This year my partner and my brother both left academia. They are part of a nation-wide changing of the guard at most universities in Australia and many overseas. Over 17,000 Australian university jobs disappeared in 2020, Universities Australia estimated. It ...
More »A weekend sleep-in could help fight depression
A weekend lie in could go a long way to fighting depression, according to new research. Academics from Yonsei University in South Korea looked at the sleep of 5500 people to see if there is an association between weekend catch-up ...
More »La Trobe first Australian uni to mandate vaccines for staff, students
La Trobe university will become the first Australian university to mandate vaccination against COVID-19 for all staff and students. Vice chancellor John Dewar announced a two-staged approach to safely reopening its campuses later this year once the nation hits vaccine ...
More »Woolworths partners with ANU, CSIRO for plastic-eating enzymes trial, aim to create infinitely recyclable plastic
Australia will soon welcome its first commercial recycling plant that uses enzymes to “eat” plastic and break it down into its core molecules so they can be reused. Recycling start-up Samsara’s first 5000 tonnes of recycled material – equivalent to ...
More »Alzheimer’s could be diagnosed more than a decade before symptoms appear with new blood biomarker
Newly found blood biomarkers could help diagnose Alzheimer’s disease more than a decade before symptoms start to emerge. A world first study from researchers at Macquarie University identified a protein in the blood which could lead to low cost screening ...
More »The solution to Australia’s tech skills shortage is in our own backyard: opinion
Australia’s technology industry is struggling to fill job vacancies at an alarming rate. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reports that 27 per cent of all Australian businesses are having difficulty finding suitable staff, and with COVID-19 putting a halt ...
More »Pesky takeaway coffee cups could find second life as building materials
Unrecyclable takeaway coffee cups could find a second life as concrete paths and Besser blocks, new research has found. An experimental study by Victoria University’s (VU) College of Engineering and Science tested a range of new materials that replace the ...
More »Aus unis have ‘failed’ Chinese students, joint parliamentary committee told
Australian universities have “failed to protect the academic freedom” of Chinese students and academics, and the sector must step up its protective efforts, a joint parliamentary committee has heard. Researcher Sophie McNeil from Human Rights Watch Australia (HRWA), a member ...
More »Grace Tame slams PM for appointing Murdoch academic as Human Rights Commissioner
Australian of the Year Grace Tame has accused the Morrison government of undercutting its commitment to women’s safety for appointing a human rights commissioner who has spoken out about consent reforms. The government on Sunday announced Lorraine Finlay would be ...
More »‘An avoidable catastrophe’: new report lays bare job losses across tertiary education
The tertiary education sector has lost more jobs than any non-agricultural sector in the last 12 months, with almost one in five jobs lost in 2021. Analysis from The Centre for Future Work reveals the extent of devastation that the ...
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