At first sight this could be a slogan for crunchier fish and chips from the deep freeze, something which food companies could definitely improve on. In fact, it’s a highly sophisticated technique for editing the genes of plants, animals and ...
More »Strictly Speaking | Skinship
Words and phrases are quite often borrowed from other languages to express a concept for which there is no existing term – think of schadenfreude or déjà vu in English (from German and French respectively). Less frequently, a completely new ...
More »Should I stay or should I go? Academics facing this dilemma should ask themselves 3 questions
This year my partner and my brother both left academia. They are part of a nation-wide changing of the guard at most universities in Australia and many overseas. Over 17,000 Australian university jobs disappeared in 2020, Universities Australia estimated. It ...
More »Gender pay gaps persist despite positive signs in 2021 Graduate Outcomes Survey
The Social Research Centre has just released the 2021 Graduate Outcomes Survey – Longitudinal (GOS-L) report, which shows the COVID-19 pandemic and attendant lockdowns have not had the devastating effect that was predicted. The GOS-L is an online survey that ...
More »Strictly speaking | Genericide
The - cide suffix provides us with homicide, the most general word for killing another person, as well as specific types of killing that identify the person killed: fratricide (one’s brother or sister), patricide (one’s father), regicide (the king), suicide ...
More »Thousands of USyd casuals denied permanent employment on R U OK? Day
The University of Sydney has confirmed that thousands of casual workers who applied to convert from casual to permanent employment were rejected at a time a union representative has called a “tragic irony”: R U OK? Day. Last Thursday, only ...
More »Strictly speaking | Sousveillance
The ever-increasing use of technology to monitor our daily activities – from CCTV cameras on every street to social media platforms such as Facebook and TikTok acquiring user data for marketing (or more sinister) purposes – has bred in us ...
More »Will we see compulsory vaccination in Australian higher education? Opinion
Is compulsory vaccination coming to Australian post-secondary education – colleges, universities and the large (4.2 million students) vocational education and training sector? Yes, in some circumstances, given that it’s already here. Sadly, it looks like we in Australia (and certainly ...
More »What HR professionals believe graduates need for success, and it’s not ‘hard skills’: new report
The report found that hard, technical skills picked up throughout academica “may not be enough to stand out in a highly competitive job market”.
More »USyd may introduce gender transition leave, but professor is no fan of “special categories of protected persons”
University of Sydney staff could receive six weeks off annually for gender transition leave if its academic union can get the case across the line. The new entitlement would mean that university staff seeking gender transition or affirmation leave could ...
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