Last month, former Education Minister Craig Emerson termed university a "civilising experience". He wasn't wrong. In a world-first, researchers from the University of Sydney have empirically established that this kind of education indeed develops people's social skills. University Education and Non-cognitive ...
More »Are there too many Daves in research?
As Professor Deb Verhoeven spoke at Universities Australia's 2018 Higher Education Conference, some men shuffled out of the vast auditorium. Although she wasn't sure if it was because of her speech or the need for the bathroom or a snack, it was ...
More »New York Times gives students a voice, gets deluged
A quick Google search of the term 'millennial' in the 'news' tab yields approximately 2.31 million results. But how many of those were created by actual millennials? A safe guess would be: not many. The New York Times (NYT) is aware ...
More »Hundreds of uni staff share how they stress less
“Former senior lecturer in my area was promoted to HoS and I have moved into the courses formerly taught by her and have been able to drop many other ‘bits and pieces’ of teaching i.e., rationalisation of courses taught” - ...
More »Unis erecting ‘Taj Mahals’, ‘prepared to let standards slip’: Grattan debate
Despite having worked at several of them, Judith Sloan is sceptical of universities. The conservative economist and contributing economics editor at The Australian recently told an audience that she "doesn't trust" universities, and thinks "they’re prepared to let standards slip to put bums ...
More »Academics hunt for the wilderwomen
Adventurer Bear Grylls, of Man vs. Wild fame, was first praised, then scorned for his 'tough guy' persona. All the while, most people hadn't heard of Megan Hine. The fair-skinned, doe-eyed fellow Brit was once described by Grylls as "stronger than 99 per ...
More »Student smartphone obsession? There’s an app for even that
If you were promised free coffee or movie tickets in exchange for phone downtime, would you take the bait? A Danish company knows at least university students will. Its free app, Hold, is already used by 120,000 students in Denmark, Norway and ...
More »Gen-Zs not mini Gen-Ys: lessons from #UAConf18
Ben Pilkington wants you to know that although Z follows Y alphabetically, these human generations are vastly different. Generally, while Y values education, Z prefers experience. Y is optimistic, whereas Z prefers to be pragmatic. Y is rebellious, collaborative and searches ...
More »In AI age, universities will matter ‘more than ever’: #UAConf18
In the US, people are literally dying because of automation. These 'deaths of despair' occur when people lose their jobs, as, for instance, factories replace human workers with machines. As the only developed country where working-class people's lifespans are declining, ...
More »A philosopher’s post-Barnaby guide to apologies
Before #Barnabye, there were two apologies from the man himself. In the first one, delivered in mid-February after his affair went public, Barnaby Joyce took "full responsibility" for the dissolution of his marriage. "I'd like to say to Natalie how deeply ...
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