Calls to scrap the Coalition’s higher education reforms and start afresh have been met with warnings that to do so would jeopardise Australia’s leading global position in higher education in submissions to the latest Senate inquiry into the government’s proposed ...

The peak body representing Australia’s universities has backed proposals outlined in the teacher training report released last week which calls for an overhaul of the system. Universities Australia’s director of strategic communications, Louise Dodson, said the recommendations “provide a nationally ...

Taxpayers, rather than students alone, would be asked to foot the cost of maintaining Australia’s higher-education system under one alternative approach to the government’s proposed deregulated fee system. The proposal was one of many discussed last week at a round table University ...

The education minister, Christopher Pyne, is confident his university reforms will pass parliament shortly. But he’s remaining tight-lipped on whether he’s won over Clive Palmer. Pyne dined with the Palmer United Party (PUP) leader at a Canberra Chinese restaurant on ...

The government’s university reforms mark II are yet to reach the Senate but they already look set to fail. In a signal of their opposition, a coterie of cross-bench senators have supported a Labor push to investigate alternatives to fee ...

Key cross-bench senators will help Labor explore how universities can be helped without deregulating fees. The move comes after another university vice-chancellor broke ranks to express doubts over the merits of deregulation. Labor’s Kim Carr and cross-benchers Nick Xenophon, Jacqui ...

Debate on the federal government’s controversial higher education reforms has resumed in the lower house today. Around 20 MPs will finish speaking on the legislation to deregulate university fees after which the bill will be sent to the upper house. Education ...

A planned protest at Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s electorate office in Sydney has been unexpectedly stalled after a group of students became stuck in a lift. The group of 10 from the NSW Education Action Network (EAN) fronted Mr Abbott’s ...

Keep an open mind; perhaps the best way for the majority of public universities to get over the hump is to let a few go to the wall. By Paul Oslington Something that cannot be spoken of in higher education ...

The education minister, Christopher Pyne, said on Friday he can’t rule out a party room spill next week on Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s leadership. Pyne was responding to a Sky News report three ministers believe there will be a vote ...