New research throws light on the role of course materials in helping or hindering international students, says Jonathan Sibley.ge ability continue to generate comment in the popular and the academic press. Most universities provide some form of learning support for ...
More »Daily Archives: March 9, 2009
Against the academic workhouse
Managerialism is rife. But now is the time to rebel, says Joseph Gora. About eighteen months ago a newly appointed campus manager with a penchant for order and tidiness directed academic members of my department to move offices – from ...
More »Postgraduate qualifications come to VET
Vocational education and training’s status as the poor relation of higher education is being directly challenged by the growth of new postgraduate qualifications offered by some TAFE institutes. The vocational graduate certificate and the vocational graduate diploma align under the ...
More »Unexpected impacts of TAFE
How do we know whether TAFE colleges are effective? By John Mitchell. A question raised at the Big Skills Conference in Sydney last week by speakers such as Dr Song-Seng Law, the former director of the award-winning Institute of Technical ...
More »NSW signs up to PPP
NSW has signed up for the first time to the Productivity Places Program, with the Commonwealth and state governments jointly committing $620 million to establish 175,000 new training places for unemployed people and workers who want to improve their qualifications. ...
More »International briefs
Japan must continue reforms: OECD The OECD has said that even though Japan has made significant progress in modernising its tertiary education system, it must keep the reform process happening. It said current social and economic pressures, including shrinking youth ...
More »Research briefs
New lizard species to change conservation approaches The discovery of several new species of Australian lizards will completely change conservation management practices, a University of Adelaide researcher says. Paul Oliver, a PhD student, has completed a detailed genetic study of ...
More »Coming to a screen near you
A new piece of software that has been dubbed the GPS of the brain has the potential to transform teaching and learning in the neurosciences. The brains in question are images based on the work of Professor George Paxinos, NHMRC ...
More »Voucher stoushers: what’s the price tag?
You can’t deregulate one side of a market and keep the other side in a straightjacket. That’s the essential argument of the vice-chancellors and academic commentators who say that if a voucher-style funding system is introduced, price caps need to ...
More »Stimulated students say thanks – but keep it coming
Student and university groups have welcomed the federal Government’s half billion dollar handout to students, announced as part of last week’s Nation Building and Jobs Plan. But it won’t substitute for genuine and lasting reform of student income assistance, they ...
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