“People are making complicated – and sometimes deeply personal – decisions to withdraw from study when life gets in the way. We shouldn’t pressure students to stay enrolled if they need to care for a dying parent, for instance, and ...
More »Best frenemies? Gauging the perceived Chinese threat to academia
First it was Mao. Then Deng. Now it's Xi. The President of the People's Republic of China is only the third Chinese leader in history to have his 'thought' incorporated into the country's constitution. But as Jinping's power grows, so too ...
More »When did human rights become racist? A reflection on relativism in Australian education
I am an agnostic left-leaning history academic and a high school teacher committed to the defence of human rights and, in the era of alternative facts, truth and civility. I had always assumed that most humanities teachers in this country, ...
More »Uni and tech titan team up
It's all 'appening at RMIT. Apple has joined with the Melbourne-based university to deliver beginner courses in app development. It is titled iOS App Development with Swift; swift being an Apple coding language. An online program will commence on 20 November, while ...
More »ABS reveals better-educated gender
The education gap between men and women continues to widen, new ABS statistics have confirmed. The bureau's May 2017 Survey of Education and Work found women are out-learning men at higher rates than ever. In terms of degree attainment, 35 per ...
More »Deakin and UniMelb have some STEM suggestions
If Harry Styles says it, it must be true. "How can you say young girls don't get it? They're our future," he told Rolling Stone magazine earlier this year. The Invergowrie Foundation - a charitable trust aimed at advancing girls' ...
More »Obscure research could be funded under new government metric
Sarah Hanson-Young: "Code for cuts is what this is." Simon Birmingham: "Sarah, you might love esoteric little papers, but we actually think that it is important that billions of taxpayer dollars going into research delivers things that are of benefit ...
More »WSU to be top of the crops
Sydney's Hawkesbury region has been fertile since 1891. Now, its getting a new, agricultural lease on life, and making Australia's food more secure in the process. WSU's state-of-the-art National Vegetable Protected Cropping Centre, located at its Hawkesbury campus, is the first of its ...
More »Can AI really predict suicide?
Despite click-baiting headlines like How tech giants are using AI to prevent self-harm and suicide and Artificial intelligence can now predict suicide with remarkable accuracy, some experts aren't so sure that's true. On the back of a further claim that AI uses brain imaging data to ‘identify suicidal youth’, this time, ...
More »Dubai: the new Australia for international students?
Dubai is known for oil riches and abstract skyscrapers. It is also increasingly becoming known for tertiary education. In a study recently published by the British Council, it came second in quality assurance and degree recognition, trailing Australia. For openness and ...
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