The Property Industry Council announces there are a bunch of beds for international students in the pipeline, which will bring purpose-built supply to near 150,000 by 2027. This might be enough to stop a stunt at the next election blaming internationals for housing shortages in postcodes nowhere near a university.
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After months of being badgered by the research establishment, the Department of Industry, Science and Resources announces non-binding “technical discussions” with the EU about becoming an associate of its flagship research program. Horizon has $A170bn to hand out over seven years. What is in it for universities, is competitive access to a mountain of money. What isn’t for the feds is the size of the access fee they would have to negotiate. DISR is asking the research community for responses, which “will help the government decide on actions that will advance our national interest.” Which rather sounds like the case for the deal is accepted and now it is just a matter of arguing about the price to play.
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Where medical students go when they graduate is sufficiently opaque for deans and the two GP colleges to crunch the numbers on where new GPs come from. Monash U leads for graduates entering GP Training with 106 new registrars, followed by Uni Queensland and Griffith U. James Cook U and Uni Notre Dame Australia had the highest proportion, both on 50%.
Want to know why general practitioners look old? Overall, just a third of new graduates go onto GP training.
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Jason Clare has a plan to consolidate policy power in school education, leaving the States stuck with teacher unions and all that administration. On Tuesday he announced a proposal to create a sort-of ATEC for schools, the Teaching and Learning Commission. It would “bring together,” the work of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority; the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership, the Australian Education Research Organisation; and Education Services Australia.
It is classic-Clare; a plan that centralises power to make change in an elite organisation and demonstrates the national government is on the literacy and numeracy case. It also gives him the means to ignore the initial teacher education establishment, as he did by making it plain that “direct instruction” is what they must teach trainee teachers to teach.
So how did the ITE lobby respond to yet another challenge to their intellectual independence? Who knows, as of last night there was no comment on the Australian Council of Deans of Education website.
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Telling it like he hopes it is. Chris Moran (Uni New England VC) on increasing equity student enrolments. “Expecting large, elite metropolitan universities to transform rapidly (or at all) is unrealistic.” It is in the Australian Centre for Student Equity and Success’s new review of the state of the system.
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It’s not just ANU staff who think chancellors need to shape up. Convenor of their council John Pollaers (Swinburne U) wants some to improve. A University Chancellors Council staffer emailed members this week on his behalf, about the way un-named universities are managing distribution of the Australian Human Rights Commission survey of racism on campus.
“We ask you to ensure that your university is implementing the communications set up by the AHRC and communicate with your vice-chancellors and senior executive accordingly. Your confirmation of support for this process via return email would be appreciated,” was the request.
“And stand-up straight when the Convenor is on parade!” strikes FC correspondents as the intended undertone.
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The academic engineers lobby wants a national AI capability as in, “publicly owned, operated and controlled by Australians, powered by local talent and sustainable computational power.” The Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering warns that without kit to call our own, we risk “becoming dependent on foreign technology providers with their own commercial and national interests.”
ATSE accordingly argues for five to seven government owned AI factories, a snip at $5bn, which would be integrated with universities and industry, “explicitly for the benefit of the Australian public.” A big benefit will be letting them loose on national datasets which can “deliver productivity gains and export value.” As to how, isn’t obvious, but ATSE does point to 40 giant files which people with AI capacity and some spare hours might like to look at; from Commonwealth-held medical and dental records to the geo-spatial 1 Second SRTM Digital Elevation Model. Hours of fun for data scientists of all ages!
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The comrades’ campaign for more staff and student members of university councils rolls on, with National Tertiary Education Union members lobbying MPs at the Victorian Parliament on Wednesday. “This is a critical moment to show the collective strength of our campaign. Management opposition will only intensify as we get closer to real reform,” is the “aux armes!”
“Intensify” overstates it. University lobbies appear resigned to whatever Jason Clare’s governance group will give them, perhaps on the assumption that it will be way better than what the union and its allies want.
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The University of Wollongong releases a ten-year plan which is guff-rich but metric-poor. Claiming success for the goal, “strengthen trust, advocacy, and influence through policy engagement and soft diplomacy at local, national and international levels,” will not be hard. And, “we will champion new ways of thinking and working that enhance agility, foster innovation and support smarter, more streamlined ways of working across the university,” can mean whatever management wants it to mean.
And they will not be trying if they can’t find a way to demonstrate UoW is, “recognised as a top 100 global university and amongst the top ten in Australia,” without specifying the competitive set.
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The Australian Academy of Science wants it known that the GSK award Eddie Holmes (Uni Syndey) has just won for research excellence was made at an Academy event but is not from it (Appointments, Wednesday). “How did FC get that so wrong?” you ask. “Stupidity” is the reply.