The estimable National Centre for Vocational Education Research reports the good news on trade apprentice starts – up 12% to 15,425 year on year to the December Q 25. And the bad news, they were down 4% for the year, the third in a row.
In 2025, apprentices and trainees in construction were down 6.7% on 2024 and 9.5% on 2021.
Across the system, “declines are consistent with changes to government incentives and softening labour market conditions,” the NCVER states.
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DoE announces 2027 JRG course costs for arts, business and law students will be $18,025 – which stacks up as $54,075 for a three-year degree. Perhaps price sensitive intending students should defer starting for a couple of years, just in case Bruce Chapman and colleagues’ proposal for a revenue-neutral replacement gets up with the Government. They suggest tying HECS-HELP costs to graduates’ lifetime earnings, which would knock $10,000 a year off Humanities payments.
The only problem for the government is working out how to deal with the teacher education lobby who would complain, with their students’ fees doubling to $10,000 a year.
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Iain Martin’s immediate exit at Deakin U the other week must have caused conniptions for the graduation team, what their having to change the VC name and signature on testamurs for this week’s ceremonies. But the connipting was in vain, when new individually-named ones did not make it from the printers for ceremonies this week – FC hears grads were handed a generic one for the graduation award photo on stage. They will get the real thing in the post in three or so weeks. What they got immediately, was their full “authenticated digital certificate …valid for employment, further study, or visa purposes.” Perhaps not quite what proud grandparents were hoping to see.
Another core statement of university identity is still behind the times. As of Tuesday, a fortnight after Martin did a Snagglepuss, the DU VC page is still all about him.
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The Fair Work Commission has jacked the up the application fee for general protections in dismissal disputes to $92.70. The FWC does not state why, but it is a fair bet the Commission does not expect it to reduce AI-generated applications by people running their own cases – there is a predicted 70% increase from the 2023-24 financial year to the one about to end. A generation back, industrial relations was criticised as a club of government, unions and arbiters. Now it is more of an open-to-all AI colosseum.
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The University of Tasmania reports a consolidated after income tax, net loss of $22.9m for 2025; down from an $11m surplus in ’24. Total revenue was stable at $830m, so was income from continuing operations (the measure preferred by most university measures, which strips out one-offs) at $779m, ($788m the previous year). Staff costs did not move, staying at $480m.
University management is up-front (literally, on page five) on its financial strategy. “Rather than making rapid, deep cost cuts as we have seen in some other places as they tried quickly to return to surplus, our approach has been to carefully steward the University community.
“We chose to run a deficit, draw down on our reserves and carefully manage our costs to put us on a steady path to financial stability.
After years of conflict over the now scaled-down relocation to the Hobart CBD, management may not have been in the mood to deal with claims that cuts were caused by the cost of the grand plan.
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Charles Darwin U joins the rouge-ish gallery of universities that have signed Enforceable Undertaking with the Fair Work Ombudsman to pay some staff what they are owed, 2016-2022. All up, 800 people were underpaid $4m plus, with a review of records of 1,480 more staff – mainly academic casuals – underway.
As is oft the case, the cause is incompetence rather than management interpreting enterprise agreements to suit itself – CDU’s payroll system was not managed well-enough. The FWO acknowledges the university worked out what the problems were and fessed up – which is maybe why CDU is stung for a $300,000 “contrition payment,” at the lower end of the scale. Uni Melbourne copped twice that in 2024.
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Adopted by acclamation, The Regional Universities Network reports (via LinkedIn) that CEO Alec Webb met with Country Universities Centre managers and all agreed, “better access to higher education for regional, rural and remote students makes for better supported regional communities, ecosystems and a stronger Australia.” The case for more funding did not need stating.
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The Australian Council of Deans of Science run the reality-meter over tertiary harmonisation and report, “what happens when learners can move more easily between TAFE, university and research? … Education leaders from across the country argue that stronger connections between vocational and higher education can improve workforce mobility, strengthen skills development and create more flexible pathways for learners.”