Barely hours after the 2014 Oscars ceremony had finished, online headlines were touting its most gifable, or GIF-Able moments. The word refers to the image file format GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) which was originally created as a means of exchanging ...

An article on a recent Australian by-election reported that corflutes associated with one of the candidates had been defaced.  The captioned photo alongside showed the dismayed candidate  looking at the altered portraits of himself with moustache and heavy spectacles on a set ...

One of the favourite pastimes of fans of a TV or book series is to imagine beloved characters as a romantic couple. For example, Harry Potter and Hermione seemed a natural pairing as they grew to maturity, only for JK ...

Hipster and hippie/hippy both owe their existence to the older adjective hip/hep meaning “smart”, in its twin senses of “street-wise” and “stylish”.  But the Oxford English Dictionary online notes that the 1976 record for all three entries is currently being ...

Macquarie University’s John Croucher stands out by making math and statistics relevant and fun. By Dallas Bastian. Becoming a teacher was the last thing professor John Croucher wanted to do, thanks to a bad stammer that kept him from speaking ...

The comparison of a Danish concept with its Australian counterpart shows how much seemingly similar training concepts can vary. Don’t let the names fool you.  By Mary Leahy The terms may be similar but the Danish idea of kompetence, or ...

The number of Australians with mental health problems is enormous, but education in this complex area has tended to be neglected – a situation that universities are now being urged to address in their training of nursing students.  By Antonia ...

The sixth edition of the Macquarie Dictionary has just published and among the many new Australianisms featured is the word apera – derived from aperitif – now the official name for Australian sherry. Wine-naming has long caused controversy. While it’s ...

The Industry Ministry has plenty to say about improving productivity, and the VET sector needs to listen. By John Mitchell. Most of the VET sector was surprised by the incoming government’s decision to hand the vocational education portfolio to the ...

Conference delegates discuss pressures from all levels. By Kathryn Jones. Academics, researchers, policy advisers and industry leaders gathered at the 27th- annual Australian International Education Conference (AIEC), where the focus was on the global, regional and local influences on international ...