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Earn or learn was the message from the Rudd government to young Australians last week. And TAFE colleges across the country should be gearing up for a wave of new students – around 58,000 – who will be taking up ...

In a graphic endorsement of cooperative federalism, Australian governments last week agreed to support national regulation of the VET sector – less than two months after education minister Julia Gillard announced the government’s “aspiration” to move to a national system. ...

Other countries are increasing their investment in basic research capacity to attract inwards investment, as well as to capture the broader benefits that flow from university research. Ian Chubb argues there is the need for a new policy setting for ...

Unions want businesses to have more say on how VET funding is spent – including the right to spend it themselves. And business wants governments to avoid unnecessary handouts to companies and to give more money to public training providers, ...

A decline in the monopoly on the provision of research and the awarding of degrees, and the competitive pressures of a demand-driven market were looming threats to the survival of non-viable Australian universities. Professor Paul Johnson, vice-chancellor of La Trobe ...

The launch last month of the World Digital Library brings a dazzling collection of cultural treasures within everyone’s reach. These range from San rock paintings in South Africa dating back perhaps 6000 years to a photograph of Richard Nixon meeting ...

Bonus extended to postgraduates A one-off $950 Training and Learning Bonus payment will be extended to most postgraduate students. Under existing criteria [[Story code:15-230209]], many postgraduates were deemed ineligible because their taxable income, excluding their Australian Postgraduate Awards (APAs), was ...

A study of 1400 students at Edith Cowan University has reinforced the importance of staff support in achieving student progress and retention. It follows the release two weeks ago of a national student engagement survey showing disturbingly low levels of ...

Australian university libraries have joined a worldwide coalition of library associations to press publishers of academic serials and other online content into restraining prices during the global economic crisis. The librarians have also foreshadowed tough retaliatory measures if publishers’ prices ...

On a quirky US website called Wisegeek, the tortured ritual of the performance review/appraisal/work plan (let’s call it the PR) is seen as a continuation of an assessment culture that occurs in high schools. “These early experiences of being graded ...