National briefs

Chubb, CSIRO ride high on best-paid list ANU vice-chancellor Professor Ian Chubb is the sixth-best-paid Commonwealth public servant, according to a list compiled by crikey.com. with a remuneration package of around $985,000 – miles ahead of the best-paid politician (Kevin Rudd with around $330,000) and department heads Terry Moran of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Ken Henry of Treasury and Nick Warner of Defence, all on $488,560 packages. But Chubb is in turn miles behind the heads of the big Commonwealth business enterprises, with Graeme John of Australia Post taking home over $2.9 million and George Sawides of Medibank Private on a package of around $1.15 million. CSIRO also does well, with new CEO Megan Clark likely to be topping $550,000 and 19 of her management team on packages exceeding $300,000. And state public servants do even better than those in Canberra, Crikey says. Brand Australia set for $20 million makeover The image Australia projects to the rest of the world, including to potential international students, is up for a massive revamp after the federal government last week announced it will stump up $20 million to develop a new campaign. Trade minister Simon Crean said Australia’s image needed to look beyond beaches and furry marsupials, and embrace the country’s creativity, ingenuity, innovation, spirit of social inclusion, and quality products and services. The presence of Denise Bradley at the announcement focused attention on Australia’s education export industry. Bradley told the ABC that the famous Paul Hogan ‘toss and prawn on the barbie’ campaign did not do justice to the services-oriented country Australia had become in the intervening years. “Of course, [it’s] not a very helpful [image] for one which is per capita probably the largest education exporter in the world. I’m very happy about a new brand Australia, and I hope it is based on notions of us being fleet of foot, entrepreneurial and with a deep skill base,” Bradley said. Melbourne University embroiled on two fronts The Melbourne Business School board advised last month that it will postpone for six weeks discussion of the proposed merger with the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Economics and Commerce. The university has not ruled out job losses from the merger additional to the 220 academic and administrative positions announced earlier that month in response to a collapse in the value of the university’s endowments. The merger was originally scheduled to take effect from end October. Meanwhile, Victorian Premier John Brumby and education minister Julia Gillard have said they are confident a dispute over the new curriculum for the Victorian College of the Arts can be resolved. Hundreds of VCA students protested outside Parliament last month against the adoption by the VCA of the Melbourne model, which they said would force students to take more generalised, theoretical subjects and would reduce their ability to specialise. The state government has taken a proposal to vice-chancellor Glyn Davis that VCA students be able to do 75 per cent of their studies in the core area of their choice. Brumby told ABC Radio that he believes the university will agree to the plan. Brumby is also seeking additional per capita funding for VCA students from the Rudd government, to bring it closer in line with funding for National Institute of Dramatic Arts students in NSW. Foreign students reported for absences Between 2007 and 2009, 10,913 overseas students were reported to the federal government’s international student compliance watchdog for failing their courses or not turning up for lectures and tutorials, reports the Courier Mail. The notices were issued to international students by registered higher education providers (HEPs) complying with the requirements of the Commonwealth Education Services for Overseas Students Act. The Courier Mail, which obtained the information under a FOI request, said the Provider Registration and International Students Management System (PRISMS) received 6190 notices for unsatisfactory attendance, while 4723 were for unsatisfactory course progress. Once a student is reported, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship is advised and students face having their visa cancelled. QUT, UQ and USQ all refused to reveal how many students had been notified to PRISMS in the past two years. But Griffith University, which had nearly 10,000 overseas students last year, reported 94 to PRISMS; CQU reported 129 out of about 5000; JCU nine of about 1600; and USC four of about 1000. Australia, India collaborate on quality assurance The Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA) and its Indian counterpart, the Indian National Assessment and Accreditation Council, have re-signed a memorandum of cooperation in Bangalore. Two-way staff exchanges have been a feature of the MoC, which has been in place for several years. In the next phase, emphasis will be given to including Indian good practices in quality assurance in the AUQA good practice database.