Yes, we know it isn’t Friday, but as everybody has tomorrow off, we’re a day early. Normal pontificating resumes next Wednesday.
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Researchers who survived the round one cull should quick-smart submit their full applications for 2027 ARC Discovery Grants – they have until April 26. The Australian Research Council, on their other hand will advise applicants between December and next March – presumably depending on how fast are the sedan chairpersons delivering the news.
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ANU announces University House is restored, five years after it was wrecked by a storm. It is not the only thing that needs rebuilding. University management appeared a shambles last year, in some part due to the vigour of critics of Vice Chancellor Genevieve Bell and her Renew ANU savings plan, with leaked allegations to media.
She is gone, the savings plan is stopped, but the leaks continue. There was one last week about a row in Council. Whoever it was intended to harm and why, ANU’s reputation takes a hit – the university appears divided and distracted with scores still being settled. Recruiting for a new permanent VC is yet to start; right now it is hard to imagine many applicants.
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Monash U will pay the 3.5% EB payrise due in June eight weeks early, to help staff, “navigate the personal impacts of the current international instability, while we continue to advance our ambitions.” Plus, the university is supporting more bus services and providing some free carpool parking at Clayton and Peninsula. The two day a week working from home option for professional staff stays in place.
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The Federal Court finds against CHEGG Inc in a case bought by TEQSA. Justice Lenehan concludes the company provided or arranged “for a third person to provide an academic cheating service to students undertaking an Australian course of study with Monash University.” He imposed a $500,000 penalty, CHEGG also agreed to pay $150,000 towards to TEQSA’s costs.
All of which TEQSA thinks is terrific, “the Court’s decision provides an important milestone for the sector’s response to emerging threats to academic integrity.”
Except that it is the equivalent of prosecuting crossbow manufacturers when AI tech is available to every students’ arsenal. Justice Lenehan states CHEGG subscribers declined from approximately 8.1m globally in 2022 to 2.87m last year. In November, the company cut 45% of staff, blaming in part, “the new realities of AI,” which “have led to a significant decline in Chegg’s traffic and revenue.” The company’s stock was trading at US$60c on the New York Exchange the other day; it peaked in February 2021 at US$113.
The learned Adrian Barnett (QUT) speculates commercial contract cheating is not the only lunch AI will eat. Why will academics in the market for fake research publications use paper mills when they can use artificial intelligence to fabricate their own?
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Wonder what stops national skills reform? The estimable National Centre for Vocational Education Research shows what, with an update (until 2025) of its “Timeline of Australian VET policy initiatives” since 1988. It is an extraordinary resource that should be compulsory for every new Minister with an idea – somebody has tried it before and generally, it did not work.
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The research community came over all exuberant at the possibility of Australian buying associate status in the EU A$155bn (in the present round) Horizon Europe research program. Question is, who will actually be around to do the researching? A new paper by data-master Frank Larkins (Uni Melbourne) points on present numbers, to fewer domestic research students down the track. Group of Eight enrolments were down 17% plus 2015-2024. Commencers were down by 24.9%. More in FC Wednesday.
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Annual reports for Queensland universities are out (FC, Monday) and admirably monochrome they are indeed. There are no gloss-shots of students having their best-time in classes on campus and no photos of serious scientists thinking Nobel-worthy insights – just the facts (albeit some optimistically spun) in black and white. Whoever decided that this had to be standard for annual reports to state parliament government was wise indeed – the plainer the presentation, the more credible the content.