The Human Rights Commission reports 42 of 43 “in-scope” universities participated in its survey of campus racism, (FC Wednesday). So which one did not? And why are not individual university scores public? In their absence, perhaps QILT could include questions for students. There is one already one on a five-response scale in the Student Experience Survey, “I am free from discrimination, harm or hatred at … “
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HE lobbyists demanding the government end $50,000 arts degrees under Job Ready Graduates should not hold their breath, unless blue in the face is their look of choice.
On Monday, Education Minister Jason Clare was asked on the ABC when it would happen. “I am not going to put a year on it. It's not an easy thing to do … The interim Tertiary Education Commission that we set up is already doing some work for us around the costing of degrees. But it is not cheap,” he replied. And when asked again, he added, “'it is one of the recommendations in the Accord. We've bitten off a big chunk of it already, but there's more work to do.”
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ANU has promptly responded to an FOI on Interim VC Rebekha Brown’s remuneration – it could have been quicker, but for the time it took to black out much of the document. FC is missing why, unless things have changed since October, when ANU announced she would be paid $950,000 a year, plus super.
Whatever the amount, if performance metrics are included and more students is one of them, she is off to an ordinary start. While domestic first preference applications are not an entirely accurate indication of starts, according to DoE numbers, ANU’s are down 500 on last year, compared to a 300 or so increase at Uni Canberra. This may be one reason why her opening remarks to Senate Estimates last week referred to a “challenging operating environment.” “Continued discipline must now be matched with a deliberate focus on rebuilding confidence, capability and long-term sustainability through revenue generation,” she added. So how’s the confidence building going? Professor Brown told Estimates her proposed 2026 balanced budget would go Council this week.
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Edith Cowan U becomes WA’s big-city university with its new 11-level CBD campus about to open, teaching 8000 students and presenting 300 performances a year in its eight arts venues. It’s next to a rail station with a student accommodation tower to come. While nobody talks up increasing internationals these days, this is the best bet for Perth to grow market share. And everybody wants a piece of the announcement, with seven MPs and ministers, plus VC Clare Pollock quoted. They should have asked Steve Chapman as well, it would not have happened without the former VC, who realised that ECU had to grow to prosper and moving to town was the best way to do it. Want to know why ECU has been declared exempt from any State Government driven public uni merger? The city campus is why.
As to what will happen to the now redundant ECU campus at Mount Lawley – the same thing that generally happens to public sites close to a CBD, it will be mostly turned into housing.
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Jason Clare announced Tuesday that the Higher Education Standards Panel would have proposed threshold standards on universities responding to racism for Ministers to consider mid-year. It may be HESP’s last big job, it is abolished in the ATEC legislation.
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UWA’s Guy Littlefair explains what the university is “doing about AI.” It follows a newspaper feature the other week that focused on AI collapsing student standards. The DVC E includes:
- Not using AI detection tools, “unreliable, inequitable and unsuitable for high-stakes assessment decisions”
- Redesigning student assessment, “to strengthen validity, authorship assurance and academic integrity”
- Sharing “GenAI-resilient assessment exemplars”
- Centralising integrity processes and improving reporting to reduce the admin burden on academics.
And for any one not impressed, he adds UWA makes “extensive use” of invigilated exams.
“Students cheating is not a new problem, but we just need to get smarter in how we deal with it,” is the take-out.
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UTS confirms academic job cuts, following a Fair Work Commission ruling month that it had stuck to the process required by its Enterprise Agreement. The final cuts follow reductions in jobs to go, announced in November. The university will lose 121 FTE in positions, down from the original 166 and all via voluntary redundancies.