When now-Prime Minster Scott Morrison brought a lump of coal into parliament in 2017, pleading "don’t be afraid, don’t be scared, it won’t hurt you," he made a critical error. That is, assuming he wants the Coalition to retain power at ...
More »For students, orderliness is next to success
If cleanliness is next to godliness, according to a new study, additionally, orderliness is next to academic success. Taking showers and eating meals at standard intervals could enhance your GPA, the Journal of the Royal Society Interface research suggests. Though the results ...
More »Should there be gender quotas in universities?
Following allegations of sexism in Australian politics, the gender quota debate has reemerged. Liberal MP Julia Banks, in announcing her intended resignation from parliament following the most recent leadership spill, stated the following: "...I'm not done. I am not giving ...
More »Kurdish refugee wins Fields Medal
Kurdistan is normally in the news for negative, war-related reasons. Not this time. A Kurdish refugee has been award the 'Nobel prize of mathematics': a Fields Medal. Caucher Birkar was granted asylum in the UK after obtaining an undergraduate degree in Iran. ...
More »Ten years post-GFC, grads still struggling: Grattan report
Don't get entranced by dazzling headlines: overall, Australian university graduates are still limping towards meaningful employment. "New graduates are still less likely to get a full-time job than a decade ago..." a new Grattan report provides. Mapping Australian higher education ...
More »St Paul’s promises to shed sexism, minimise sexual harassment and assault
As an 18-year-old, I dated a boy who lived at St Paul's College at the University of Sydney. There was a girl who attended neighbouring The Women's College - lets call her Freda - who was treated akin to the Puberty ...
More »Opinion: Reducing atrocious student attrition in STEM programs
Undergraduate student attrition levels are relatively high in STEM programs. This recalls the famous unwritten quote: “The real challenge for a learning centre is making a gem out of a pebble, not necessarily making a jewel out of a gem.” ...
More »At an OECD glance, we’re an education mélange
The title of the 'Australia' section of the OECD's latest annual, education-centric report could be 'nevertheless'. This is because most negatives seemed to be counterbalanced with positives. For example, Education at a Glance 2018 revealed that while our university fees are relatively high, ...
More »Top journal suspends submissions after influx
What's the opposite of a predatory journal? A dismissive one? The Review of Higher Education (RHE) falls into the latter category. The top-in-field journal, published by Johns Hopkins University Press, recently suspended submissions after reporting a more than two-year backlog. While that's newsworthy ...
More »ACU first Aussie uni to go hard on soft drinks
ACU has included a 'no added sugar' policy in its rule book, becoming the first Australian university to do so. After analysing vending machine offerings across its campuses and discovering that over half of beverages contained extra sweet stuff, they removed soft drinks, ...
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