Meeting recently in Canberra, state and territory training ministers showed they’re right behind Canberra – six months behind, in some cases. John Ross reports. When Commonwealth, state and territory education and training ministers got together in Melbourne in April, it ...

The Victorian decision not to agree to a national regulator for VET reeks of political incompetence, writes Paul Rodan. It was depressing to read that Victoria and Western Australia were holding out against the establishment of a national vocational education ...

Two recent reports have emphasised the non-economic benefits of international students, writes Glyn Davis. Too often the conversation around international students focuses on their financial contribution to universities and to the coffers of state and federal governments. Of course the ...

Increased migration processing times are leaving international graduates in limbo, writes Shanthi Robertson. The uneasy relationship between international education and skilled migration has been further strained by new delays to the processing of many applications for skilled migration. In September, ...

The ALTC is perfectly placed to develop standards with the disciplines, writes Jacqui Elson-Green. Academic standards have been a concern of the Australian Learning and Teaching Council since its inception in 2005. Since that time the ALTC has invested in ...

Adam Shoemaker considers access and invention in the online academy. Higher education is full of paradoxes. One of the most prominent of these is the gulf between experiential learning and opinion formation. For example, nearly every academic in Australia has ...

Does Austrade have what it takes to promote Australia as a world-class research and education destination, asks Dennis Murray. The government’s decision to hand over generic marketing and promotion of Australia’s international education to Austrade is hardly surprising. The cheap ...

There are many good reasons why governments should concentrate public investment in elite universities, writes Michael Gallagher. Today we might define a research university in its ideal type as a community of intelligent people, new and experienced, together searching for ...

Tom Clark bemoans the amount of wasted time and effort in the research grants system. The Australian Research Council recently announced its major rounds of grants results for 2009. Once again, the clear winner is unpaid overtime. The Discovery program ...

Professor Ian Costa-Packet*, vice-chancellor of Wemakealot University, writes an open letter to the union. It is with great sadness, and considerable concern, that I view recent developments at some of Australia’s universities. The recent wave of strikes, orchestrated by the ...