How universities can negotiate their way around Chinese-Australian cooperative education structures, by Katherine Polkinghorne.   Education in China is currently in a boom phase, with Chinese universities investing large amounts into the promotion of courses, research and development. Australian educational ...

Collaboration is a bit like world peace. It’s hard to argue against. Even competition advocates think collaboration is a good idea. Innovation review chair Dr Terry Cutler’s report, ‘Venturous Australia’, is big on collaboration. One of Cutler’s 72 recommendations was ...

Diversity is alive and well in the university sector and it’s most obvious in the pay scales of general staff. A new survey reveals that there is up to 17 per cent difference in the salaries on offer in Australian ...

Federal cabinet should consider establishing an innovation sub-committee and the government should appoint successful expatriate researchers to be “innovation ambassadors”, according to the National Academies Forum. Higher degree research training should be extended to cover media and communication skills, and ...

When innovation minister Kim Carr announced earlier this year that Australian Research Council grants would be progressively opened to international applicants, starting with the Future Fellowships grants for mid-career researchers, he noted that Australia is only doing “what our competitor ...

Mature age apprentices: are they an economic necessity, a societal need or both, asks Stephen Billett. As governments and industry struggle with the implications of skill shortages, an ageing workforce and the looming reduction of new workplace entrants, mature age ...

Do employers need to be forced to train their staff? Andy Smith says it’s happening, just in different ways. One of the ongoing criticisms of employers is their seeming unwillingness to invest in the skills of their workers by providing ...

The future of three of the 24 controversial Australian technical colleges (ATCs) was revealed early last week, with colleges in western Sydney, northern Adelaide and the NSW mid-north coast town of Port Macquarie to survive as vocationally focused non-government senior ...

There is a changing of the guard at the Australian Council for Private Education and Training which has replaced its chair of four years, Julie Moss. Larry Davies, CEO of Directions, a West Australian organisation which specialises in providing career ...

The Tasmanian Greens last week described as “surreal” a TAFE Tasmania letter issued to staff that informed them of “possible assignments” to the Tasmanian polytechnic which is due to commence in January. Legislation to establish the Tasmania Tomorrow plan, which ...