New figures show the number of students in VET in schools programs is on the rise, but there’s much room for improvement. The total number of students undertaking a VET in schools program increased by 25 per cent in 2008. ...
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Watch this teaching space
The trend towards peer review of teaching is simply a reaction to the current debate on how to assess quality of teaching. It should have been on the agenda years ago, writes David Woodhouse. When I was a dean in ...
More »Telling porkies
The government has elevated the art of pork barrelling to new heights, by directing infrastructure enhancement funding to the places where the infrastructure already exists, writes John Ross. A special Campus Review investigation has unearthed signs of a carefully constructed ...
More »What's in a name?
Henry Barnes ponders whether he should call the new professor a chair or wardrobe? As the linguistic secret police will tell you, language in any form is a tricky business. It’s endlessly fluid, subjective and weighed down with those nasty ...
More »Lukewarm response on combined compacts
Collective compact negotiations would defeat the purpose, academics argue. Academics have given a lukewarm response to a recommendation that the Victorian government become involved in university compact negotiations “to ensure that the needs of the state are considered”. The expert ...
More »Australia could do better on engagement
A new report reveals that US universities are outclassing Australian campuses in providing high levels of engagement for international students. Australian universities must consider the reintroduction of specialist services for international students in light of new research that has found ...
More »Franchising the best option: TAFE chief
Franchises may be a good option for TAFEs wanting to deliver degrees. Franchising arrangements may be the most promising collaboration model for TAFEs and universities, given that TAFEs are being excluded from the demand-driven funding system for higher education, according ...
More »Big promo effort can’t prevent diploma haemorrhage
Deliberate over-enrolling, an enhanced web presence and the biggest advertising and marketing campaign in its history failed to prevent a major slump in diploma and advanced diploma enrolments at Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE (NMIT), according to a staff memo ...
More »Diploma enrolments waver as Victoria shifts to demand drive
There are mixed signs from Australia’s first large-scale move into demand-driven tertiary education. Diploma and advanced diploma enrolments have slumped in Victorian TAFEs as the settings for the state’s VET reforms clash with its goals of increasing tertiary education participation ...
More »Students take on teacher quality
The students union will conduct its own survey of teacher quality but promises it won’t use them to rank unis. The National Union of Students is hoping to get class sizes and increased funding for teaching and learning on the ...
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