music school – followed by a chorus of outrage from Canberrans who still dream of an Australian Julliard.
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The Deans of Education prefer a less-low-than-subterranean public profile – their council’s last public statement was in March. This may be a way to avoid questions about not universally admired initial teacher education degrees.
Education Minister Jason Clare did not make it to their conference last week and his recorded message was a succinct 400 words, including, a reminder that his changes to the core content of ITE degrees start next year.
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The Reps Education Standing Committee is inquiring into “the development of Asia capability,” at the suggestion of Minister Clare. Specifics include teaching/learning Asian languages, cultural literacy and regional education.
This will surely produce frustrated profanity in Assamese through to Vietnamese from experts who have warned about the collapse in Asia-literacy for a generation. Liam Prince from the Australian Consortium for “In-Country” Indonesian Studies, for example, has long called for the return of Asian language programs for schools – and fast. Louisa Field and colleagues predict learning Indonesian will be extinct in Australian universities by 2031.
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ASQA and TEQSA have a plan to reduce the “regulatory burden” for dual-sector providers and it could be running in just three years! The authority and agency set out what they could deliver,
- “Better facilitate information and sharing in key areas
- “Where practical, optimise the alignment of evidence requirements for similar assessments while maintaining regulatory effectiveness”
- Support providers “to mature corporate and academic governance. “
And if that is not enough of an enthusiasmectomy, have a look at the “schematic diagram of Australia’s tertiary education regulatory ecosystem ,” on p15.
As for closer connections; “more complex opportunities for harmonisation … are not included in the current strategy, as they require significant resourcing, need to effectively articulate with other programs of work and/or represent policy considerations.” Ah bureaucracy, ain’t it grand!
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In breaking news, Jobs and Skills Australia reports “university lecturers” is the occupation with the highest share of PG qualifications, just under 90%.
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Jason Clare talked up 2024 domestic UG enrolments last week. They were a record ex-COVID he says. Correct, just not by much, starts in 2019 were 270,293 and 276,095 in ‘24 – a 2.11% increase. HE planning maven Angel Calderon (RMIT) points out UG domestic growth was 0.4% per annum across the last nine years. And the numbers will stay that way for a few years. “Domestic demand for higher education remains weak and the 2024 results provide temporary relief,” he says.
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The science establishment would rather its members collected more or all of the R&D Tax Incentive that now goes to (shudder) big business. Like Atlassian which led for R&D funding from the feds with a hefty $220m TI in 2022-23. The other big collectors included med-tech providers Cochlear, Resmed and CSL, minex operators, Fortescue, Chevron and Rio Tinto and private grain miller GOTW. As well as the alarmingly named Grinding Media, which sounds like a reptile of the press to avoid. But it’s not; it scored $68m for work on products used in manufacturing.
But big collectors are not the main reason the TI stays. The Australian Taxation Office reports that the biggest class of claimants (46%) was 6,000 small businesses (under $10m in turn-over) which received an average of $404,000. In the lobbying stakes, small business battlers trump science lobbies.