National briefs

Victoria University staff vote to restart industrial action Staff at Victoria University voted to restart industrial action, the NTEU announced. VU NTEU branch president Richard Gough said last week that “strikes will commence [this] week and continue for the next three weeks unless senior management genuinely negotiate for a collective agreement with job security and reasonable workload management”. The union disputes management’s claim that stringencies and redundancies are necessary because of the university’s financial difficulties. Record growth in international students in 2008 The number of international students studying in Australia jumped 21 per cent last year, the biggest rise since 2002. A record 543,898 international students attended Australian institutions in 2008, the first time the figure exceeded 500,000 in a calendar year. But it’s too early to know what impact the global financial crisis will have on 2009 enrolments. The higher education sector grew by 4.7 per cent last year, new Australian Education International data reveals. Enrolments by Asian students was up 21.5 per cent, with China providing the greatest overall figure of 127,276 enrolments in 2008. International education contributed $14.2 billion to the economy in 2007-08; making it Australia’s third-largest export behind coal and iron ore. Go to www.aei.dest.gov.au University language teachers form national body University language teachers have formed the National Tertiary Languages Network, to contribute to the development of a language teaching in universities. The proposal for a national body emerged from a conference, sponsored by the Australian Academy of the Humanities, held at the University of Melbourne last month. The conference attracted over 130 participants, double the number originally anticipated, from 27 universities and four other institutions. This was the first time tertiary teachers of European and Asian languages had come together, the organisers said. Melbourne adds new indigenous equity program Melbourne University has announced a new degree – the bachelor of arts (extended) – to help indigenous students make the transition to tertiary study. The students will live and study at the university’s Trinity College while undertaking their degree, which has been developed jointly by the Faculty of Arts, the college and the university’s Centre for Indigenous Education. The first intake of 13 students, drawn from around Australia, began their orientation program last month. All places in the degree are fully funded through corporate and private philanthropic support and existing government programs. UWA tops up postgraduate scholarships and awards UWA has introduced top-up scholarships of $5000 a year to new and current holders of Australian Postgraduate Awards and UWA completion scholarships. The top-up awards will raise the basic postgraduate stipend at UWA to at least $25,000 a year, at an estimated annual cost to the university of $2.5 million, and are funded by reducing the number of university postgraduate awards from 100 to 50 a year. The top-ups are seen as a safety net, which will be withdrawn if the government increases APAs to $30,000 in the next budget.