On Wednesday, Dancing Queen Theresa May urged her party to unite despite divergent views on Brexit. Glasweigan Professor Graham Galbraith has a similarly broad, communal message for Australian universities: think big, together. In Perth to deliver the 2018 Vice-Chancellor’s Distinguished Oration at Edith Cowan ...
More »Free coffee for students comes at a price
Would you give major corporations your personal data in exchange for coffee? While this may not be an attractive proposition to the average adult, for many often money and sleep-deprived students, it is, so much so that Shiru ('knowledge' in ...
More »The third-ever female Nobel Prize-winning physicist doesn’t want your gender pity
Chances are, either you or someone you know has had laser eye surgery. If it weren't for Canadian Nobel Prize in Physics quarter-winner Donna Strickland, that wouldn't have happened. Yet others seem to be more interested in her gender. In an ...
More »Dodgy would-be HE providers knocked back by regulator
We've since moved onto banks, but let's not forget the mess we had to mop up a couple of years ago. People were signed up to higher education courses by door-to-door salespeople or via cold calls. Often from low-income communities and ...
More »Students occupy UNSW Chancellery, protesting fossil fuel investment
I could barely hear Amy Walburn over the chants of her 14 peers. The Bachelor of Science/Bachelor of Fine Arts student at UNSW is part of a collective, protesting the university's investment in fossil fuel companies today. The are occupying the ...
More »La Trobe sets example for universities globally
Is your university, in every sense, #tobaccofree? After signing the world’s first Tobacco-Free Finance Pledge, La Trobe University is. This means the Melbourne-based university not only prohibits smoking on campus, it has no tobacco-related investments, and will advocate for other organisations ...
More »The tactics used by big business to influence research
Dr Alice Fabbri has never accepted industry money for research, nor have any of her colleagues at the Evidence, Policy and Influence Collaborative within USYD's Charles Perkins Centre. The postdoctoral research fellow is therefore well-placed to illuminate 'truth decay' – a phenomenon that can arise ...
More »VC Spence lauds freedom of speech while USYD continues Ramsay Centre negotiations
One of the universities "most hostile to intellectual freedom" is also, apparently, its defender. In an op-ed published in The Australian on Tuesday, University of Sydney VC Michael Spence explained why, despite opinions to the contrary, his institution remains a defender of free ...
More »Why competency, not grades, is the assessment style of the future
When principal of Templestowe College, Peter Hutton, was at school, like many of us, he was told that one day, the esoteric-seeming knowledge he gained would be useful. "That hasn't happened yet," Hutton quipped at a recent event. Perhaps this would have been ...
More »Pre-election politicking ramps up as Labor promises unis $300m
After campaigning for it mid-year, Universities Australia has been heard by Labor, which has committed $300m to university infrastructure investment. Shadow Education Minister Tanya Plibersek announced the 'University Future Fund' in an interview with ABC News Radio on Tuesday. "There's been ...
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