A Murdoch University professor has criticised schools for encouraging students to choose between a VET or university pathway. Barry Down, a VET and student engagement specialist, says this dichotomy has become unrealistic. "The reality is that society requires smart workers and citizens with ...
More »Researcher inundated with ‘Min Min’ light stories
He's taken on little people. Now, Dr Curtis Roman is tackling the mysterious, serpentine orbs known as Min Min. Particular to Australian outback, particularly indigenous, mythology, Min Min describes a phenomenon of bouncing blue, white or yellow balls of light that ...
More »Australian philosophy and reconstruction of the renaissance citizen
I consider myself to be a child of the European Enlightenment. This is not only because of my Irish heritage, but because of my admiration for the development of questions and ideas from Greek philosophers, from the industrial revolution and ...
More »Has New Zealand’s free university plan ‘completely failed’?
The first seven months of taxpayer-funded university for first-year students in New Zealand has been branded a "complete failure". Paula Bennett, New Zealand's National Party Deputy Leader, made this remark in response to newly released government figures, which, according to her, "... show there ...
More »Researchers riled by ARC funding delay
The Australian Research Council (ARC) funding announcement delay is increasingly raising concerns among researchers. ARC-funded projects are required to begin research on 1 January 2019. As the date draws closer, researchers are complaining that adequate preparation time is being compromised by ...
More »Japan finally opens new doors for international students
While Japan can no longer claim the lowest birth rate in the world, its rate of 1.44 births per woman is a full point below the global average. The famously insular nation is now taking radical steps to rectify issues, like labour ...
More »Academics, uni management skewer ‘overhyped’ campus free speech debate #CRFreeSpeech
Professor Marguerite Johnson bristles at the issue of free speech on campus being termed a 'fight'. But that is indeed how Campus Review labelled it at its recent seminar, 'The Fight for Free Speech: What it Means for Universities'. Held on ...
More »Understanding the USC academics who want to ‘decolonise’ the curriculum
Who Put the Post in Postcolonial?" A 1998 review bearing this title was published in the journal NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction. Its author, Chadwick Allen, an American English professor, begins by interrogating the various scholarly iterations of the term 'postcolonial'. There's ...
More »‘Contrived, pointless, and a total waste of taxpayer money’: groups respond to freedom of speech review
On Thursday, university personnel, fittingly, exercised their freedom of speech. Responding to the government's announcement of a review into freedom of speech on campus on Wednesday, the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations (CAPA) came out on blast. "There is no ...
More »Copyright Agency takes universities to tribunal
On Monday, the Copyright Agency commenced legal action against Australia's universities. The text and image license provider lodged a claim with the Copyright Tribunal – administered by the Federal Court – after negotiations with universities over 2019 license fees failed. ...
More »