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The Rudd government appears to be rethinking how compacts will operate ahead of the federal budget. Changes to fact sheets on the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research website promote compacts as a mechanism to achieve government policy objectives. ...

Federal government policy is driving rapid expansion of its revenue in international education. This is turn is resulting in universities failing to address static domestic participation rates and poor international research standings, Professor Simon Marginson told the second of five ...

Massive gain for a few years of pain. That’s the scenario for Australia if the government implements Bradley-style increases in university funding, according to ground-breaking economic modelling which predicts the average Australian would be 5.2 per cent better off by ...

We need more deeply understand the complexity of different student contexts and how they play out in modern, tertiary institutions, says Liz Harman. The government focus on students is welcome. In her speech at the Universities Australia Conference on 4 ...

A senior Canberra bureaucrat has conceded that more research may be needed to justify proposed market-based reforms of Australia’s skills system. But rather than complain about “evidence-free policy”, VET commentators should themselves compile research in the area. Craig Robertson, group ...

Will improved broadband do more than simply let VET providers share larger files with their students, asks John Mitchell. The unexpected announcement that the federal government will invest $43 billion in rolling out a broadband network over the next eight ...

VET’s uniqueness of purposes seems to be getting lost in the current debate about a terntiary education sector, says Malcolm White. In my opinion, the current discussion about the roles of VET and higher education emanating from the Bradley review ...

Reflection is both a starting point and a tipping point for improving self-perception, and in turn, the nature and quality of vocational learning, says Larry Smith. During 2008, Berwyn Clayton from Victoria University and I interviewed a wide range of ...

Completing an apprenticeship or traineeship delivers significant financial and employment advantages. New research from the National Centre for Vocational Education Research has found that recently completed apprentices and trainees who were employed full-time in 2008 earned 16 per cent more ...

Sustainability expert joins GriffithSciences at UNSW. A fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, Muecke was most recently at the Free University of Berlin, where he held the position of visiting chair of Australian studies. Prior to that he ...