It’s that time of year again – the National Assessment Plan for Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) takes place this week. Around Australia over one million students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 will sit a total of four tests: ...
More »MOOC shows promise to improve dementia knowledge globally
A massive open online course (MOOC) promises to improve understanding of dementia on a global scale. In a paper published last month in Science of Learning, a partner journal of Nature, a research team from the University of Tasmania assessed ...
More »United we stand: a framework for critically engaged universities
Universities at the beginning of the 21st century face an existential challenge. Do they fully embrace the competitive path spurred on by global rankings and driven by international student income? A path that shifts the costs and benefits of higher ...
More »Dual-sector unis call for major reforms of higher education and VET
Australia’s six dual-sector university vice chancellors have called for a common policy framework and a suite of major reforms of the country’s fragmented higher education and vocational training systems, via a new report. The report, Reforming Post-Secondary Education in Australia, ...
More »RMIT announces strategic partnership with Singapore
A recent study predicting a global skills deficit of 4.3 million workers by 2030 has prompted RMIT Online to enter into a strategic partnership with the Singaporean government’s SkillsFuture program. SkillsFuture Singapore is a government-backed initiative that plays a key ...
More »Skin a new tool for measuring stress, resilience: Uni Newcastle
Human skin is a multi-tasker. Obviously it contains our internal organs, but it also wards off bacteria, moisture, and the sun; regulates temperature; produces hormones; stores bodily substances; and indicates medical conditions. Now, it can potentially add another role to its arsenal: ...
More »What’s with universities and dogs?
Scroll through university social media for long enough and you will come across numerous dog posts. Whether it's a pooch 'getting ahead' on his readings for the upcoming semester at UQ, or UWA law school's resident sausage dog, Julius Caesar Juris Dogtor, ...
More »It’s near-definitive: students who study creative arts get better grades
Would you steer a Year 6, 7 or 8 student away from 'soft' subjects like art and music to harder ones like maths and English? Intuitively, it seems that 'fluffier' subjects allow for fun and creativity alone. A new study, however, shows ...
More »Monash exhibits the humblest of objects
Could February be the month of lunchboxes? Last week, the ABC published an investigation of their contents in wealthier and poorer Melbourne suburbs. While, by comparing Oreos packed in Broadmeadows to carrot sticks lovingly placed in Brighton, it invited food-shaming, ...
More »A very brief history of academic dress
With graduation season approaching, academics and students will soon don caps and sweeping gowns. The contrast between the gravity of academic rank and odd costumery can be startling; you respect a Dean but find it hard to reconcile that with – despite ...
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