Is this the first? An Adelaide U media release landed Tuesday, about research on optimal atomic clocks. “Taking a second to change the time,” is the on-message pitch from the brand new U, where hopefully the more things change, the less they will stay the same.
Premier Peter Malinauskas officially opened the new university yesterday.
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James Cook U (for now) puts a name change on the agenda by denying it is. “The University Council has established a reference committee to develop high-level principles and process guidance that would apply if (sic), at some future point, Council were ever to consider such a matter” JCU announces. Good-o. although some hypotheticals are less so than others. FC suspects work is not under away for an intergalactic memorandum of understanding if Andromeda U gets in touch.
JCU already has a precedent for a name change. In 2020 the Townsville campus became Bebegu Yumba, (“place of learning” in the local Indigenous Birri Gubba language). And it is not alone. In 2022 Macquarie U’s main site became the Wallumattagal Campus, honouring the traditional owners. Plus brand new Adelaide U has provision in its founding Act for an Indigenous co-name, Tirkangkaku (again “place of learning”). The University of Melbourne also uses Naarm, an Indigenous name for the city, for an event and a program.
But you can bet UoM will stick with being named after Queen Victoria’s first PM, what with it being a hugely valuable brand. Relatively few international students considering Australia have heard of JCU, but they all know where Melbourne is.
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Industry, Innovation and Science Minister Tim Ayres is down to address the National Press Club on March 25. There is no word what about, but FC wonders whether it might be the Strategic Examination of Research and Development he commissioned at the end of 2024. Oh come on, you remember SERD; it was big news until filed late ’25 – but since then, silence.
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University lobbies have long warned their member need more money as population growth leads to more students. They are right about extra Australian citizens aged 18-25. The annual increase was 3.1% last year, is expected to be 2.4% this and 2.1% next, (Treasurer Costello’s “baby bonus” might have had something to do with that). Then it will likely settle at 1.6-1.9% a year for the rest of the decade. All up, that is 300,000 more people of prime study age. But who knows how many will choose university? As of Wednesday the nation’s tertiary admission centres had made 6,000 (2.3%) fewer offers than last year, (ex-universities making their own). Offers in 2025 (271,000) were still below the 2019 pre-pandemic peak (276,000).
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In the first tertiary education announcement of the SA election, Premier Malinauskas promises three new technical colleges and announces first enrolments at one just opened. “These students aren’t going to university – because you don’t need to, to get a good job here in South Australia,” is his message. In which case, pray, why has the State Government kicked-in a $400m funding package to support the brand-new Adelaide U?
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HASS optimists could be pleased that universities admission centres’ data shows offers for “society and culture” courses are up 3,000 on 2025, to 60,000 and stable at 19% of a bigger cohort. Pessimists can point to the 2019 pre-Covid peak when the 66,000 offers was 24% of the total. Realists will suggest they compare the numbers to the broad “health” field, where offers (54,000, 19%) are limited by public funding for training places, which makes first-preferences the measure of what students want to do. In 2019, health had 24.5% and society and culture 21.8%. This year health is 26.6% and society and culture 19.6%.
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A very good morning to Griffith U Business PVC Caitlin Byrne (AM), who we overlooked in our Australia Day honours list, Wednesday.
This Australia Day was a big one for the medical meritocracy – they always are, Out of ten ACs Monday, two were medical researchers, so were 20 per cent of the A0s – and this was not a big year. Four of six Australia Day 2025 ACs were medical researchers., so were 30 per cent of the AOs and a quarter of the 100 plus AMs. It is part of a pretty-much permanent pattern, with the medical community a big part of the awards In 2020, when cancer research Bruce Robinson became an AC, just under a quarter of the AOs were medical scientists and they made up 20 per cent of AMs.
It goes to show the national respect for medical researchers, which their lobbies work hard to defend and extend.
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Voced regulator ASQA announces its fees consultation for 2026-27. Although, on the basis of the draft Cost Recovery Consultation Statement, there could be more announcing fees are going up than consulting on how to contain them. “Ensuring all regulatory functions and activities are accurately captured and costed,” sounds like an all-purpose explanation for whatever the authority intends, including accounting for new intel functions, the VET “tip-off line” and “qualification integrity.” And it is all in a good cause. In 2024-25 30% of market entry applications were rejected, up from 13% the previous year. “Preventing non-genuine operators from entering the sector will benefit all providers by reducing sector-wide regulatory costs,” is ASQA’s case.
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The Australian Academy of the Humanities invited everybody “to spend some time in the 18th century” on Australia Day, where Kate Fullagar (ACU) would talk about British imperialists’ ideas on treaties. There is no word if they all came back.
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Uni Melbourne’s (finally published) submission to the Senate inquiry on the ATEC Bill sums up the system as is. “Barriers to access remain despite long-standing commitments to widening participation, and funding incentives have contributed to underinvestment in some fields while oversupplying others. Institutions have generally become more homogenous over time, reducing student choice and innovation. Universities’ public obligations are often undercut by changeable resourcing, and geographic disparities continue to limit fair access, particularly for regional students who face significant challenges in where and how education is delivered.”
So how will ATEC fix any of this if it is created as a creature of the DoE, which just about every submission to the Senate assumes?