Allegations at ANU leading to the suspension of former VC Genevieve Bell were dismissed weeks before being reported in the media.
An independent investigation by former Deakin U VC Jane den Hollander found on March 25 that the three allegations were not substantiated and Professor Bell was reinstated the following day.
However, media stories reporting her suspension appeared in the middle of this month.
Last week ANU told FC, “Professor Bell remains a distinguished professor at the School of Cybernetics and is currently on study leave,” but news of Professor den Hollander’s finding was not common on campus until Tuesday.
Despite extensive off-campus coverage of the claims against Bell, as of deadline last night the university had not met FC’s request for a statement on the investigation’s result.
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There is a Tuesday hearing of the Senate Committee inquiry into the Greens attempt to cancel the JRG Bill – just the thing to dim the afterglow of a Canberra long weekend.
Universities Australia is on the roster, as are 22 other individuals and organisations, mostly wanting JRG gone.
FC guesses there will be an appalathon by Green and independent senators and an obfuscation by the Government. But what, if anything will Libs and Nats contribute on a Bill to abolish the funding scheme they created?
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Just 8% of 2023 Y12 students took advanced maths. Pauline Richards (Engineers Australia) warns it means fewer engineers in the future and that is a sovereign capability issue. “This has dire consequences for the nation with engineering underpinning around 60% of our nation’s GDP [gross domestic product].”
A recent roundtable convened by the Parliamentary Friends of Engineering, discussed “potential policy actions” including; “direct assistance for maths teachers,” modernising the maths curriculum and targets for HE math student numbers, particularly young women.
The Friends’ concerns add to the anguish the on state of maths ed. The other week the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute and Science and Technology Australia called for programs to address “maths anxiety” and “gender gaps” in Y11-12, plus sub-bachelor programs for access to STEM degrees
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The National Health and Medical Research Council has an expert committee supporting the review of the 2013 Australian Dietary Guidelines. “To support transparency,” there is communique summarising each committee meeting. Here is this month’s, in full. “The Expert Committee considered the Evidence-to-Decision (EtD) frameworks and adopt/adapt EtD frameworks for a variety of different topics.” Ah, open government, ain't it grand.
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Jason Clare announces a “best practice” guide for universities that want to “establish or expand” bridging courses funded by the government’s FEE FREE Uni Ready programme. In a move that might put noses out of joint the government gave Uni Newcastle $1.5m to develop the FFUR guide. Mr Clare says one in five UoN student start with its bridging course.
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There are free-to-read 100,000 research articles by researchers at ANZ universities thanks to a deal done by their libraries with journal publishers. The arrangement started small in 2020 and now includes almost all the big for-profit publishers. The Council of Australasian University Librarians estimates it has saved $500m in article processing charges, which are covered by university subscriptions with each publisher.
It is not enough for OA activists who argue for-profit journal publishing is a huge earner, where academics do all the writing and reviewing gratis and business privatises the profits. But the research establishment is still wedded to the existing model and for now at least there is no system-wide alternative. CAUL headed off a half-baked idea a few years back for a national agency to negotiate a free to read deal for the whole country.
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The science deans want HASS students to pay less and government to give their members more for teaching. They make their case in a submission to the Senate committee inquiry into the Greens Bill to abolish the Job Ready Graduates model.
The Australian Council of Deans of Science argue the cost of a humanities degree is, “a disincentive to entering university – particularly for students who are first in family or from low socio-economic backgrounds.” They accordingly adopt the Innovative Research Universities proposed replacement funding model which reduces the top student contribution band from $17,000 to $14,000 a year and moves HASS from that to $10,000 a year. IRU also wants government to contribute an extra $5,000 a year for STEM student places. The science deans think this is a splendid idea, arguing that the government contribution to science and engineering places has not kept pace with CPI and is now $4,000 less than the pre-JRG rate if indexed, $6,000 under including the student contribution. “This has put pressure on the capacity of universities to deliver high-cost laboratory and field work experiences, which are the very activities essential for the development of Job Ready Graduates,” the deans warn.