James Cook U, “invites veterans, first responders, and health workers to connect through mindfulness.” Just the thing when Triple O is down.
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Richard Robson (Uni Melbourne) wins the Nobel Prize for chemistry, jointly with Susumu Kitagawa (Kyoto U) and Omar Yaghi (U Cal Berkely) for work FC is not smart enough to report, let alone understand. But the policy implications of the prize are clear, as UniMelb VC Emma Johnston pointed out at rocket-science speed after the announcement. “This is the kind of blue-sky research that not many people get the opportunity to explore, and even fewer make the kinds of breakthroughs Professor Robson has achieved.
“Australia needs to recognise that this long-term fundamental research is what allows us to then translate that research into product.
She was speaking up for pure-research, work at the frontier of knowledge which may or may not lead to anything. It’s not top of the funding pops just now with the Government focused on R&D and the Australian Research Council announcing in April, there should be greater support for “the important, but not always visible, work of researchers which can provide a launchpad for the tangible creation of value.”
Universities Australia is not having it, warning that funding for basic research is contracting, which is a problem, given, “while innovation may not be linear, it all starts with discovery.” Professor Robson’s Nobel will not change anything in policy land, but at least it will make the scientists feel better about their work being ignored by funding agencies.
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Uni New South Wales had a big ’24 for enrolments, according to that stakhonovite of statistics, Frank Larkins (Uni Melbourne) who has compared the recent 2024 numbers from the feds with 2023.
He reports research PG persons were up 4.2%, coursework PG 28.7% and bachelor students 8.%. Include below-degree and UNSW increased numbers by a total 17.1%. Five of the other Group of Eight did ok, notably Monash U up (10%) and UWA (9%) – both due to 20% plus coursework PG growth. But Adelaide U was steady due to falls in postgraduate coursework and UGs. And ANU went backwards, by 2%– 3% across all categories.
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Lynelle Briggs’ inquiry into ANU governance is costing TEQSA $132,000, plus more for independent legal advice. Ms Briggs contract runs until end February.
And the Australian National Audit Office’s review of financial management, “as it relates to Renew ANU” (former VC Genevieve Bell’s restructure programme) is not due to March.
As for Vivienne Thom’s report on bullying allegations against Chancellor Julie Bishop. “The Investigation will be completed as expeditiously as a proper consideration of the matters allows,” the TOR state.
Lament not, all anxious for an earlier act in the Jacobean tragedy that is ANU. Interim VC Rebekah Brown and Ms Bishop (via video) are expected to appear at Senate Estimates this afternoon.
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Western Sydney U is hacked again – with students receiving emails that appeared official enough to convince them they were excluded from study and/or had their qualifications cancelled. The malevolent mischief started on Monday’s public holiday with the university responding – “we are actively investigating this matter and taking steps to contain and address the issue.” Which was pretty much management’s message in response to the hacks of October, November ’24 and April, June and August this year.
On Wednesday VC George Williams broke cover, telling, the WSU community that no data was stolen, “instead, an unauthorised person access an automatic email generator and populated it with previously stolen information.”
As to why, who knows? “There has been no demand for payment, nor any links in the email that might entrap people. Plain and simple, this was designed to hurt our community and damage the reputation of our university.”
Ditto re who dunnit. Professor Williams mentioned there is a former student now on bail who is allegedly responsible for the June attack but stated nothing more. But WSU sounds besieged. We change direction wherever required in the light of new methods and technologies to make sure this remains the case,” the VC said.
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University employer association AHEIA (all the publics bar some of the Group of Eight) says complexity is the cause of staff underpayments and calls for a “collegiate effort” to “overhaul workplace instruments, simplify rules, and create a fair, transparent framework that minimises errors and safeguards staff entitlements.” The problem is enterprise agreements that run to hundreds of pages and include requirements that “make compliance extremely difficult for experienced payroll and IR experts.”
All correct, except for Fair Work Ombudsman rulings that demonstrate managements did not try hard enough to honour the terms of agreements they signed.
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The imminent Adelaide University has a new commissioned report on, “Strengthening South Australia’s economy through strategic alignment between research and industry.” It paid Elsevier Analytic Services for the work. “What?” you ask, “that Elsevier, the for-profit journal publisher and data analytics provider with a scientific-technical-medical division that had a first half 2025 adjusted operating profit of just over A$1bn?” That’s the one. According to Elsevier, it is a “groundbreaking analysis to guide strategic university-industry alignment and power South Australia’s economic transformation.” Just the thing for academic entrepreneurs discouraged by the qualified optimism in the SA Productivity Commission’s 2023 report, Turning Research into Economic Competitiveness for South Australia, HERE.
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There is a new ranking underway which university staff will love but managements will loathe. It’s a national census of wellbeing and psycho-social safety and the result will be “a published ranking system to highlight leading institutions and those needing improvement.”
Maureen Dollard from Uni SA’s Psychosocial Safety Climate Global Observatory leads the project. The survey uses straightforward question on a sliding scale and are generally balanced plus the detailed responses to questions about culture and management behaviour at specific institutions will not be made public. But the results will interest one of the survey’s partners, the National Tertiary Education Union.