The National Health and Medical Research Council releases the Human Research Ethics Committee’s activity report for 2023 and gripping reading it isn’t. Although, FC would like to know more about what was in the 166 applications (1% ) which were not approved, “and will not be reconsidered.”
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The Coalition promises $100m for 200 new medical places in regional centres and infrastructure and accommodation for universities and other institutions in the bush that train “healthcare professionals.” The Coalition quite reasonably claims that doctors who train in the country are more likely to stay there.
In what FC suspects is a first for this election campaign, Universities Australia was quick to applaud the announcement. ““It’s great to see funding for new university places supported by investment in campus infrastructure. Regional universities often face unique challenges due to their location, including higher operating costs and increased infrastructure and service delivery expenses.”
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The sharp end is imminent for UTS’ Operation Sustainability, which is intended to cut $100m off recurrent expenditure – mainly by reducing professional staff by 250 and academics by 150. The plan was announced in November, but anguish went quiet over the Summer. It’s back now, with the cuts to be announced mid-year.
Part of the problem might be funding the 2023-25 enterprise agreement that delivered a 14.75% pay rise. The agreement also reduced casual academic numbers by creating 110 continuing jobs.
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The WA Government announces its 2025 Near-Miss medical research awards, money for scientists whose projects just missed out on National Health and Medical Research grants. Just not so much funding; $6.8m shared among 45. An NHMRC Idea Grant is commonly worth $1m or so.
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Labor must really think it has a chance in Leichhardt with Warren Entsch finally returning. The Prime Minister has promised $27.5m for health and engineering study infrastructure at CQU’s Cairns campus. It’s another win for CQU, which has been expanding in Cairns since Scott Bowman declared his intent in an MOU with the City Council back in 2016. Announcements aplenty followed over the years and now Cairns is a two-university town, which must make James Cook U wonder what it missed – it had the city to itself for decades.
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Federation U has a comprehensive plan to connect its campuses to their communities and grow regional economies – a snip at $170m or so mainly for capex. VC Duncan Bentley tells regional media he hopes the next government will come up with $30m for STEM labs at the (outer eastern Melbourne) Berwick campus as part of the program.
Uni Tasmania has the same STEM idea for its Sandy Bay campus.
But where would the elusive spondulicks come from? The Commonwealth got out of HE capital works when the coalition abolished the HE Investment Fund in 2019, moving its $4bn to a disaster relief kitty. (Hold your harumphs at Tory perfidy – Labor extracted a $50m donation for TAFE and then voted for the Bill in the Senate.)
Best U Tas can come up with so far is the Department of Transport and Infrastructure’s Regional Precincts program – it normally supports community facilities in country towns but has stumped up $15m for the University of Newcastle to build the Future Industries Facility, (“two industrial scale collaborative technology demonstration spaces”). But this would be way too small a scale for Federation U’s plan.
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University of Auckland announces a marketing triumph – it now has a single logo. “Different faculties, departments and research centres have had their own variations. The result is a patchwork of thousands of logos that lack consistency in colour, shape and readability.”
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The great Australian innumeracy starts in primary schools and the Grattan Institute reports what needs be done, including help for teachers who struggle. Just six per cent of them took maths at university and pedagogy courses assume ITE students have the maths they are being taught to teach. Grattan proposes three national micro-credentials, taking two-three hours a week over 12 months to two years with an assessment at the end. It estimates the products would cost $2.25m to create and $6m a year to run. “There is an opportunity for the federal government to take a leadership role on this reform initiative,” Grattan suggests. There is a precedent, the three micro-credentials Education Minister Jason Clare funded the University of Adelaide to create for teachers. The third, on how to teach phonics is just out, following one on explicit instruction and another on classroom management.
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The Australian Bureau of Statistics reports 197 000 international students arrived in February and if that seems a bunch it is, up 12 per cent on Feb 24 and nearly 7 per cent on pre Covid 2/19. Just under 150 000 of them enrolling in higher education. Won’t Liberals be pleased with a new number to quote for their blame campaign arguing the Go8 is responsible for rent hikes.
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NSW Chief Justice Andrew Bell, reports a survey of lawyers who have done a Practical Legal Training (PLT) course in the last decade. Responses raise “serious concerns about the cost and quality.” They include 43% of responders thought assignments were practical and career relevant and 13% considered their course “reasonably priced.”
Poor perceptions of PLT, which is required to practise, aren’t unique to NSW. Jim McMillan and Rob Lilley (both Curtin U) looked at programmes across the country to find courses need updating, “If the current PLT model is not meeting the needs of the profession, then change becomes inevitable,” they suggest. In NSW the Legal Profession Admission Board is on to it, “looking at the current state of PLT.”
